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Cousin's toddler has low iron, advice?

408 Views 1 Reply 2 Participants Last post by  Anastasiya
x-posted in health and healing and nutrition

First let me say I tend to be a worry wart. Okay, now, my cousin's toddler's doctor has said her blood has low iron. He prescribed iron drops. The toddler is a little girl who is almost 2. She hasn't been breastfed, she is on whole milk, not formula, and from my experiences of watching her (three times now, yay!) she eats quite healthily. Much more than my own toddler girl who is just a few months older.

However, she has been passed around between family members and hasn't had a primary caregiver for any length of time. I've been told she hasn't been fed well. Lots of milk and cheese. I'm not sure the truth of this as I haven't been there, yk? She ate a good variety of foods when she was at my house alongside milk and cheese (which she did specifically ask for). Prunes, craisins, cheerios, beans, applesauce, orange slices, to name a few.

I worry about her taking the supplement. Should I? I've read that iron overdose is the number 1 poisoning death in children. Is this true? I worry because I know she's being passed around and I don't know if there is good communication. What if more than one person is giving it? Or what if only one person is giving it and they aren't changing her diet?

I want to print off some good info about iron for them. Any sources? I'd like for them to not use the supplement and feed her iron rich foods instead, but she isn't my baby and I really have no control and very little say in this. I'm thinking printing off info should be pretty non-confrontational, yk? She has been having constipation since she's been on the drops and the doctor's advice is cut out all dairy besides milk and give her very little milk.

Any advice? Would you say something?
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Check this out. http://www.articlesbase.com/suppleme...ds-111587.html

I cook in a cast iron skillet now, esp for DS2 who is a bit anemic.

Calcium inhibits iron absorption - so that's probably why the doc told her to lay off the milk and cheese.

If you read this article, it explains the difference between heme and non-heme sources of iron - they absorb differently. Non-heme iron absorbs better when taken with Vit C rich foods.
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