Low Iron and Anemia

Cream of wheat has very high iron! They told me to eat lots after I had my baby and was showing signs of anemia. Good luck.

I had this issue. My firstborn had anemia as a fully-breastfed baby. When I got pg with my second, I wanted a homebirth but I couldn't have one unless my iron levels shot up. If I had too low iron, I had to be in the hospital. I was getting desperate as all the "strong iron pills" I was taking wasn't working.

My friend does NAET treatment -http://www.naet.com/
and it turns out I was allergic to iron (thus deficient because I wasn't absorbing anything)

The treatment is completely non-invasive. It will appear "weird" but it works. They use muscle testing to determine what the problem is. Then you hold the vial of said substance causing the allergy (in this case iron) and you hold it for 20 minutes. Then you are supposed to AVOID it (touching or consuming anything with iron for 25 hours.) I did that when I was 8? months pg, treatment was on Friday.

Monday I went to the midwife to check my iron levels. It shot up. This was not a coincidence. I knew the treatment/clearing worked. The beautiful thing about NAET treatments when you are pg is that it also clears the baby of that problem.

WHen my daughter was checked at 9? months, her iron levels were HIGH! I was so happy.

My cousin had a large facial tumor on her face when she was 19. By 27 she has had numerous facial surgeries (and lots of post operative bleeding.) They removed part of her skull to rebuilt the bone on her cheek. She told me she had horrible anemia and a light went off in my head and I told her she had to see my local chiro that did NAET. She did. She had the surgery back home and she said it was the first time there wasn't a lot blood coming out of her nose. Wow. (By the way, the chiro told her she had the same problem I did, allergic thus deficient, so all the strong iron liquids and anything else she took didn't work. Duh.)

Use the website search engine to find practioners near you. Call them up and ask them for references for babies/families and treating them and ask if you can talk to them about their experiences for referrals.

You CAN take care of this.

Lara,

You may want to consider having her poop tested for blood. Food intolerances/allergies can cause "silent" bleeding in the intestine and can go undiagnosed for years unless the sufferer develops anemia (and even then it is often missed or misdiagnosed). My 2 year old is allergic to soy and intolerant to dairy (different immune reactions but the end result is the same - he can't eat anything with dairy or soy in it). If he eats a little of it, he gets green mucously poop (when he was younger he'd scream for days too), if he gets a moderate amount he'll have green slimy poop and diaper rash. A lot of it and he'll start having blood in his poop.

Most doctors are completely ignorant of food allergy/intolerance issues in babies or just don't believe they exist. Even our pediatric GI doctor wasn't a whole lot of help. It took a really strict elimination diet to figure out what the problem was with my son.

Or, if your doctor won't do the test or tells you it is a waste of time, cut dairy and soy out of her diet to see if it makes a difference. If she's formula fed, you can get hypoallergenic formula. If she's breastfed, you'll need to eliminate it from your diet too. It takes 3-4 weeks for dairy proteins to leave your system after you quit eating it, so you shouldn't expect improvement right away.

When a baby that young is anemic, my first thought is intestinal bleeding and food allerrgies/intolernaces should be ruled out before you go any further.

T.

Hi Lara,
We are going through this with my grandaughter also. Hers is a result of juvenille rhuematoid arthritis. They eat poorly when they have an outbreak and annemia is part of the disease. She is taking "poly-vi-sol" with iron and we are trying to get her to eat iron rich foods. We will not know the outcome until her next doctor appointment which is in a few days. I wanted to read your answers though to see what others say. We will deal with annemia every time she has an outbreak. Good luck with yours. Hope you find the answer quickly & a solutuion. C.

Homeopathy offers a number of remedies that may be helpful in treating anemia. In general, homeopaths may consider anemia as the result of some other underlying problem and will treat that cause. You can start giving her Tissue Salts (especially Calcarea phos 12X & Ferrum phos 12X). on empty stomach, no less than 20 min prior to feeding, ideally 3 times a day.
Good Luck
V

I've heard that cooking in a cast-iron pan is supposedly one of the best ways to get iron into a diet. If it's iron she needs, it might be worth a shot?

