Bone marrow baby food

Whipped Bone Marrow Recipe, 6+ Months

Fun fact: Bone marrow has iron in it. Which means this whipped bone marrow recipe is one more way to bring meaty minerals into your baby’s diet.

Bone marrow is also fatty. And as an iron-rich fat, you can use it in sweet and savory dishes alike, making it a wonderful source of heme iron for babies who’d rather eat a sweet potato mash over liver pate or a lamb chop.

Why bone marrow rules my world

There are some foods for baby that I literally obsess over. These foods are largely underused and yet packed with many of the nutrients that babies need.

Liver is one. And bone marrow is another.

Bone marrow is found inside of bones. And it’s a production powerhouse, full of life-giving stem cells – pumping out red blood cells, white blood cells, bone cells, and fat cells.

Bone marrow also has vasculature moving blood to and fro. And where you find blood, you find iron.

Iron is a big deal for babies. It’s a meaty mineral that I love to love. You can find hints of my obsession all over the place – on Instagram, in blog posts, and in this online class for beginning solids. Chances are, your pediatrician is also interested in your baby’s iron levels.

But why?

Iron is brain food. For example, research reveals that babies who are anemic before the age of two have lower scores in school achievement and cognition from 4 – 19 years of age.
Iron supports myelination. It turns out you can find quite a bit of iron in the brain cells that produce myelin. Myelin-making brain cells = white matter in the brain…and white matter = intelligence.
Iron deficiency cannot be undone. Even when corrected, low levels of iron during babyhood – or iron deficiency anemia – has been found to impact language development, motor development, and emotional development.

As with most things, there’s a balance to how much iron you give your baby.

Food naturally rich in heme iron (such as liver, cuts of beef and lamb, the dark meat of chicken, shellfish, and bone marrow) positively supports your baby’s iron levels. Even when eaten in small amounts, as babies do.

Bone marrow has roughly 2.7 mg of iron for every four tablespoons – which is equivalent to what you find in one tablespoon of liver. This is more iron than you’d find in pork, poultry, lamb, and some cuts of beef.

Beyond iron, Chinese medicine claims that bone marrow has some serious restorative mojo.

Bone marrow is known for its ability to deeply fortify the body. If your baby shows signs of “failure to thrive,” such as slow weight gain or not reaching developmental milestones, offer your baby bone marrow more frequently and in the place of fats like butter and ghee.

How to pick + handle marrow bones

When roasted, bone marrow is a jiggly white and pinkish blob with brown ends (this is why we whip it).

While you can find plenty of marrow within the center of the bone, there are all sorts of nooks and crannies around the ends of the bone where marrow can get stuck.

You can get around those nooks and crannies (and the most bang for your buck) by asking for a long cut.

These canoe cut marrow bones are perfect.

Also important: Avoid ends when buying marrow bones, which are made of hard red marrow. Choose cuts from the center of the bone.

Should you soak your bones before roasting?

In Odd Bits, chef and author Jennifer McLagan suggests soaking bones in salted ice water to remove blood.

But blood contains iron. And since we’re celebrating this unctuous meat butter because it’s a fairly good source of iron, skip the soak.

Whipped bone marrow recipe

Cara Nicoletti – sausage maker extraordinaire – makes bone marrow look beautiful and presentable by WHIPPING it. With a whisk attachment. In a bowl. How easy is that? And the results are worth it.

If you follow the principles of baby-led weaning, use like you would butter or any other fat – for example, mashed into a starchy veggie, like sweet potato or squash.

If you are working with purees, add whipped marrow to your puree.

Ingredients

2 – 3 lbs of beef femur bones from the midsection of the bone, click here to shop for marrow bones

Instructions

Heat oven to 425 F. Place marrow bones, marrow side-up, on a baking sheet. Roast for 25 minutes or until much of the fat has rendered out and marrow is pulling away from the sides.
Remove from oven. After the bones have cooled enough to touch, scoop the marrow out and into a bowl. Also, pour all fat from your baking sheet and into the bowl. Place it in the refrigerator.
Once the marrow is cold (the fat should firm up), use a mixer with a whisk attachment to whip until the bone marrow is white and fluffy.
Whipped marrow lasts 3 weeks in the fridge and 6 months in the freezer.

