Rice cereal...friend or foe???

by Rebekah
(Redlands, CA USA)

Rice Cereal…friend or foe?

My baby began showing signs of interest in food at an early age (about four months old). She would watch me take bites and try to grab at what I was eating. She would chew on her hands and salivate. It has been a ten year span between my last child and Bryleigh so I have forgotten a lot of the infant nutrition information I thought would always stay with me. I decided to mix a little rice cereal with breast milk to see what she did with it.

At first she didn’t like it much at all but after a few minutes she got used to the taste and ate the whole portion. She continued to eat rice cereal once a day, usually with her bananas in the morning. Eventually I made the cereal thicker and as she got older she ate more of it.

Now I’m reading information on scientific studies that indicate all babies are born with a natural store of Iron and that babies who are only breastfed do not need Iron supplements UNLESS they have been given synthetic versions of iron (like those found in formula and baby cereals). These forms of iron actually DEPLETE your baby’s iron stores CAUSING a NEED for iron supplements.

Now my questions are: Why even start your baby on iron fortified foods if it actually causes natural Iron depletion? After you’ve already started, if you stop giving them unnatural sources of iron will your baby be deficient and at risk for anemia having depleted their natural supply? Why aren’t the formula and baby cereal companies required to tell us if we use their product in conjunction with nursing it will deplete our baby of something it needs? Why are baby cereal companies and formula companies telling us they need to add iron to their products instead of telling us that by avoiding their products our babies will not need supplements?

If anyone out there can help me out by answering these questions I would appreciate it. Thanks!