Iron Supplementation

[bridgerrose]

So I just took my BF one year old DS to his well baby and they checked his hemoglobin and said it was low and told me to give him multivitamins with iron.

He eats solid food okay but won't be fed anything, so we don't do pureed food. He still nurses A LOT and that's where I think he gets his primary nutrition.

I'm torn about the supplementation . . .he is a little sick right now and/or teething and I know that can have an effect on hemoglobin so maybe it's not really low . . .also, he is acting completely normal, with no symptoms of anemia. I was thinking that I would just try to feed him as many foods that are good sources of iron as possible, but I can't force him to eat them, KWIM?

So does anyone have any thoughts on this? Should I give him the supplements? If so what are the best kinds to give him? or should I just try do it as much as I can through diet?

Any information would be helpful! TIA

[blueridgewoman]

If you're breastfeeding, you could try supplementing yourself first and see if that makes a difference.

You could also supplement him but like you said, it's hard to decide. Either way, I would get a whole foods iron supplement (like Floradix) and avoid the synthetic stuff- that is what really causes the most problems, I'd say.

My daughter didn't do purees either and we've never fed her from a spoon. Some of her favorite things in the early days were steak (she would take a strip and just chew/gum it) and other meats, which are good for iron. I also tried to cook things in a cast iron skillet as well. I supplement myself as well (she's still nursing at 2.5). I've never had her iron level checked though, so I have no idea how successful those ventures have been.

Good luck!

[Amatullah0]

I would first try through diet(both of yours), then consider supplements.

[tanyalynn]

Not many minerals change in concentration in mom's milk due to supplementation unless mom is very deficient to start with, and that implies that the nurseling is also very deficient. Iron is usually quite stable in breastmilk.

People can be low in various minerals without blatantly obvious symptoms, so I wouldn't use the lack of symptoms as the primary factor on whether to supplement. You could wait a month and re-test if you think it was falsely low.