Me and my breastfed son are bruising easily, have bruises all over our legs!

[Athora80]

I lost a lot of blood when I gave birth and was anemic postpartum. By 6 months apparently I wasn't anemic anymore (although I question that my old doctor had any brains at all). Due to other health issues my diet changed and these last 4-5 months I have been exhausted most days, weak and seem to bruise easily. I always have at least 5 bruises on my legs and get bruises on my hips from carrying my son and on my arms from who knows what. My son also has a few bruises on his legs which seems to be a constant thing. He is walking but still stumbles, is still breastfed and gets solids in the baby led weaning style.

So, I am going to the doc tomorrow but does anyone have any insight on what could be causing this? Could I be iron deficient and in turn my son is as well? It's kinda starting to freak me out. I just started taking prenatals again 2 weeks ago but haven't noticed less bruising. What should I have the doc test me for besides iron deficiency?

[Toposlonoshlep]

Iron would be the main suspect for me. I would say with a biological predisposition to anemia (also in my family), you should be taking prenatals daily, along with Floradix. Floradix has literally changed my life. It beats elemental iron by a mile, is over 85% bio-available (the iron is spinach-derived), tastes pretty good, and it can even be given to kids (I gave it to my DS when he was 15 months to pull him out of anemia).

[KimPM]

Have you ever seen a hematologist? I would see one and get checked for any of a variety of bleeding disorders. I have one, so I know how it is. It can be random or constant. Please get it checked out, especially if you ever intend to have another child, or ever need surgery. Any iron deficiency would likely be due to the heavy blood loss, not the cause of the blood loss. Some bleeding disorders can be genetic, so your DS could have one too. Get him checked out too. It might be easier to get yours checked out first, if there's no immediate emergency for your DS. Because it'd be easier if you know what you're dealing with before getting him checked. This way it may require less blood, sticking, and testing for him.

Other things you can do in the meantime would be to eat more leafy greens and/or get some vitamin K2. If you're taking any kind of vitamin E, EPA, fish oil, or eating lots of fish -- stop. These are all things that make the platelets less sticky - therefore causing you to take longer to clot the blood. Also large amounts of supplemental vitamin A can do the same thing. There are also a few herbs that can aggravate bleeding conditions, so if you are taking any herbs, check the information on them to make sure they don't have that as a side effect. Oh, and of course any kind of aspirin or NSAIDS also make the platelets less sticky, so it's best not to take those either, until you get checked out. While it's not the world's best medication, Tylenol (acetaminophen) does NOT aggravate bleeding. Just so you know.
Edited by KimPM - 8/10/11 at 6:59am