Allergic Reaction to Iron Supplements?

jeffrae

repost from 3rd Tri:

This past week I had my glucose test which I passed but it showed I was slightly anemic.  So OB put me on otc iron supplements called Slow FE.  This is the second night I have woken up with a rash all over my feet and ankles.  Yesterday when I called they did not think it was related to that drug, it had gone away be evening.  Well, I took it again before bed and sure enough I am up at 3 am with a worse rash and so itchy.  :-( 

This rash is the same one I have had in the past when I have been give sulfa based drugs -- and so I know I am allergic to that.  After thinking about the symptoms, I looked up the ingredients and they are "ferrous sulfate".  So I am pretty sure this little pill is the culprit.  Luckily on call ob said it is just annoying for me and won't harm LO. 

Anyone else have a similar experience?  If so - what did you switch to for your iron supplements?

mh2t

I have not had an allergic reaction, but I'm on a different supplement, and I don't think it has any of that stuff in it.  It's a liquid, and it's called Floradix.  Available at Whole Foods.  The ingredients I found online are:

Ingredients: Aqueous extract (54%) from carrots, nettles, spinach, quitch roots, angelica roots, fennel, ocean kelp, African mallow, blossom and orange peel, fruit concentrates (29%) of pears, red grapes, blackcurrants, oranges, blackberries, cherries and beetroots, aqueous extract of iron-fed yeast with: absorbable iron and added thiamin HCl, riboflavin, vitamin B6 (as pyridoxine HCl), folic acid, vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin prep) and vitamin C (ascorbic acid), honey rose hip aqueous dry extract, wheat germ aqueous extract.

BetchySprout

It is totally possible! My mom and I are both anemic (her worse than I) and allergic to different kinds of iron! She can't take Ferrous Sulfate (which is the most common type in vitamins) and I had a bad allergic reaction to Ferrous Gluconate.