High iron dinners to pack for the pool

[Anonymous]

anemia can take months to slowly recover from. two things that help along with supplements: getting enough calories overall and red meat. dairy and whole grains are healthy but they do inhibit non-heme iron absorption and are best sometimes kept separated out from a high iron meal.

[Anonymous]

Do you have access to a grill at the pool? You could give her a hot dog/sausage and edamame. Look for iron-fortified buns to add even more iron to the meal.

[Anonymous]

I think meatballs could be good. Get mini ones and heat them in the afternoon in whatever sauce works well for her. Pour boiling water into the thermos and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then dump the water, put the meatballs in and seal up tight. It should stay warm for awhile!

Or I'd do what someone else suggested: have her other meals be high iron and have the pool food just be whatever else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could you make some bran muffins with dark chocolate, and dried apricot, maybe stir some seed butter in?

Or trail mix with fortified cereal, pumpkin seeds, dried fruit and dark chocolate chips? Plus some orange juice?

I would look at getting some heme iron in too, but these would make a good dessert.

These are good ideas.

The most kid friendly high iron foods are going to be dried fruits, dark chocolate (but check label, it has to be good real dark chocolate), fortified cereals, molasses

FYI, calcium/dairy blocks iron absorption and vice versa. So be mindful of what foods they are eating together. I think the muffins and trail mix the PP posted are good ideas

This is interesting, didn’t realize it. Quite odd that high iron cereals promote the iron when you wouldn’t get the benefit. I can’t imagine Raisin Bran or Shredded Wheat taste good dry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could you make some bran muffins with dark chocolate, and dried apricot, maybe stir some seed butter in?

Or trail mix with fortified cereal, pumpkin seeds, dried fruit and dark chocolate chips? Plus some orange juice?

I would look at getting some heme iron in too, but these would make a good dessert.

These are good ideas.

The most kid friendly high iron foods are going to be dried fruits, dark chocolate (but check label, it has to be good real dark chocolate), fortified cereals, molasses

FYI, calcium/dairy blocks iron absorption and vice versa. So be mindful of what foods they are eating together. I think the muffins and trail mix the PP posted are good ideas

This is interesting, didn’t realize it. Quite odd that high iron cereals promote the iron when you wouldn’t get the benefit. I can’t imagine Raisin Bran or Shredded Wheat taste good dry.

Not PP, but I don’t think just milk on your cereal will block iron absorption — but if you are drinking milk all day long, like many kids do, then it becomes a problem.

[Anonymous]

Just make her lunch with more iron. No need to alter the diet because of the pool.

[Anonymous]

will she eat hard boiled eggs or egg salad?

[Anonymous]

Microbiologist here.

If she's anemic and needs iron-rich foods, don't hesitate to bring meat items. Meat contains much more usable iron than any legume or vegetable. Little meatballs or sausages are kid-friendly, but some contain so much filler that iron levels won't be very high - check ingredients on packages. Maybe make the meatballs yourself. The BEST is roast beef (unless she goes for the iron-rich liver), in slices or in little chunks. Toss in vinaigrette, or eat plain, salted to taste.

Cook and bring, cold, in a cooler with ice packs, or warm in a food thermos (but in pool weather, who wants hot food?). Don't take rich sauces, because that's microbe heaven.

[Anonymous]

Did the doctor tell you that to maximize absorption of the iron in food, it's important to pair with a source of vitamin C? Definitely pack some citrus or other fruit along with your high iron snack. Molasses has a decent amount of iron. You could bake some muffins with molasses and pumpkin seeds and then have an orange on the side.

[Anonymous]

Hard boiled eggs/egg salad (keep cold but the concern about Mayo dishes I’ve read is overblown unless you are using homemade Mayo).

Roasted chickpeas for a bath e

Dry fortified cereal (for poolside, keep it easy!)

Bean spinach cheese quesadilla, dip in sour cream or salsa (my kids will eat almost anything if it’s in a quesadilla/taco!)

Pasta salad made with chickpea pasta or lentil pasta instead of wheat—feta, olives, salami, cucumbers, tomatoes, or any variation on the above, Sesame noodle salad with mandarins and edamame, Americana macaroni salad with Mayo, cucumbers and tomatoes, the possibilities are endless

Hamburgers grilled on the pool grill (this is our standby for poolside dining—buy Bubba burgers for kiddo, Boca/Morningside for you, easy peasy! You won’t have to handle the meat as much, just make sure they stay frozen until you eat—meat based iron is more bio available)

Grilled brats, sausages, or hot dogs—another easy standby but less vegetarian friendly options available

Lentil sweet potato salad https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021511-brown-butter-lentil-and-sweet-potato-salad?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share this is delicious

Serve meals with citrus based dessert, dressings, or juice, as vitamin C makes iron more easily absorbed. Other sources of vitamin C are strawberries, tomatoes, and peppers. I’ve read a study that questions this, but prior studies said it works and it’s easy to do.

