Anaemic 6 month old

[Janers]

Long story short.. our 6 month old exclusively breastfed baby is anaemic. Her levels were at 51, when they should have been over 100.

So after being to pediatric emergency, and after an appointment with a hematologist we are now giving her iron supplements.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? The Hematologist can't figure out why she is anaemic, and we will continue to see her, but she is responding well to the iron supplement, so we have to continue giving it to her.

The iron supplement tastes AWFUL, she hates taking it and I hate making her take it. I'm hoping someone out there has figured out a way to do this that does not involve tears. We are doing baby led weaning, and she has started munching on cucumbers, watermelon, carrots and a few other things. She will not take a bottle, so I can't add it to a bottle.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[star1]

Firstly, hugs. It must be hard for you but at least they've found it early and it's relatively easy to fix

Could you try making a smoothie for her and hiding the supplement in that? If that doesn't work I would try a yoghurt - spoon feed her the first few mouthfuls with supplement then let her feed herself anything more. Just check the taste of things first to see what food masks it best x

 

[Janers]

Thanks for the kind words, what really helped was seeing how much happier my LO was once we started the supplements, less crying, more smiles

That's what I was thinking of doing, I know spoon feeding doesn't fall into the baby led weaning category, but I will sacrifice that if it makes taking these supplements easier.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Sproglet]

Do you know if you were anaemic before/during/after pregnancy? Just thinking, babies normally have iron stores to last them 6 months. But baby would have taken the stores from you, so if you had low iron stores you might not have passed enough iron to baby?

Or would an anaemic mum have less iron in her milk?

Just wondering because I have suffered with anaemia on and off over the past couple of years. I had no iron stores during pregnancy and needed supplements, and think I may be anaemic again but haven't the energy to go to the docs! Obviously if I thought it was affecting Robyn then I'd go!

 

[Janers]

I have never been anaemic, this really came as a surprise.

We discussed that possibility with the hematologist, I almost wish that was the answer, just so we would know what caused it.