Dear Jenny, 

Thanks for your comments to my post.

I agree with you that it does not make sense to recommend cereals as first
complementary infant food, since it has a high phytate content which
prevents absorption of non heme iron. Babies unfortunately do not have in
their gut the phytase needed to eat a high cereal diet. This is in contrast
with the rat who apparently is more adapted than us to cereals (1) .  This
may explain the very high prevalence of anaemia in children world wide in
most societies, with the only exception of those using iron fortified
infant cereals and infant milk formulas. 

No doubts, meat would make more sense as first infant food. Unfortunately,
it is indeed usually quite expensive in developing countries.  

Caclium of course is in low  in meat, but we are talking about children
receiving breast milk and receiving their calcium supply from their mother.
In non milk eating society, the mother, as other adults, usually gets its
calcium from leaves and from animal bones. I do not know about the calcium
content of bone marrow. I guess it must be low in calcium but quite high in
iron. 

1- Iqbal TH, Lewis KO, Cooper BT.
Phytase activity in the human and rat small intestine.
Gut. 1994 Sep;35(9):1233-6.

Best regards, 

André



André Briend, MD, PhD                   tel : 33-1-53 01 80 36
CNAM - ISTNA                               fax : 33-1-53 01 80 05
5 rue du Vertbois, 
75003 Paris, France