DS just had his 12 month WBV. He is breastfeed, no cow's milk, and on solids.They did a finger stick for a hemoglobin count and it came back 10.4. Doctor said 10.5 is where she would set the cutoff and prescribed a liquid iron supplement, and plans on rechecking his hemoglobin at 15 months. She said if it's back up after taking the supplement for those three months she'll need to rule out an underlying cause.
First, I'm uncertain about the supplement. It tastes awful (I could taste it through food and juice) and I imagine it will be a struggle to get DS to take it. Moreover, I know it can cause constipation. I guess with it so borderline I'm looking for reasons to just stick to iron-rich foods. I noticed that the nurse really squeezed his finger several times to get enough of a sample and I read in passing that this causes more serum in the blood and a lower reading?
However, I am also really worried because DS is a fantastic solids eater. He eats an egg yolk and either beef, fish or chicken thighs every day. On the days that I work he gets a jar of 3rd stage food which has iron. For the last week before his visit I made up a giant batch of ditilani with spinach and chicken thighs and he's been eating it every day. He eats Cheerios every time he's in the car 
. We also delayed cord cutting at birth until it stopped pulsing. So even if he is on the negligible side of low, I'm baffled as to why he would be on the low end at all.
So I'm torn, part of me wants to not supplement because it's so near the cutoff and because of the drawbacks of iron supplements, but part of me is worried that maybe something else is going on that is giving him low hemoglobin even while eating tons of iron-rich solids, and I need to give him the supplements to see if there's a difference in three months (i.e., it will indicate something more serious that we can catch early).
WWYD?
Edited to add: He was small at birth, 5#7oz (but I'm really small) and had breastmilk jaundice for two months.
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