10 year old with hemloglobin level of 6.5

[pog1]

Hello
My son has Aspergers and a very restricted diet. He had a blood test recently and has been prescribed Iron and a retest booked for April as his hemloglobin level is only 6.5 and apparently should be between 11 and 28.
It's difficult introducing him to new foods so I'm not sure how I am going to get his iron levels up long term. Anyone else been in this situation? And have your children shown any symptoms?

Will he take pills?

Ferrous sulphate taken with orange juice or an orange.

You need to be careful with iron pills though. I assume he's a teen?

Caffeine, grains all inhibit iron absorption. Vitamin c increases absorption.

Protein has lots of iron - pulses, red meat, dark white meat, fish, spinach, leafy veg, black molasses

Try spatone from boots. Put in Orange juice cannot taste. Very easily absorbed, does not cause poo problems. Iron tablets absorption is about 30% I think.

Seek GP advice for iron pills. Ferrous sulphate is a bad idea for small kids

He takes melatonin to help him sleep. Low dose. Not sure if he will take the iron. I'm still waiting for the prescription from the paediatrician. He is just 10. He won't eat any veg or meat but does eat fruit and drinks carrot juice. That's the closest to a vegetable! We went to Great Ormond Street feeding clinic but no quick solutions to the selective eating. Thank you all for your responses. It's pretty worrying.

Another vote for Spatone. Its a pretty low dose, so may not be enough, but it is easy to hide in juice and doesn't have side effects.

Calcium is also an iron absorption inhibitor so dairy alongside iron source is a bad idea.

Something like spatone might be good.

Better to have lower dose of quality absorbable iron than a poor quality high dose.

Those iron tabs from the gp are so crap most of the iron is not absorbed and so causes various gastric complaints.

I developed IBS as a teen from taking these tablets for terrible anaemia.

Black liquorice is a good one but he might not like the strong flavour (plus loads of sugar)

Spartone in the carrot juice. It's very low iron though and something more powerful might be better.

Thank you all for the advice. I will let you know what the prescription is when it arrives. Spatone or flurodix does sound good though.