Low Iron - suggestions please!

I have just got my 28 week bloods back and yet again as I was with Ben I have low iron (12). I have been on 60mg of iron for months and this is making no difference.

The mw suggested nothing, just to "keep an eye on it" ( very helpful) but I am feeling knackered and falling asleep at 1 when Ben has his nap.

So has anyone else had this and did you find anything helped, natural remedies etc, I can't take any more iron tablets my body is just not absorbing the iron I guess and yes I take the tablets with orange juice in the morning as I've been told the vitamin c helps absorb it!?

Thanks ladies I can't handle th next 2 months being this tired!!!

You can get iron injections.. but I've never tried that. I had really low iron when I was preggers (got as low as 4). Liquid iron is absorbed faster and better than pills so maybe try that. You can get higher doses too. The liquid one I have is 80mg, and you take that twice a day. So that's a fair bit higher than your 60mg. And liquid is less likely to make you constipated too.

yeah my ferrograd C has 105mg per tablet..has really helped me(i had level of 8 ) and i eat a lot of red meat..so i think i may try eating more veges(i eat a lot of fruit an dont so much veges) for me it seems to have helped having ferrograd C. (made me much less tired)

The other thing that effects your tiredness etc is B12. You don't have to eat tons of red meat to maintain good levels of iron (I haven't eaten meat of any kind since I was a toddler). But pregnancy also lowers your B12 reserves a lot. You can get B12 "dots" from health shops that have 500mcg of B12 in them and its about $20, and after taking them for about 5 days it really increases your alertness and wakefulness alot. So that maybe something you wanna try as well. B12 is something you can only get from meat which sucks for me so I'm permanently on B12 supplements.

I'm taking Ferrogradumet a prescription from the Pharmacy. Taking with OJ has definitely helped for me I think.
My midwife said if I found them too harsh to switch to a the Healtheries Iron/Vit C one as 2 of those contain the same amount as 1 of the prescription.
I'm still taking Elevit as well as I figured both me and the bubbies needed the extra energy boost

Other than that I would say having red meat every day might help a lot also.

Black Liquorice!! Also when you have dinner if you have your lean meat, have capsicum or brocolli with it, which are the veges that have the highest amount of vit c, this will help you absorb the iron!
Stop drinking tea if you can, especially with meals as it wastes the iron away!
Good luck!

Yeah it does, what damage could that do though, sugar is the biggest enemy, she only wants some energy.

Yeah, I've been taking Floradix formula as well as my Ferrograd-Folic which was prescribed to me...

You'd think that with all that I'd have perfect iron... Well, no such luck there... I've been taking Floradix from Day One, and the Ferrograd for the last 3 months... And my iron levels just keep dropping.

So sorry I can't be of much help... But all this advise from others is good!

Thanks ladies very helpful suggestions