[Anonymous]

This is OP. Thank you for the suggestions! In law school professors called it “fighting the hypo” (as in hypothetical) when students wouldn’t just answer the question but instead needed to change the question to something else. I’m noticing that now two responders are saying, “don’t give her iron for dinner, do it at other meals!” DCUM can’t resist fighting the hypo. It’s kind of fascinating. I wonder if I do it to other people or if I just don’t answer if I don’t have an answer to OP’s question. I am also going to notice if it happens so much in real life or if this is just a DCUM thing.

[Anonymous]

Focus on getting iron in during all her meals - like breakfast. Any food can be breakfast food if she likes it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. Thank you for the suggestions! In law school professors called it “fighting the hypo” (as in hypothetical) when students wouldn’t just answer the question but instead needed to change the question to something else. I’m noticing that now two responders are saying, “don’t give her iron for dinner, do it at other meals!” DCUM can’t resist fighting the hypo. It’s kind of fascinating. I wonder if I do it to other people or if I just don’t answer if I don’t have an answer to OP’s question. I am also going to notice if it happens so much in real life or if this is just a DCUM thing.

I too get frustrated when people don’t answer the question I asked. The worst is when the first poster makes an incorrect assumption or introduces a hypothetical and everyone runs with it and you never get an answer.

Here’s why I do it, using your question as an example. Sometimes people ask a very niche question and I assume, sometimes incorrectly, that they have been thinking about it for a while before coming to DCUM. Sometimes when I am fixated on solving a problem, I have zeroed in on one specific aspect of a much larger scenario. On this case, many of us in the DMV have just made it through our first week of summer swim team practices and “dinner at the pool” is a topic we are familiar with. When we offer other suggestions, it’s from our personal experience. At my house I have one kid with 6:30-7pm swim and one with 7:30-8pm swim practice. Neither of my kid eats dinner in a traditional way. Both eat heavy snacks before and after swimming. The early kid’s food is split 50/50 and the late kid is more like 75/25. During these few weeks until morning practice starts, I don’t have time to make a sit down proper meal on swim nights. I focus on getting my kids a full, healthy breakfast and then pack boxes with a variety of room temp foods they can eat as we drive around picking them up and going to/from other sports. Because of my personal experience that my kids don’t have time to eat a full meal of heavy foods I suggested both iron filled breakfast AND hearty snacks for dinner - like hummus and veggies, sneak some chopped spinach into felafel or meatballs.

You started off by leaving out key information - you don’t eat meat, your ped suggested food based iron in addition to supplements.
I think you should be willing to step back and look at the bigger picture and be willing to think outside of the narrow constraints your question posed. Anyone can do an internet search for high-iron foods for kids because iron is an issue with many toddlers. Because toddlers eat finger foods, toddler high iron recipes should provide many examples for you. When you ask on DCUM and then only want recipes that doesn’t make sense. There are lots of sources for recipes. The pool / need for portability aspect of the question implied you wanted more than recipes. You wanted experiences swim team parents to share how they feed their kids. The issue is that we chimed in with examples of how we feed our kids during swim season and you rejected that because it wasn’t “dinner” by your definition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. Thank you for the suggestions! In law school professors called it “fighting the hypo” (as in hypothetical) when students wouldn’t just answer the question but instead needed to change the question to something else. I’m noticing that now two responders are saying, “don’t give her iron for dinner, do it at other meals!” DCUM can’t resist fighting the hypo. It’s kind of fascinating. I wonder if I do it to other people or if I just don’t answer if I don’t have an answer to OP’s question. I am also going to notice if it happens so much in real life or if this is just a DCUM thing.

I just don't get while the pool is part of the question. But we don't stay ALLLL day. Go to the pool, swim, have a snack, swim again, go home. It doesn't affect our dietary needs whatsoever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. Thank you for the suggestions! In law school professors called it “fighting the hypo” (as in hypothetical) when students wouldn’t just answer the question but instead needed to change the question to something else. I’m noticing that now two responders are saying, “don’t give her iron for dinner, do it at other meals!” DCUM can’t resist fighting the hypo. It’s kind of fascinating. I wonder if I do it to other people or if I just don’t answer if I don’t have an answer to OP’s question. I am also going to notice if it happens so much in real life or if this is just a DCUM thing.

I just don't get while the pool is part of the question. But we don't stay ALLLL day. Go to the pool, swim, have a snack, swim again, go home. It doesn't affect our dietary needs whatsoever.

Because other people do things differently than you do? I would pick up my kids from camp, go to the pool for swim team, playtime and dinner multiple times a week. Having healthy food was an important part of it.

— Meatball mom