Iron levels and blood test results

[Eravell123]

Hi all,

My baby is 10 months. At 7 months her bloods showed low haemoglobin and low iron (flagged below range). Consultant advised focusing on diet.

At that point she was barely on solids and mostly milk-fed, so I’m not convinced diet alone would have corrected it. She’s formula-fed (about 20oz/day) and eats some solids but not loads.

I requested the results myself as I still have concerns about appetite and sleep, and can see the levels were definitely below the lab range.

Would you:
– Push GP for iron drops?
– Ask for repeat bloods?
– Or assume it’s sorted itself?

Has anyone seen a noticeable difference after supplementing at this age?

Thanks 😊

The IGA is very low - I’d ask for a coeliac genetic blood test as well as referral to gastroenterology - low iron etc and low iga points to undiagnosed coeliac disease and possibly also ulcerative colitis/crohns so they need referring. DONT let them do the test that you feed them lots of gluten over ) weeks as it’s well known to be faulty and has
a high false negative result especially in children which is why so many of us ended up not diagnosed until we are adults and have something else. Also get yourself the same test as it’s passed on from the mother.

Hello. Thanks so much for responding. Funnily enough they tested for this. The result was “diagnosis of coeliac disease, however, if the clinical suspicion is very high suggest small bowel biopsy. Serology will become negative once the patient is on gluten-free diet and false negatives occur in complete IgA deficiency.” What does this mean?

total IgA isn't low here, just the TTG specific IgA (which I don't think can be too low). The phenomenon of low total IgA leading to false negative testing for celiac is real, though generally this means IgG is tested on the same sample when low total IgA is flagged. Or did I miss something.

From a Bayesian point of view, celiac disease in children of this age is very uncommon and mild iron deficiency that eventually self-corrects is very very common. So you have to factor that in. Re-supplementation and a retest would seem like a fairly benign thing to do? Obviously depends on what else is going on, they have put clinical info as "faltering growth" so is this a concern?

Thanks. She does have faltering growth. She just has no appetite. It’s so stressful forcing her to drink/eat every day.

Definitely ask the doctor again about the coeliac. My daughter has it and had low iron, stunted growth etc from a very young age. She was also very resistant to solids and when diagnosed the consultant explained that milk is absorbed in a different way to solids and so this was common.

ok thanks. Did she have any other symptoms? My LG is absolutely fine with gluten as far as I know. She’s so happy, no sickness or bad tummy, it’s just the lack of appetite

She got bad constipation as we introduced solids and her hair looked quite thin.