Should You Supplement Breast Milk with Vitamin D or Iron?

These days, almost everyone agrees that breast-feeding is the best for your baby. Even before we had our baby, during our parenting classes, it was mentioned over and over that breast-feeding has been shown to be the best for newborns. After our baby was born, our lactation consultant even went so far as to say that breast milk is the "perfect" food for a baby. But if this is true, why do doctors recommend supplementing breast milk with vitamin D and Iron?

Last week, during our 2 month checkup for our daughter, the pediatrician told us to supplement breast milk with vitamin D...and Iron after 6 months. I thought this was sort of odd because we've been told since our prenatal classes that breast milk is the best and all that a baby needs. So my wife and I read through some of the literature that the hospital gave us (we have Kaiser HMO). In one of the pamphlets, it states that "Breast milk is the best food for your baby and all the nutrition your baby needs..." Then in the very next paragraph, it says, "If you breast-feed only, give infant vitamin drops containing vitamin D every day..." Does this seem like a contradiction? So what's the straight story?

So we decided to ask our pediatrician. He told us that breast milk usually contains very little vitamin D. This isn't necessarily a problem if the baby gets some sunlight every day. However, a lot of babies don't get much sun...especially these days because of all the precautions regarding skin cancer. But even then, there are very few cases of vitamin D deficiency in infants. But since it doesn't hurt to supplement with vitamin D, this is what parents are told to do.

As for iron, babies are generally born with enough iron to last 6 months or so. After that, they need to get more. But apparently breast milk actually doesn't contain much iron. This is why they tell parents to supplement with iron. I've read some articles that say that by 6 months babies are eating solids, so just feed them foods with iron in it rather than using supplements.

So the bottom line here seems to be that although breast milk is the best for babies, it might not be such a bad idea to supplement. As parents, we of course want the best for our babies. My wife and I are now supplementing our daughter's breast milk with formula that contains vitamin D and Iron...we use Enfamil.

If you have any comments about this, please share them.