It is up to the physician to provide evidence that the first nations' babies grow faster and need the extra iron. I don't believe this, but s/he needs to provide the evidence. I think the problem is that *exclusive breastfeeding* is probably rare amongst first nations' mothers and it is the use of whole milk and/or evaporated milk supplements which may be an important factor in the iron deficiency. Even if it is the case that the exclusively breastfed aboriginal baby would need iron earlier, why cereal? Why not just medicinal iron drops? The introduction of all those other elements in the cereal just to give iron seems to make no sense to me. I think the best approach is to leave out cereal altogether. Encourage exclusive breastfeeding to 6 months or so, then add meat. Much more iron in meat than in cereal, and it gets absorbed better. Much more nutritious for the dollar. Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html