Have you made this bone marrow recipe before? What’s your favorite way to use it?

This is not medical advice and any statements made about the use of herbs, supplements, or food have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not meant to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease.

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Reader Interactions

Baby's First Bites: Bone Marrow — Cauli🌸Queen

Fun Videos of the cutest babies eating bone marrow (6 months+)

Bone marrow may be introduced as soon as your baby is ready to start solids, typically around 6 months old.

What exactly is bone marrow?

Bone marrow is the jelly-like tissue in the middle of animal bones.

It’s a trendy restaurant food that’s actually quite affordable (and ridiculously easy!) to prepare at home. Ask your butcher for “long, cross-cut” bones, which will make it easier for you to get the most marrow from the bone once it’s roasted.

Large birds learned to drop bones out of the sky to crash down and break the marrow open for their enjoyment.

Why give it to your baby?

When thinking about those incredible first bites of food, most of us hear of iron-added rice cereals and fruit. But I want my baby to get used to more savory foods first - the dense (naturally full of iron) foods like bone marrow and liver! These are some of the most nutrient packed foods on the planet! (aside from maybe seaweed and mussels, more amazing baby options!).

Once babies learn the taste of sweet, they push all other things to the side. But if you think about nature, you wouldnt be eating fruit all day, all year. Our bodies are meant to search fruit out when it is in abundance, but we were never meant to eat pineapples in winter, or strawberries all year round (and the flavor sufferes because of this too!). Even maple syrup is a pain stakingly long process of hoses hooked up to trees all winter, but we miss out on the process and just get the sugar straight into our bodies, 24/7.

We picked out our babies first foods incredibly thoughtfully. Lots of mushed greens, and always us taking bites along with him (which he loved!). We added in some licks of an apple core, and saw his face light up. But he is so good with eating all we have given so far, and we dont want to mess with that yet!

So we had been pushing off Luca’s first bites for a couple weeks. He was sitting up, but we just hadent gotten around to mashing stuff for him yet. As we started to eat our dinner, we pulled out our bone marrow bones, and thought, hey, this stuff is pretty energy dense, and so mushy already! AND HE LOVED IT. Our babies first food was bone marrow. LOL

And we checked the internets (after… possibly a bad idea, but we were using our best judgement), and the consensus was total agreement. WHY DONT MORE PEOPLE THINK OF THIS!? Our baby is not eating rice cereal for a long while. There are too many other good foods out there!

Nutritional Profile

Soft in texture, loaded with iron and healthy fates, packed with B-vitamins, and lots of bone building material. It is actually a true baby super food!

It is also NOT a common food allergen.

Ways to Eat Bone Marrow

We cook ours for 30 min at about 350F. (or 20 at 425). It can be scraped out, slurped, or licked, or spread onto toast. For being such a “fancy” kind of food, it tends to make you feel quite primitive!

To whip it:

scoop the marrow out and into a bowl. Also, pour all fat from your baking sheet and into the bowl. Place it in the refrigerator.
Once the marrow is cold (the fat should firm up), use a mixer with a whisk attachment to whip until the bone marrow is white and fluffy.
Whipped marrow lasts 3 weeks in the fridge and 6 months in the freezer.

When to give your baby

For babies 6 to 12 months old: Spread roasted bone marrow on bread, thin rice cakes, or baby crackers. You may also whip roasted bone marrow with breast milk or formula and/or mix into other foods, such as mashed potatoes. Don’t go crazy though: a little goes a long way!
12 to 24 months old: Slather roasted bone marrow on bread with thick crusts, such as sourdough, and give your toddler the time to really work at chewing and tearing. Roasted bone marrow can also be spread atop roasted veggies and other foods to boost the fat content.

Note: It can be a choking hazard. There are sometimes little bone scrapes, or globs of fat that need to be broken up before given to your baby. I like to spoon out perfect chunks and save for him, but you can also mix it with something else and whip it up with something like breast milk, as in the recipe below.

Why we are obsessed.