Hi! I know someone that was pregnant and went from a 4 to a 10 in a week. It was food herbs. If you are interested in more information let me know.

God bless!

J.

Does she breastfeed or take formula? Formula is usually iron fortified....for this reason.

Since she is on solids and per her age.. are you nursing/feeding her on demand, still? For the 1st year of life, a baby's PRIMARY source of nutrition is from breastmilk/formula... you should always nurse her or give her her formula, BEFORE solids... otherwise they will be to full to nurse afterward. Breastmilk/formula is STILL a very important "nutrient" at this age and for at least their first year of life. Don't rely on just "solids" to up her iron intake. AND, be sure you KNOW how much iron she should be having... you don't want to over-load her system.

I don't know about anemia, except that you should ask your Pediatrician about HOW you should be feeding her, and IF she should be having iron fortified formula, as a supplement.

AND, there are prescription "poly-vitamin" drops WITH iron, that a baby can take. BOTH my kids had this even throughout Toddler hood. Ask your Pediatrician about this vitamin supplement.

All the best,
Susan

I'll put her in my prayers tonight. I'm sure she'll be fine.
I hope someone else out there has gone through this and can help ease your fears.

Sandy

You should add foods that are high in Vitamin C as well, it helps iron to be processed by the body. Allergies to minerals are practically unheard of.

There are some genetic blood conditions which can cause anemia and most are easily treated . You didn't mention your baby's ethnicity so it's hard to say .

I hate to say stop making your own food , but for the time being I would stick to commercially made organic food like nature's best . These foods are made easier to digest and may enhance her iron levels .

Don't freak until you know what's wrong , easier said than done . Some things are so benign they aren't worth the panic. I hope you've got one of those worried for nothing cases!
J.

I'm not an expert on this but it seems that there is probably something about her digestive system that is causing her not absorb certain nutrients like she should. I have had a similar situation going on with my son where we were experiencing some signficant delays with him and consulted with a doctor who had some blood and urine panels ran on him and it turned out that he wasn't holding onto a number of key nutrients and minerals even through he was eating all of these "fortified" foods (my son was older than your daughter at that time and I have since learned what a fallacy "fortified" foods are) and he also had a significant intollerance issue to dairy. He also had issues with chronic diarrhea but I didn't know it at the time since I wasn't aware that, at his age, poops should be formed -- not soft and mushy. He had taken a lot of antibiotics for recurrent ear infections when he was younger so I think those antibiotics basically killed off all of the good bacteria in his digestive system in addition to the bad, and coupled with his dairy intollerance, really created a situation where he just hadn't been able to digest his food properly and get the nutrients he needed.

Anyway, under our doctors supervision, we have been giving him some megadose (dairy-free) probiotics, put him on a casein-free diet, and have started him on some specific supplements to help heal his intestines and replace what has been lost, and it has really made a difference for him and his development. Your daughter is so young that I'm sure that not all of this (or maybe none of this) applies to her but start taking a look at her poop and see if it is consistent with how a 7-month old should be pooping in terms of color, smell and consistency and talk to your doctor about it. As silly as it may sound, poop really does tell a lot about one's health.

I know that it is not easy to go through this but please don't let yourself get too worried about what this may all mean just yet. To the extent that you can, just deal with the facts and try not project too much on what it could possibly be which, if you are like me, may be the worse case scenario. I know that anemia for a baby sounds bad but it may be something that can be remedied by a simple tweak of her diet (or your diet if you are still breastfeeding).

I'll keep positive thoughts out there for you to receive positive news from your doctor soon. In the meantime, get the facts and get informed but try not to let your mind run wild with all of the worst case scenario possibilities out there. This may not be a big issue and it is always better to find out about particular health concerns earlier rather than later -- I'm sure that goes without saying.

Hang tough, try to have a good holiday weekend and, if you have any questions about what I have posted, feel free to e-mail me privately.

L.

