Thought we were coming out of the woods, now he's iron deficient!!!

[smoggie]

Sorry, I don't get chance to post much on here, but I do lurk a lot and have done for a while. I just wanted to have a little moan if that's OK?
DH1 was allergic to gluten (6months discovered when weaning from breast), he grew out of this but was also allergic to egg and nuts. Recently discovered allergic to celery too, but his egg allergy is on the wane so swings and roundabouts really. All in all, positive news in terms of management as celery is easier to avoid than egg.
Anyway, last paeds appt I mentioned that he gets lots of mouth ulcers, so they took bloods and we've just got the results - he's iron deficient. Apparently in atopic children it's not uncommon.
I just feel so peed off. It sounds pathetic as he can have some iron supplements and hopefully with diet we can keep his levels up, but I am just so worn out with constantly having to think about this.
I thought I was providing such a balanced, healthy diet with ALL homecooked nutritious foods. I just feel so totally demoralised and angry too. I know I shouldn't feel like this but i see people stuffing all sorts of crap into children and here I am actually painstakingly preparing, cooking and looking after his diet yet it's just not enough.

I'm sorry to sound so pathetic but I'm sitting here crying as I feel so sorry for dh1 and I'm just wondering how on earth I get him to take rank iron supplements, how I pursuade him to have his blood re-taken in 3 months as it was horrendous this time and how to try to add in iron to his existing diet.
I think I need to increase things like stews with red meat, steaks, spinach (yeah right!), liver, pulses etc?
Does anyone else have to monitor this and do you have any tips for hiding iron in children's foods please? Thank you for reading and apologies again for feeling so sorry for myself.

[clarevoiant]

Hi,

Try not to stress over the iron deficiency. we discovered ds was iron deficient when he started having breath holding spells.

The suppliment we had was a liquid, that while it looked and smelt rather offputtingly of liquid rust, its quite a sweet syrup and we had no trouble giving him his 'big boy syrup' twice a day for 3 months to bring his levels back up.

There's loads of stuff that has high iron. dates are particularly good snack food.
I printed off some recipes from here for meals.

Dont forget to give vitamin c (juice etc) this this helps the body absorb the iron. also milk hinders the body from absorbing iron so stick to the recommended amount.

Hope this helps.

[smoggie]

Thank you! I'll have a look at that site. The syrup sounds almost bearable - thank you for putting my mind at rest that a child might actually take this medicine!
I had a quick google and noticed the point about taking with orange juice, so thats a good tip thank you.

[clarevoiant]

if you get the syrup, dont forget to shake it. we gave ds just the clear syrup for a week oops

[milkshake]

hi how old is you lo?

when i was pregnant i used "spatone" it is sachets of iron rich water and you mix it with fresh OJ........tastes fine! It can be used for kids from age 2+ i think, but if your lo is younger then maybe speak to your doc and see what they think about using half a dose or something??

It worked wonders for me when i was anemic and really helped loads, i highly recomend them!

Also you probably know this but the body needs vitamin C to absorb iron, so plenty Vitamin C rich foods along with the iron rich ones should help!

Ps my son (9months) is allergic to certain foods, and i just want to give u a hug cos i know how stressfull it can b xxxxxx

[milkshake]

sorry didnt realise clarevoiant had said about the Vit C

[jamjac]

My ds (5) has coeliacs - gluten intolerence that he will not grow out of. Coeliacs often don't absorb iron well & ds has regular blood tests to check iron levels. I guess he is on an iron supplement about 50% of the time (usually autumn / winter). He takes it really well - I told him it was his special medicine from early on & fortunately for me it worked!!

To be honest, blood tests were a nightmare until quite recently - he used to fight to escape & I felt so awful holding him down - but he was fine about it the last couple of times.

I really understand what you mean about people feeding their children rubbish yet good home cooked stuff not being enough for ours. Gutting. Have you seen a nutritionalist? I feed ds lots of mince, (spag bol, cottage pie etc) cooked ham, brocoli, steak, stews with spinach "hidden" in them, peas etc on advice from his nutritionalist - can't think what else but will think harder if that will help!! Some cereals have added iron too.

Don't feel pathetic or that you are just feeling sorry for yourself. It is hard to think about every single thing your child eats - wears me down sometimes. And makes me feel guilty & angry. No need to apologise!!!

[tkband3]

To hide spinach, I make a tomato sauce for pasta with whatever veg I happen to have, braised in a little butter and oil (usually courgettes, onions and mushrooms) then add tinned tomatoes and handfuls of spinach. Then I whizz it all up with a hand blender. You can serve this on its own with pasta or add mince to it to make bolognaise. My DD1 doesn't eat vegetables (she is coeliac) but she loves spag bol and doesn't know that she's getting lots of veggies when she eats it .

