Iron deficiency in young children
By toosh21
@toosh21 (800)
Australia
July 15, 2009 6:13pm CST
Does anyone else here have a young child with an iron deficiency?
My 2 1/2 year old was diagnosed with a severe iron deficiency 2 days ago and is now on a prescription iron supplement for it. I am a little stressed about it to be honest, I have done some research to find out what it means and it does explain some things for us - for starters he is very pale & has black rings under his eyes (this is why we took him to the doctor in the first place), he has also become rather sooky and lethargic which is very unlike him, also he has gone backwards badly with his toileting - he was pretty much completely trained with a few accidents here and there and now he will quite happily just go in his pants because he has become lazy about it.
We have to take him back for a review in 3 months to see if his iron levels have improved, but I am scared. The doctor said usually it is dietary but I explained how well he has always eaten and that ruled that reason out - although in the last 3-4 weeks he has gone off meat a bit, but he has been having symptoms of the deficiency for longer than that. I am feeling awful about it as I should have picked it up sooner as I was looking through photos the day he was diagnosed & he has been pale with the dark rings under his eyes for a lot longer than we realised, and the only reason we took him to the doc is because he vomited out of the blue & we noticed how pale he was.
Does anyone have the same problem with any of their children & have any advice for me? My son eats a lot of vitamin C enriched foods (like berries, oranges, etc) and also a lot of iron rich foods so he should absorb the iron quite easily. Is there anything else I should be doing, or anything I should watch out for? I know he can become constipated from the supplement and the doctor has told me to lower the dose slightly if that happens as we are to slowly increase his dose from 3ml to 5ml daily.
Thanks and sorry this is so long!
1 person likes this
2 responses
@tdemex (3540)
• United States
15 Jul 09
You didn't say what the Dr. told you or I didn't see it. I'm not going to say don't worry, but I'm 61yrs. old and as a child I suffered the same thing! this was back in 1952 or 1953 then they gave mom an oral liquid for me to take twice a day like cough syrup, it tasted nasty! LOL! After may be 3 or 4 months it went away, I'm sure after all these years they have a much better handle on this! Keep your chin up! Good Luck and try not to worry Mom! 
tdemex One more thing eat liver!1 person likes this
@toosh21 (800)
• Australia
15 Jul 09
Hi, and thanks for your response! About the eating liver - I wouldn't eat it so I won't make my kids, lol, although I have tried it before as a child.
The doctor didn't say much other than he has to have the oral liquid once daily and slowly increased from 3ml to 5ml. He has to go back and have his levels checked again in 3 months, but his deficiency is quite severe and he will probably have to be on the supplement for at least 12 months. He did say that my boy should be back to his normal self or better in 2-3 weeks, so I guess if there is no change after 4 weeks I will take him back to see what's happening.
1 person likes this
@tdemex (3540)
• United States
15 Jul 09
Well that seems positive! About the liver, I hated it too til I went to a small cafe one time and had it because it was the blue plate special! I accually loved it! I went and asked the gal cooking how she made it. The trick was she fried onions in butter first and got them soft then she dipped the liver in beaten eggs and dredged it in flour, and fried it in bacon greese with the onions. I do it that way now, plus I make mashed potatoes, I boil the potatoes and add a couple of table spoons of minced onion in the water when I mash them i add butter and sour cream salt and pepper, so liver and onions, mashed potatoes, and frozen corn, plus biscuits, It's great! tdemex1 person likes this
@gingerale (225)
• Philippines
21 Jul 09
Hi fellow mom!. Is your child still drinking his milk? Does he eat green leafy vegetables? This is what my pediatric doctor advised me for my child, who is now a teenager. She used to be iron deficient probably because I stopped giving her milk. I myself is anemic, so I had to take iron supplement when I carried her in my womb. By the way, here in our country we are fond of eating horse radish, it's name is the native malunggay leaves, which we put in chicken soup with lemon grass. It tastes good and the malunggay leaves have an iron content, which is also good for children. You may try it with your chicken soup. It's healthy. Not only that it contains iron. It also has calcium in it that is good for the bones. I hope your kid will be alright.
1 person likes this
@toosh21 (800)
• Australia
22 Jul 09
Hello! My son drinks plenty of milk and loves his green leafy vegetables - we have been very lucky with both of our kids as they eat very well. He is on a daily iron supplement liquid and still eating well. I didn't think of using horse radish, I will give it a try - thanks!
