Ex preemie always pale?

[Littlegemx]

Hi lovelies,
My twins are currently 5 months old (3 months corrected) born at 30 weeks. Bit of a backstory, since discharge from nicu they’ve been in and out of hospital with consistent signs of respiratory distress. Twin 1 is worse for it so consistent everyday nostril flaring, rescissions at the neck and ribs, sleeping more etc. whereas twin 2 only shows signs when he has a cold/bronchiolitis or some type of respiratory infection.

Twin 1 is very pale. Twin 2 is not. When discharged from nicu they were both given abidec (multivitamins) and iron to come home on. We’ve seen the paediatrician once since discharge and he mentioned how pale she was compared to her brother. I explained how they were both sent home on iron but how I had to stop giving it to them as it made them extremely constipated especially twin 1 to the point she would scream in pain as she couldn’t open her bowels properly. He said he would schedule a blood test but all he was going to recommend if it did come back that she was low on iron was to start giving her the iron again.

Im worried that because I’ve stopped giving her the iron that I’ve caused all these potential problems for her and it’s safe to say that my mum guilt has officially taken over. So I’ve started giving her the dose of iron that she was sent home on once a day to see if that helps. However in her time at home since discharge we’ve tried Movical to help with bowel movements but it’s not helped at all. I suppose my reasoning for the post is to find out if anyone else has been through something similar and if so what was the reason your child showed signs of respiratory distress along side the paleness.

again sorry for such a long post and thankyou if you got this far, will be contact the paediatrician tomorrow to find out what we can do.

Hey,

My DS is a 31 week ex preemie. He was sent home with abidec and iron and was exclusively breastfed. I couldn't get him to take the iron because he was breastfed and wouldn't take a bottle or it off a spoon and I naively thought that because he was breastfed, he was receiving everything he needed and so I didn't concern myself about giving it. What wasn't explained to me was preemies can't absorb iron especially breastfed babies.
During one of his check ups with the NICU consultant (around 9 months) he commented that he was very pale and organised a same day blood test which came back that he was severely anaemic and was admitted for a blood transfusion. I felt absolutely awful and so so guilty. We were referred to a dietician and he had an iron rich diet.
He's 7 now and it has no negative impact on him: he's extremely bright, very clever and full of energy.
Please don't beat yourself up, speak with your doctor about the blood test and go from there and in the meantime keep pushing iron rich foods. PM me if you want to talk about it

Sorry just saw she's 5 months, obviously ignore what I said about pushing iron rich foods until she's on solids