Greetings--
     We are a vegetarian family, and  with my first child, I wondered if I
would have to worry about iron deficiency.  My pediatrician wisely advised me
not to worry about fixing it if it wasn't broken, i.e., if the children never
showed signs of iron deficiency, it was because they were not iron deficient.
As it turned out, nobody has ever had a problem, though I confess to having
absolutely no vigilance about iron intakes.  We NEVER would have considered
adding meat to any of our children's diets just because someday someone might
not be getting enough iron:  for us, it is a moral issue as well as one of
responding to the actual facts in front of us.
     BTW, I do cook a lot in cast iron.  During my pregnancies, my caregivers
fretted that I might be low on iron, but the blood tests always showed my
hemoglobin levels to be more than adequate.
     Just my experience, but I have come to look at the whole iron business
as, for the average person, something of a tempest in a teapot.
     Yours,
     Sharon Watkins
     Housebound on Day 5 of my 8--yr-old's chickenpox...