babyjiva
1st baby
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- Mar 8, 2010
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so my daughter got tested at her yearly physical and her iron levels came back very low. this is for several different reasons so none of us were shocked.
1st she has allergies to grains and can't eat most iron fortified cereals
2nd we're vegetarians
3rd she has a dairy allergy so is not on iron fortified formula
4th most babies after 6 months need more iron than just what is in the breast milk (and she's breastfed)
so there is some danger in breast feeding too much after all or there can be. in our case I think if she would eat more iron rich foods and breast feed less we could correct this problem without supplements (which I understand are not the best choice) but she's nursing so much I am struggling to get the right amount of iron in her diet. any suggestions? right now i am giving her a smoothie a day that has 10mg of iron in it.
the other possibility is that she does not have low iron at all but has thalassemia minor ( a hereditary condition my husband has). this looks like low iron in tests and is often confused with low iron if there is not extra testing done). if she has it and in fact has an okay iron level then the supplements will cause iron overload which leads to death.
i'm kind of stressed about what to do.
1st she has allergies to grains and can't eat most iron fortified cereals
2nd we're vegetarians
3rd she has a dairy allergy so is not on iron fortified formula
4th most babies after 6 months need more iron than just what is in the breast milk (and she's breastfed)
so there is some danger in breast feeding too much after all or there can be. in our case I think if she would eat more iron rich foods and breast feed less we could correct this problem without supplements (which I understand are not the best choice) but she's nursing so much I am struggling to get the right amount of iron in her diet. any suggestions? right now i am giving her a smoothie a day that has 10mg of iron in it.
the other possibility is that she does not have low iron at all but has thalassemia minor ( a hereditary condition my husband has). this looks like low iron in tests and is often confused with low iron if there is not extra testing done). if she has it and in fact has an okay iron level then the supplements will cause iron overload which leads to death.
i'm kind of stressed about what to do.