Early introduction of solid foods

In a recent issue of Pediatrics, Helen A. Guthrie suggested that the current practice of early introduction of solid foods to the infant's diet might be undesirable. Some comments regarding the data and conclusions presented appear to be in order. The data presented in Table II imply that an infant's iron requirement is 4 mg per day. Calculations based on iron stores at birth and iron requirement for normal hemoglobin concentration at 1 year of age suggest that the requirement is actually 8 mg per day.