Iron Supplement Question

*Emma Jean*

The NICU sent DD home on vitamins with iron. Her first dose was last Monday and that was the day she came home. Within a couple days we saw a change in her stool and she became a good bit fussier. I asked the pedi about it and she said it could cause gas and constipation but that she wants to keep her on it  - lovely. We switched when we give it to DD and now we give it right before bed so she is fussy during the day and not at night and we are also doing the gas drops 2x per day and more if needed. But DD is still having belly issues. She is going to the bathroom but it takes her a lot  more work and in between she is terribly fussy. Anyone else have experiences with iron?

I'm feeling a bit desperate right now. Last night DD was very agitated and after 2 doses of the gas drops and lots of love we finally got her calmed down.

2BWEDN2007

UGH! You just brought back horrible memories for me.

When DS was discharged from the hospital he came home on the Poly-Vi-Sol drops with Iron and it was awful. For the first few months he was home he pooped once every 7-8 days. He was anemic so there was really nothing we could do because he needed the iron.

He didn't seem in pain so my pedi didn't seem too worried. It escalated though when he started solids. My advice to you would be to skip the rice cereal if DC is still on the vitamins when you get to that point. It made the constipation 10 times worse and he was in pain. He would scream and cry trying to go to the bathroom (that never happened before we started solids) so the pedi had us stop giving him rice cereal and move right to prunes. Worked like a charm!

DS is no longer anemic and is off the vitamins, but we still have to give him prunes every few days or so to keep him going. We mix a couple of teaspoons in to his yogurt every few days. When we give him a whole jar it causes massive blowouts so if you get this far beware.

For the time being, I would continue what you are doing if it works, but as soon as 4-6 months comes along and  you start solids consider skipping rice cereal and starting with prunes.

kamcfarlane

DS was a perfect breastfed baby pooper in the NICU and then came home on poly-vi-sol. the next thing we knew, he had VERY runny dark green/black stools (no blood, we got it tested). then a few weeks later he just stopped pooping.

after 4 days (per the dr), we called and they told us to give him prune juice in his bottle. that worked for awhile, but now that we've started solids, we have the same situation as PP - no poop for days, despite having prune juice in the AM bottle, prunes for dinner and sometimes prunes in the PM bottle.

we were told to start putting karo syrup in his bottles. it seemed to work the first time, but the effectiveness is getting to be less and less....prunes and karo syrup are the only non-medicine things per my dr. next up we try a laxative. poor baby!

good luck, those drops suck!

lemen99

DS is on polyvisol with Iron and felt like it was contributing to DS's consipation (he never goes even though it's runny), but Pedi said it was very important and to keep taking it.

DS is on lactulose (like Miralax) and takes it every day to make him stool.  The prune juice worked well too, but DS's GI specialist likes to use a laxative instead.

The therapist recommended mixing prunes with his oatmeal to make sure he doesn't get constipated.