Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Battling Anemia

At Amy's two year old check up her iron levels tested pretty low- low enough to be anemic.  Luckily this is a medical condition that can be fixed relatively easily!

Iron deficiency is relatively common in toddlers, and although your child's iron levels are hopefully not so low to be considered anemic, there are some things you can do to make sure your little ones gets enough iron:

-feed your child iron-fortified cereal.

-try to include red meat and green leafy vegetables in your toddlers diet.  This one is hard for picky eaters!  We have started making green smoothies (there are some great recipes here and here.) to get more of those veggies into our kids diets, and they love them!

-limit milk consumption to 16-24 ounces a day.

If you are at all concerned about iron deficiency or anemia, please talk with your child's pediatrician!