"Thoughts on low iron and "toddler" formulas" X-post with Feeding

[lilycat88]

I posted this in Feeding but thought I would try here as well.

Susanna had some blood work done several weeks ago that showed she was slightly anemic. When I got the actual numbers, she was right at the lower limit of normal on both hemoglobin and hematocrit (I think that's right). Her ped told us to give her Poly-vi-sol. Easier said than done. That stuff is disgusting. She won't have anything to do with it no matter what we mix it with. We've tried another brand of vitamins from a natural food store here and we've mixed that one with milk to produce a pretty yummy lightly strawberry flavored milk. I know that dairy impedes iron absorption but we figured a little getting into her body was better than none. We've actually tried to cut down on dairy overall to try to improve her absorption. But, no go on that one, either. The child eats very well but if it's something we are trying to "hide" in her food, she ALWAYS knows.

I've tried to boost her intake of foods rich in iron but she flat out refuses any red meat. She'll eat turkey and chicken. We're moving back to the Earth's Best iron enriched cereals for when she is at home. We had moved to regular adult oatmeal months ago. The other thing we were considering is giving her some of the toddler formula. She'd still have regular milk at daycare unless we took the formula in. Any thoughts on that? Good idea, bad idea? I'm not in a panic about this but we do need to figure out a way to get more iron in her. Just looking at her, you can tell she's lacking iron. She's pale much of the time and she's had some fatigue issues on and off.

Thanks in advance.

Jamelin
Mom to Susanna born 6/29/2004

[brittone2]

Citrus and tomato sauce (and other acidic foods) help w/ the absorption of iron, so when you do get something containing iron into her, try to combine it something like tomato sauce or citrus.

I mentioned it in my other post, but cooking in cast iron leeches the iron into the food.

How about mixing stuff (supplements or just the foods themselves) into a smoothie? My DS isn't big on smoothies but I am and I sneak things into my own smoothies ;) You can do them dairy-free (use OJ or just water to blend with frozen berries, etc.) to make the iron easier to absorb. You can even throw in a little bit of spinach or other greens...the taste gets masked pretty well.

Would she eat a home made veggie burger? We make those around here sometimes...you could grind up beans and quinoa to make it higher in iron (if she'll eat it).

IMO iron supplements aren't all that bioavailable so the more you can get into her through real food, the better.

Was she sick recently? That can lower the numbers. Also, L. came out a little low on his test once and after reading about it, I realized the nurse squeezed the blood out of his finger. In reality, the test is more accurate if they prick their finger, and get a nice bead of blood without having to squeeze it out. Squeezing it forces more serum out (the clear component of your blood) which makes the numbers come back lower because it appears more dilute due to the serum concentration. He had also been getting over a cold fairly recently before that.

Went back for the recheck, different nurse, no need to squeeze the blood out of his finger and it came back at an acceptable level, although lower end of normal. However, unlike Susanna, he doesn't appear anemic or have any clinical signs.

I wish you much luck. It is tough. My DS has never been a big solids eater (has picked up in recent months) and when we were going through this he was barely eating solids at all...it was hard to get any food into him, let alone iron-rich foods.

I hope things improve soon for Susanna.

[icunurse]

DS has always had great lab results, but the new ped was concerned he's anemic (actually, he's just quite pale - family trait). Anyway, I've always been a bit concerned that he gets enough iron, so we've tried the Healthy Kids orange juice (fortified and not quite as tart as other OJ's), Mighty Bites cereal by Kashi (for a snack), Gerber Toddler cereal (again, fortified and DS loves it every morning), and Yo-Baby yogurt (the one with cereal in it has loads of iron - green packaging). Earths Best makes a great, very tasty toddler oatmeal (both DH and I cannot figure out why DS doesn't love it - it is SO good) and their cereal bars have been well-received by DS. Also, the ped said to keep milk intake under 24 oz/day, as it can interfere with the iron absorption.
Traci
~Connor's Mom 02/2004~
Agency paperwork completed - waiting for #2!

[squimp]

I always heard that raisins have lots of iron.

[Wife_and_mommy]

I've taken an iron supplement in the past called Floradix. It's supposed to be for adults so you'd need to play with the dosage. It comes in liquid form and is made from fruits/veggies/such that are high in iron. I actually take the pill form but my iron jumped up to acceptable levels during my pg with DD.

You might talk with someone at your health food store to see what they think. DD's not needed supplementation but if she did I think this is the way I'd go.

I hope Susanna's iron levels are soaring soon. :)



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[lilycat88]

Beth,
Thanks for the reply. I'm going to try to up her intake of tomato products. She won't drink juice. We've never given it to her and now she just has no interest. She will do tomato sauces and sun dried tomatoes. I'm trying to make sure her behind is all healed before I do that, though. We've struggled with diaper rash and a yeast rash for weeks. Consequences of being on antibiotics for almost 3 solid months. She gets a hefty probiotics dose daily and she's *almost* clear. That sort of answers your question about "has she been sick". She got a bad cold at the beginning of september that led to a nasty double ear infection that clogged one of her ear tubes and led to one solid infection until she got her second set of tubes in mid November. Even after the second set of tubes, she still couldn't kick it totally until just in the last week or so. Her blood work was done when she was under anesthesia so they didn't do a finger prick.

We've not tried smoothies with her yet. Mainly because I've never made one in my life and wouldn't really know where to start. She's a GREAT eater overall and I wasn't worried about her iron level at all. I think doing some fine tuning on the diet and getting her healthy will fix the problem.

Jamelin
Mom to Susanna born 6/29/2004

[lilycat88]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try that juice. We never offered her juice until recently and she has so far rejected everything we've tried. She loves Mighty Bites and we've moved back to Earth's Best cereal. Unfortunately, she doesn't eat breakfast here with us every morning but we give it to her when we can. That's a great idea about the Yo-Baby. She LOVES the regular. It never dawned on me to look into the cereal one. We're also limiting her dairy to about 16 oz a day.

Thanks again!

Jamelin
Mom to Susanna born 6/29/2004

[lilycat88]

I'll have to try those as well. Unfortunatly, she only has 6 teeth and some partial molars so chewing isn't high on her list of favorites. She likes them rehydrated, though. If only her mom could remember to do that.

Jamelin
Mom to Susanna born 6/29/2004

[lilycat88]

Thanks, I'll look into that if we can't do it with diet.

Jamelin
Mom to Susanna born 6/29/2004

[brittone2]

I second floradix if you can find good dosage info. I took some for a while and it really tastes rather pleasant. I wanted to give it to DS but had a tough time finding dosage info, but by then his numbers were back up to normal and he was eating more so I didn't worry about it.