If you pick up a little iron from your cooking, there is no trouble, as a lot of diets are somewhat low in necessary iron. Don't worry about it. I found this info on a website: "Most North Americans don't get enough iron in their diet. If you cook a couple meals a day on iron pans, the small amount that is absorbed into the body by the food represents only about 20% of the recommended daily dosage." Here's the link Here is a link that might be useful: cast iron

Slick, Facebook does it all. My wife and I were pitched last Saturday. The meal was okay, only because there was fried chicken "mashed" potatoes and corn and peas. The rest either got eaten by my wife (a very close "cousin" to a pure Vegan) or tossed out. I've read this entire thread. Thanks to all who contributed, but especially to Dan the "resident chemist" (retired). Anyone who has purchased any of these extremely expensive pots and pans is thinking differently about money than I/we do. But hey, money is a tool. I won't find fault with, or mock, anyone for spending their money however they want. We were given the "acid" test too, and the saleslady really wanted us to concentrate on what was happening as we moved from the tip of the tongue to baking soda, to the SM brew, then a SS brew and finally to the brew bubbling in our aluminum Teflon coated (with scratches) fry pan. Eeew! Yes, the SM brew was like tasting liquid baking soda. The SS brew was like licking ferrous metal, and the scratched Teflon and aluminum was like tasting poison. We were expected to withdraw from our own kitchen utensils in horror and pick a SM pots and pans set immediately. My wife only scheduled our "free" dinner on the chance that she would get the SM hand shredder, or maybe even want to buy one. But, the danged thing won't handle kale. It just wiggles right through all the shredding cones. She was really hoping to save time on the chopping of her daily kale with a knife. So the saleslady lost us on that disappointment alone. The over-priced items. The skepticism I instantly had over the boiling baking soda "test". And finally the Net providing good information. This thread is the Bomb! Thanks again. I specifically wanted information on the baking soda gimmick and the concentrated information contained in this years-long exchange has been most appreciated. So, Salad Master is still at it. But their methods are so "old school". The Net provides everyone with instant reality check at their fingertips. I can just see someone pulling up this thread "in situ" while the "soda test" is going, and reading off Dan's educated denouncement of it. That, would be funny! I bet it's happened already more than once.

Oops, I meant to type: 4 or 5qt saucepan 4 or 5qt cast iron oven (LC or staub) 4 or 5qt ss casserole (cladded or disc?) 5qt chefs pan 3.5 or 5qt qt cast iron braiser

Even kids who do already have teeth tend to get into eating only one favorite food as they go thru the toddler years. I used to fear that my daughter would turn into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich she ate it so much! So don't stress over a lot of one food choice. As far as other options, the fact that he likes meat is good for protein. Get some good meat from the deli to give some variety. As far as cheese, yup, it can constipate. Try to encourage him to eat a banana on days that he eats cheese. That helped my DD "go". Does he like yogurt? You can try some lactaid-type yogurt to hopefully not contribute to his regularity issues. Try to stick to whole wheat bread and the nutrigrain type of eggos (not the low fat, they dont taste great, just the regular nutrigrain flavor). And don't worry! His teeth will soon sprout, and he will eat everything in sight! :-) 12 years from now, he'll be probably eating like a horse!