Need the least nasty/most natural iron supplement possible. - Page 3

[nuwavemomma]

Originally Posted by tanyalynn

Our bodies actively hold most minerals at fairly level amounts in our bloodstream--it's important for our bodies to function properly--and most minerals in milk correspond to the levels in our blood. For most minerals, our milk only goes low when mom is deficient herself.

A few minerals, and many of the vitamins, fluctuate quite a bit in our blood levels, and in breastmilk (think of all the threads from pumping moms who have yellow-tinged milk in the morning after taking their prenatals).

It takes time to change a person's overall mineral status, and if mom is so low that she's anemic, if it wasn't due to blood loss after the baby was born, then baby both developed in a low iron environment and is getting low iron milk--so just correcting the level in the milk (which itself takes time) isn't enough to make up the deficiency.

So am I understanding that Kellymom is saying that based on their timetable of how long an "effective" remedy should take? That's what it sounds like. Wouldn't going slowly be the best way anyway?

[Pattyla]

If mom is anemic her milk might not be. Also if mom is anemic then baby may have gotten low iron stores at birth and so has run out early. I think I have read that being anemic can lead to lower interest in solids. Thirdly if mom is anemic it may take a very long time to increase her iron stores enough that it would be higher in the milk so that would mean the baby would go w/o iron for even longer. Low iron can impact brain developement and should be corrected.

Zinc is another good catch. Look for white marks on her finger nails. That means low zinc.

[Pandme]

OK. How would one fix low zinc?

[JamieCatheryn]

Floridix is naturally derived, no side effects, is well absorbed, tastes ok (remember to refrigerate!) It's not made for babies so you may need to talk to your HCP about dosage if it's for her, for you mom it would be great. Fixed my low hemoglobin in a couple weeks right before I had DS2.

[Pandme]

Originally Posted by JamieCatheryn

Floridix is naturally derived, no side effects, is well absorbed, tastes ok (remember to refrigerate!) It's not made for babies so you may need to talk to your HCP about dosage if it's for her, for you mom it would be great. Fixed my low hemoglobin in a couple weeks right before I had DS2.

I called the company, dosage for 7-12 month olds is 5 ml. Floradix does give dosing instructions for babies, I called about the Floravital.

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by Pandme

OK. How would one fix low zinc?

I supplement my kids, I've used zinc citrate and zinc picolinate. I've given them powders (opening a capsule) and hiding it between 2 layers of applesauce.

Check out the cell salts thread in this forum. It's decreased the amount of a couple supplements that I give my kids and take myself. The tablets dissolve easily and have a neutral, slightly sweet taste.

Originally Posted by nuwavemomma

So am I understanding that Kellymom is saying that based on their timetable of how long an "effective" remedy should take? That's what it sounds like. Wouldn't going slowly be the best way anyway?

I think it's unlikely the deficiency would actually be corrected at all. These are made-up numbers, I'm just using them to explain what I think is happening, but say a healthy infant needs about 2mg of some mineral, and a non-deficient mom's milk has about 2mg per day of the fictional mineral. But deficient baby may need 3mg (or more since oftentimes, as more is consumed, less is absorbed--not zero extra, but a lesser %)... well, if mom is deficient, it takes time to get back to her milk simply providing 2mg, and it won't ever get to 3 or 5 mg because that's not in the range of human milk. Maybe nurseling gets enough to function day-to-day, but that doesn't address the deficiency.

[Pandme]

Updating this thread, I got my own iron tested and my hemo was 14.6. Not anemic, not even close.

We continue to give her the Floravital but she's still basically nowhere on solids. Just tastes. Today she leaned in for more peach yogurt but didn't want more beyond a few tastes.

EI is taking us on for the feeding issue, but they said she is very "borderline" for qualifying.

[MeredithK]

I know you are still working on the whole food issue, but I wanted to share another option for iron supplements. I went to the Naturopath with DS and he gave us this supplement.

Dylan loves taking it. If you are interested, I would talk to your Dr or call the company to find out the best dosage. It does taste good....like cinnamon gum.

[Pandme]

Originally Posted by MeredithK

I know you are still working on the whole food issue, but I wanted to share another option for iron supplements. I went to the Naturopath with DS and he gave us this supplement.

Dylan loves taking it. If you are interested, I would talk to your Dr or call the company to find out the best dosage. It does taste good....like cinnamon gum.

Awesome. Thank you! Dylan is so cute....saw his pic over in the October thread. He reminds me a LOT of my son at that age.

[MeredithK]

You're welcome. I thought of you as soon as we got it. Thanks...Dylan is pretty darn cute!

[chibiseira]

Are you sure about the dose? On their site it says that's the dose from age 5-9 ansd age 2-4 is 4mL. I know it's a little higher in infancy than later but it still sounds odd, and with the other ingredients want to be sure. Glad to find something better than Enfamil though (besides that my kids one which has even nastier ingredients, amazingly).