I can't remember for sure, but I think it's vitamin A that makes iron accessible. You might want to read up on that and see if there's an interaction missing there for her. If she's low, you can get lots of A and super beneficial D from cod liver oil. You can mix it into her applesauce or something like that.

Did you have them check her blood (hematocrit) twice the same day? We had an abnormally low reading one time (9 like you) and freaked out, only to be told the next time that it must have been false. A lot depends on how they draw the blood. Hopefully it will all be fine on the major testing you did--sounds like your doc is very cautious.

I just read another post below on NAET. We did that too. It made amazing differences in several health issues for the kids. I highly recommend it also.

I went through this a few months ago with one of my twins (2 yrs old). It was a super scary 24 hrs & I was a mess, but thankfully for us everything was fine. I'll keep you guys in my prayers. Hopefully everything is a-ok.

I'm sure you already know this, but egg yolks and leafy dark greens are packed with iron. I used to be anemic and by eating an iron rich diet I changed it. I love making mashed potatoes with kale for my son and a one egg cheese omelette for breakfast each morning.-www.weelicious.com

My daughter had a similar problem. She had a dairy intolerance and basically the protein in the dairy was not being digested and was causing microperforations in herintestines. We took her off dairy and the iron came up. However, it was not until we removed soy also that she had a normal hematocrit. Thankfully it is something that she grew out of. Make sure that you have them ck for dairy AND soy. It was not until we saw an internist that we realized that soy was also an issue.

-M.

I am ofcourse a lot older having raised for chindren but when I was diagnoised with this a few years ago . my doctor gave me injections of arithropoitin <epo> it woeked for me good luck Happy, healthy

This also happened to me because I followed my docs orders to only breastfeed for the first 6 months (no solid food). Once my daughter started to get more solid foods her count went up. Keep giving her the cereal and any iron rich foods you can find, mush up, and your daughter will actually eat. Her count went up and she continued to be a healthy baby.

Foods high in iron:

Apricots: This fruit ranks immediately behind liver as a source of iron. Apricots should be a regular item on your shop¬ping list because they can do much to build and replenish your blood supply.

Beet greens: A very valuable food! Beet greens are an extraordinary source of vitamins A and B-2. Beet greens are also of great value in enriching your blood with iron and manganese.

Chard: This too little used vegetable is an excellent source of Vitamin A and iron.

Corn: Rich in iron and copper, it is a good source of vitamins A and C.

Eggs: Its protein content equals that of organ meats. Eggs are rich in all minerals, including iron, and B vitamins. Eggs are good breakfast food, containing stable amounts of energy. Hard boiled eggs are easily digested. One egg a day is a minimal amount of this precious food.

Figs: Good laxative quality, rich in iron and B Vitamins. Figs are excellent substitutes for unnatural sweets.

Kale: Is and excellent source of Vitamin A and provides a good supply of vitamins B and C. Kale contains high amounts of iron, calcium and potassium. Eat kale twice a week at the very least.

Molasses: Provide and excellent source of iron and therefore are a must food in the diet of anyone with iron deficiency anemia. Molasses should be substituted for sugar and candy.

Raisins: Another excellent food for those suffering from anemia, raisins are very high in iron. Raisins are also highly alkaline foods, making them helpful in overcoming acid conditions.

Spinach: This super food is an excellent source of Vitamin A and iron. Spinach should be a regular part of everyone’s diet and may be served lightly steamed as a vegetable, raw in salads or mixed with other cooked vegetables or eggs.

Recipe for “Blood Building Salad”:

Spinach

Raisins

Prunes

Avocado

Carrot

Hard boiled eggs

For more healthy living tips visit http://www.healthylivingtip.com and don't forget to claim your FREE Gift.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aura_Kregloh

THere are different types of anemia out there. Not just Iron Deficient anemia which is why you probably didn't see her numbers go up, but down. I am an expert on this since I'm a doctor and we see this in our office all the time. You have to determine what type of anmeia it is and what's causing it. For more info please visit: www.LiveHealthWise.com

Dr. Mark & V.