OT: Iron Supplement for 2 year old

[Micka Mouse]

Hi everyone~ I need help with dd2's iron supplement. My ped. prescribes a daily vitamin for her (with flouride), but it doesn't come with an iron supplement, which she needs (pharmacy doesn't prescribe vitamins with iron at this age...why, I don't know ). I have tried mixing the iron in juice, applesauce, etc, but she absolutely hates the taste (it can't be mixed with dairy). I found ONE OTC (Flinstones with Iron) but it's for 4 and up. Centrum Kids is for 4 and up and contains aspartame. Does anyone have any ideas about what I can do? Is there another iron sup I can give (I have Rugby Ferrous Sulfate Elixir). I give her broccoli and spinach several times a week.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Shannon

 

[Hannathy]

Why does she need the extra iron? does she have a medical condition that prevents her from absorbing iron? You don't have to answer if this is personal but it is unusual for a child that young to NEED those extra vitamins and mineral. Vitamin makers don't add Iron to little children's vitamins because too much Iron is dangerous and deadly. You can over dose a baby on iron very easily. Has she had her levels tested regularly? All those supplements seem like overkill to me unless she has a medical condition. Is your water not fluoridated? If it is why the fluoride? If she is eating iron rich foods she should be getting all she needs.

If she doesn't have a medical need I's just feed her a balanced diet and forget it.

 

[Micka Mouse]

We don't have flouride in our water, so that's why it's in her vitamin. Her iron is tested regularly. She has low iron, so the ped recommends a supplement.

 

[krystalleigh1]

Iron can be very tricky. Like the pp said, it can be easily overdosed. But if your doctor recommended a supplement, and gave you the propor dosage than I guess you should do what he says. If he hasn't prescribed a vitamin with iron then I would ask for one. There are enough anemic kids out there I'm sure that there's one available.

I've heard a lot of good things about black strap molasses. You find it mainly in health food stores. It's molasses, and very molasses tasting-but maybe if you mixed that with something it would be easier for her to take than the iron supplements. It is high in iron. Also, I bet there are enough whole food type supplemnts, or foods that are high in iron that you could take instead of the supplements. Meats have a lot of iron. There are probablly lots of foods that she already likes that are high in iron.

 

[BrADmatt]

Our DS13 had low iron when he was an infant. The Dr recomended an Iron supplement. I remember we used something called SlowFE. It was liquid and we mixed it in with a drink. The only problem we ran into was the liquid version stains the teeth.

 

[shoegirl1020]

Try Whole Foods Supermarket. My son has iron induced anemia and wouldn't take the Flintstones. I went to Whole Foods and they had a bunch of different ones, plus, they will let you try them for free

 

[firsttimermd]

I wanted to add that frosted mini wheats has 90% of the recommended daily allowance for iron. My 14 month old loves them a little mushy. Maybe it would be of some value to give it a shot.

Best to you and your daughter.

 

[dahrjo]

DS6 needed iron supplements for a year or two when he was one year old because of an accident and he cut a main vein. The only way he would finally take it, was we got it flavored from the pharmacy at the office where we got his blood checked. They knew which flavor would work for the iron and how much to add. I don't remember what flavor we had, but there wasn't much choice as to what would go with it. But, he did take it after that.

 

[tonilea]

Iron is nasty and it stinks. The only way I could ever get the daily recommended allowance of iron (low iron levels) was with dry cereal.

I was also told that iron in greens needs to be followed with citrus for it to be well absorbed.

 

[Micka Mouse]

Thanks to all of your suggestions! We made a pizza tonight and added spinach. With the left over spinach, dh made a salad. When dd5 asked for salad, dd2 asked for it too. I only gave her a couple of spinach leaves, then continued eating. All of a sudden I heard "more". I looked over and saw that all of her RAW spinach was gone !!!!!!! Dh and I looked at each other in amazement . She probably wouldn't have even asked for it if dd5 didn't eat it.

Anyway...it just goes to show that no matter how many hoops you go through (or in my case, how many different ways to make spinach or broccoli)to please your child, they usually prefer the easiest method....freshly washed out of the bag (with a bit of dressing for flavor )