There are some foods for baby that I literally obsess over. These foods are largely underused and yet packed with many of the nutrients that babies need. Plus. it is DELICIOUS. Even babies love it at first lick.

Liver is one. And bone marrow is another.

Bone marrow is found inside of bones. And it’s a production powerhouse, full of life-giving stem cells – pumping out red blood cells, white blood cells, bone cells, and fat cells.

Bone marrow also has vasculature moving blood to and fro. And where you find blood, you find iron.

But why?

Iron is brain food. For example, research reveals that babies who are anemic before the age of two have lower scores in school achievement and cognition from 4 – 19 years of age.
Iron supports myelination. It turns out you can find quite a bit of iron in the brain cells that produce myelin. Myelin-making brain cells = white matter in the brain…and white matter = intelligence.
Iron deficiency cannot be undone. Even when corrected, low levels of iron during babyhood – or iron deficiency anemia – has been found to impact language development, motor development, and emotional development.

Then, DO NOT throw out the bones until you make stock!

The bones are very gelatinous. When roasting, you’re really just going after the fatty marrow. So all the tough collagen on the side of the bones and the bone itself breaks down in the stock. You’ll find you can’t get everything out of the bones, and the long (6-8 hour) slow cooked broths break it all down.

Once upon a time, bones were handed off neighbor to neighbor, to continue using the same bones many times over in stocks.

Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy in children with cancer

Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy are examinations performed to examine a patient's bone marrow.

Bone marrow is a soft spongy material found in the center of most of the bones in our body that produces blood cells.

Bone marrow is a soft spongy material found in the center of most of the bones in our body. The bone marrow produces blood cells. It creates hematopoietic (hematopoietic) cells from which the rest of the blood cells are derived. As a result of their maturation, the following are formed:

Red blood cells (which carry oxygen)
Platelets (which are responsible for blood clotting)
Leukocytes (which fight infection)

In children with cancer, bone marrow aspiration and biopsy can be done to:

Check if the bone marrow is producing enough blood cells
Diagnose blood cancer - childhood leukemia and lymphoma
Determine if cancer has spread from other parts of the body to the bone marrow
Check if the bone marrow responds to treatment
Diagnose bone marrow infections

In most cases, aspiration and biopsy are done at the same time. Sometimes the patient is only given a bone marrow aspiration.

Bone marrow includes a liquid part and a harder part. During aspiration, fluid is taken. During a biopsy, the hard part is taken.

Preparing for bone marrow testing

Many children are sedated so that they sleep during the procedure. While taking sedatives, patients should follow preoperative fasting guidelines. If the patient does not comply with these rules, the procedure is postponed.

If the child does not have a central venous catheter or port, sedation will be given intravenously.

Bone marrow aspiration

The procedure is performed by a doctor. A small sample of bone marrow is removed using a thin, hollow needle attached to a syringe.

The sample is usually taken from the patient's pelvic bone.
During the procedure, the doctor may apply pain medication (cream or injectable solution).
The patient is usually in the lateral position.
The doctor palpates the patient's lower back to find the correct point to perform the procedure.
The selected area is treated with an antibacterial agent. At this moment, a feeling of cold will appear. After that, the back can be covered with special towels, leaving only a small area of skin exposed.
Next, a needle attached to a syringe is inserted. If the patient is conscious, he will feel a strong pressure.
The doctor will draw a small amount of liquid bone marrow (which looks like blood) into a syringe. If the patient is conscious, he may feel acute pain for a moment.
Multiple samples may often be required, in which case the clinician uses multiple syringes. The patient's body will quickly restore the amount of fluid withdrawn during the procedure.
The doctor will remove the needle, clean the area of skin and apply a bandage.

The patient usually lies on their side and the sample is usually taken from the pelvic bone.

A small sample of bone marrow is removed using a thin cannula attached to a syringe.

Bone marrow biopsy

If both aspiration and biopsy are performed, a separate needle will be used for each procedure.
For a biopsy, the doctor inserts a larger needle into the same area to remove a small piece of bone and the marrow it contains.
The biopsy is usually taken immediately before or immediately after aspiration.

The total time for both procedures is approximately 30 minutes.

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Modified June 2018