Natural infant iron drops?

[ChesapeakeBorn]

Has anyone come across these? My little one's hematocrit was low (about 8) at his 12 month checkup last week . We are waiting on the results from a CBC to determine how anemic he is. In the meantime, the pediatrician prescribed 15 mg Fer-In-Sol per day, but I do not like the ingredients list! We have Nature's Plus Baby Plex, but they don't have iron in them.

Due to food allergies, DS didn't really start eating solids until he was about 10 months old. He still nurses about 7-9 times in 24 hrs. He's not a very big eater (can't have wheat or dairy still), although we offer him many choices including dark green veggies, pork, chicken, and turkey. We don't really eat red meat, but I did just buy some bison to try. We do use cast iron cookware.

I was thinking of blackstrap molasses, but it is going to be tricky to get it in him. He does not let us feed him - he does only finger foods himself. And he will drink only water from a cup, anything else makes him wrinkle his little nose, lol.

[anomaly13]

This may not be very helpful but we use Floradix Iron Plus Herbs. I used it during all my pregnancies and while nursing and then gave it to my kids when they were around a year or so as needed. My kids never had very low iron levels but they started on vegan diets, we slowly added eggs, butter, goat milk and goat cheese but still no meat. I would check their eyes every day to see how red they were and give them the floradix based on that and what they had eaten in the past 24 hours.

If you take the flordix yourself it should pass through the breastmilk. I get the liquid kind and it tastes like cherry juice, slightly metallic. The ingredients are all plants based and it is very well absorbed by your body with none of the nasty side effects of most iron supplements.

Another source is nettle tea and I think there is an iron tea made by traditional medicinals that may be good. I just make nettel tea from loose leafs along with red raspberry leaf, alfalfa, oatstraw, cornsilk, lemon balm, rose hips. I have no idea how much iron is in x amount of tea though so the floradix may be a better way to go. Be careful giving iron, we have never had a problem but I have a friend who over did it with her son and he was constipated for days and wouldn't eat and lost a bunch a weight. She was trying to make her own iron fortified cereal and I am not sure what she used.

[ChesapeakeBorn]

I was wondering about giving him Floradix. From what I have read, increasing my iron levels will not increase the iron in my milk, so I would be giving this to him directly. He would likely be getting it everyday, as he struggles with eating. Do you think the herbs in it would be ok for a 1 year old on a daily basis?

[ChesapeakeBorn]

Oh shoot. Floradix is out. It has wheat germ in it.

[anomaly13]

We have had good luck with it. But like I said my kids were never had very low iron levels. I would give it a try before some other nasty iron supplement.

There are 2 types of iron, heme and nonheme, heme comes from animal sources and nonheme comes from plant sources. Heme is better absorbed by your body then nonheme but if you pair nonheme sources with vit. c the amount of nonheme iron absorbed by your body triples. Floradix contains vit. c as well as b vits. and some others. Clacium and phosphorus found in milk, not sure if this includes human milk, inpair all forms of iron absorption. I always find it fasinating that people push drinking milk with dinner or other meals. OT but I am pretty sure the protein in cow's milk also inpairs the absorption of the calcium in the milk, why a lot of people end up with osteoperosis even though they had 3 glasses a day.

The decision is yours in the end but I personally would give the floradix a try first to see if it helps. I don't see anything in it that would alarm me as far as giving it to a one year old. You could research each ingredient individually to be sure, I feel like it's safe as long as you give him no more then 7mg a day, upper limit for a 1-3 year old is 40mg. 1 teaspoon of Floradix has 5 mg iron so I would go with that depending on what else he has eaten in the past 24 hours. As he gets older and starts to like new things then you may be able to give it up, especially if he eats more meat.
Also food allergies can pass over time.

Best of luck!

[kalkahcha]

Same boat!

Wow, I can totally relate to your problem! I also have just learned that my picky one year old might be anemica (awaiting second blood test results) so I was also wondering if anyone had tried floradix. I also cannot get my son to eat anything off a spoon although he will feed himself and drink smoothies, so I may be able to sneak it in that way. And he's still breastfeeding alot so I will be doing the nettle tea.

Just wanted to throw out there that there is a yeast-free, gluten-free version of floradix called floravital, so I'll probably opt for that kind. And I'm also hoping to figure out a way to get him to eat some spirulina since it's more natural and he's had it through my breast milk. I'm debating making little spirulina balls with almond butter and raisins and/or dates for him.

But if anyone has experience giving toddlers floravital/floradix I would love to hear your experience!

[ChesapeakeBorn]

Ohhhh, Floravital! Yay, something that is wheat free! But hmmmm, no dosage recommendations for children under 4. How will we figure out how much to give them? Iron overdose is quite serious.

[anomaly13]

Children 1-3 require 7 mg of iron, with an upper limit of 40mg. This is according to Nordic Naturals Annual Kids Nutrition Chart. Floravital has 10mg iron per 2 tsp. serving. I usually give half a serving, 1 tsp., depending on what my child has eaten in the past 24 hours.

[ChesapeakeBorn]

Thank you for the info! I picked up a bottle of Floravital today.