Low Iron (Toddlers)

Anyone had a little one with low iron? My doc wondered about it a while ago but we didn't follow it up. Elle seems to get tired so quickly e.g. can't stay up more than 3 hours at a time, or 2 hours lately in fact. She has dark circles around her eyes and looks quite pale recently too.

I will go to the doc for some tests but am also interested to hear your experiences e.g. what the symptoms were etc. I'm going to try liver for her dinner tonight and see how that goes. She is a very picky eater but I give her meat every 2nd night, generally homemade mixed with a can of pumpkin, beef and potato as that is something she really likes. It is very hard to get alternate sources of iron such as spinich or mushrooms into her but we do our best. We also follow every meal with fruit so she gets the vit c too.

(As an aside, she has been drinking her usual amount, if not more but her naps are all dry during the day. She was just in her nappy for 5 hours and I would guess there was only 1 wee in it.)

I mentioned it all to the doc the other day but she wasn't very helpful. Probably time make an appt with our family GP (rather than the local A&E one).

Do you think it would be ok to use the over the counter stuff until such time as we see the doc? We go to raro in a week and I know iron takes time to build up so I'd like to have all our bases covered...providing it is safe for Elle.

I give McKayla iron supplements with her vitamin syrup as well.

I started at a year. What you can do is to make her porridge with some formula. Have more iron in than cows milk. Also let her get some sort of Vit C in with the iron. helps with absorption. But I will go to the dr so you guys can check her iron levels before giving anything. (if you start giving stuff now you wont be able to see what her iron levels are at the moment.)

McKayla is really pale but so was I. She also have slight circles under the eyes but so did I. So we did check and she was fine earlier on. She didnt like meat as such but I gave her other food. Bake beans is also good for them. But now she ended up with a freaking geographical tounge plus she is a bit off food so we did the tests again on Thursday. Get results tomorrow and I am seriously petrified. (We didnt give iron this last couple of months as her eating was great.)

So we will see what her own iron levels is doing. I apparently was tested quite a lot as a child due to pale skin but was fine the whole time. Lets hope that is the case with McKayla.

BTW McKayla is overactive. So I will definately check your childs levels as she seems to be a bit lethargic. Hope you find a solution soon. Lots of hugs.

Some 1yos need that much sleep and it may be that she is coming down with a cold or something, hence the change ie needing a bit more sleep per day. Go ahead and get it checked out but I wouldn't worry too much in the interim.

Oh and if you give her supplements she doesn't need, her body will most likely flush it through the system

Cheers everyone. Great to get input and ideas. Am not worried as she is pretty chipper overall. Will see how she is tomorrow and go from there. Could just be lots of growing....3 weeks ago she was a baby...now she is a little girl!

Maya wrote: Incremin syrup is fine for babies, we used to give it to Maya coz her blood tests at 9 months came back borderline anaemic. Sounds like Elle is eating a fairly good, varied diet which is good. Is she having formula or cows milk? Coz follow-on/toddler formulas are iron enriched so might be a good option if she's not already on it.

Nope, she is still breastfed BUT today she only took 1 feed It's my fault as I usually give her one before her afternoon nap but she was really tired so I skipped it. She also has water and will drink juice but I don't offer it very often. I put soy or rice milk on her cereal and she has the odd drink of one of them too. She doesn't like cows milk. I could add some formula to her diet I guess, it just seemed redundant while we were breastfeeding 3 x per day. I think we are about ready to wean though.

I read that quite often low iron in children is due to poor iron absorbtion so it is quite important to get your littlies to eat fresh fruit as part of all their meals (i.e not just snacks) to improve how they absorb the iron in their meals. It's the vit C in fresh fruit that helps. Good luck