[hobnob57]

Sorry to hijak Smoggie, but tkandb and jamjam how and when did you get a coeliac diagnosis? My dd is 10 mths and gluten intolerant and I'm quaking in my boots about having to give her gluten for x weeks if I want a coeliac diagnosis. going to docs tomorrow to ask about this.

Smoggie - perhaps the iron deficiency is just due to low absorption from perhaps a little residual gluten intolerance? Definitely nothing to do with your monumental efforts with food. I know how exhausting all this can be (just been cooking and faffing with pots all day....). It's almost enough to be a contraceptive!

[jamjac]

Hobnob - My ds was 18 mths when diagonsed. He'd been fine then suddenly got really lethargic & had hideous vomitting & diaorreha. He got so ill he wouldn't even walk. He had blood tests at a paeds clinic which indicated coeliacs but had to then feed him gluten for 6 weeks prior to biospy of his intensine to get coeliacs confirmed. Have to confess that feeding him gluten when I knew it was "poisoning" him was AWFUL, but looking back it was the right thing to do. Having the diagonsis gives us regular check ups with a fab consultant & nutritionalist (when we need her) and bread, pasta, biscuits, flour etc on prescription. He got so much better after a few weeks on a gluten free diet so I can understand the temptation not to put your dd through more gluten but I promise it's worth it, hard as it is. Sam is so good about not eating anything with gluten in it (he's 5 now) and I'm sure that an early diagnosis has really helped - that's just now his life is & he's used to it. Bless him.

Good luck with your dr tomorrow.

[tatt]

moans are partly what this section is here for . Anyone dealing with a medical problem sometimes needs to sound off to those who know what its like.

If you look on the special needs section you'll find information about digestive enzymes that may help if there is some residual problem with gluten.

Is your son having "magic cream" before his bloods? It isn't actually that brilliant for everyone but its better than nothing. They do get more resigned to it as they get older.

[tkband3]

I had no idea what was wrong with my DD, but just knew something was, pretty much from the point we introduced gluten at 6 months. But it was only after 6 months or so of continuous vomiting and constant viruses that a doctor finally took any notice of me - and the fact that she hadn't gained any weight for a year - and referred us (she was 2.8 at this point). To be honest, I was so scared that she might have something more frightening wrong with her, that when we found out it was coeliac, I was almost relieved - I wasn't simply a neurotic mother and it was something that was relatively easily managed. We hadn't started a gluten-free diet, but the 6 week or so period between the positive blood test result and the biopsy was pretty hard, although she seemed to go into remission and stopped vomiting, right up until 3 days beforehand. We were given the confirmed diagnosis the same day and went gluten-free the next. Within 2 weeks she was a changed child - she had energy, she ate well and she had some colour in her cheeks. She gained 3kg in the first year - 30% of her body weight! - and grew 11cm.

In order to get a meaningful diagnosis, Coeliac UK recommend that you eat a normal diet for 6 weeks prior to testing - as jamjac says, it's horrid to feed your child food that you know is not good for them, but it is worth it in the long run. Good luck.

[jamjac]

tkband3 - Before we got an inkling it could be coeliacs I thought my ds was going to die. Scary, isn't it?

[tkband3]

jamjac - yes v. scarey. But I now thank my lucky stars that staying gluten free is so (relatively) easy, compared to all the other, far more difficult, allergies and intolerances other parents on here have to deal with.

smoggie - hope you are feeling better today.

hobnob - how did it go at the doc's?

[jamjac]

tkband3 - oh yes, now he's fine i'm also thankful it's pretty straightforward to be gluten free and that a stray bit of gluten would be horrid for him but not life threatening.

hobnob - how did the drs appt go??

smoggie - have you tried out the iron yet?

[hobnob57]

Thanks for your your info - it's a scary thing. Having colour in cheeks really rang bells with me - dd has always looked grey (but saying that I've been gluten-free since May, except for soy sauce and Tesco balsamic vinegar which I didn't cotton on to until last week - not sure they do make a difference, but she hasn't been totally 'normal' for a while and I have them in my spag bols, etc. Now got GF varieties.).

The doctor thinks that at her age there is so much gut maturation going on that it is possible she'll grow out of this intolerance (not the impression I get from coeliac society, but hey). He advised introducing gluten into her diet once I stop BF in a couple of months when she's a year old and taking it from there. He seemed to be saying that 12-18 months is the time to really sit up and take notice if symptoms haven't disappeared. If that's the case, then I'm on summer hols when she's 18 months and can better cope with 6 weeks of sleepless nights if need be!