Low Iron?

RCH151

Hi,

Has anyone had a LO who had low iron levels?  My 9 month old (EBF) has iron levels *just* below the normal level range for her age.  The pedi wants me to supplement with nasty iron drops 2x a day for 3 months but she hates having them.  I'm thinking of ditching the supplement and adjusting her diet to foods very high in iron...has anyone dealt with this?

Ciarrai

Both DD#2 and DS had low iron.  The drops suck but my understanding was low iron was worse.  Also, from what I read, supplementing with foods high in iron doesn't always do it because there are also foods that inhibit the absorption of iron too much and some foods you think of as high in iron aren't enough.  We only did it once a day and we did them in the bathtub.  At least I knew some of it was getting in them and we didn't ruin their clothes this way.  Otherwise, they spit them out and it got all over everything.  Try giving them in the bathtub.

JOEBunny

Yes.  DS has had problems maintaining iron levels in the past because he eats little.  He hated polyvisol, but would take the plain iron drops for a bit, though it was still an ordeal.  I had a lot more luck with fortified foods though, just read the lables.  A lot of organic and natural foods don't have the supplements.  I had him tested again today and he is doing well. He has protein issues too, so gets supplements and those help a ton. 

DS likes instant oatmeal and it is a good source.  Not the baby food kind, but the regular flavored kind.  You can also cut up nutrition bars into small bites, depending on how solid your child likes food at this point, they come in a variety of textures and many have iron.  

AnneUCSB

All of my boys were exclusively BF so we had routine iron levels checked at 9 months.  Both DS#2 and DS#3 had low-ish iron at the first check-up.  The normal range is 11-14 (hemaglobin) and DS#2 was 10.6 and DS#3 was 11.2 (not even below the normal range but on the lower end).  My pediatrician gave me a choice between the drops and diet changes.  I opted to adjust their diet first and had a re-check of their hemaglobin about 6 weeks later.  Each of them came up 1-2 points, falling right in the normal range, just with diet changes so we never had to do the meds

The additions I made to the diet was:  adding iron-fortified rice cereal or baby oatmeal to the purees that I make, buying the premixed Gerber fruits with oatmeal, mixed grain cereal or oatmeal in them (these had 45% daily rec of iron), adding Yo Toddler yogurt- apple flavor with mixed cereal- this also had 45% of daily rec of iron.  I cut up dried figs, prunes, and apricots and gave those to them.  Gave cream of wheat cereal (very high in iron). Also tried to add some red meat (in very small pieces) as finger foods. I gave at least two of these foods a day and after 5 weeks, it really helped their iron levels.  

Good luck.  If you're diligent, you can really influence the iron with diet and ditch those nasty drops.  Just be sure to ask your pedi for a follow-up blood draw to be sure it's working.