8 mo with anaemia?

[titchy77]

I have an 8 mo boy who recently went for blood tests as he is extremely pale but fine in himself. The results showed he had a hb of 7.3 and netrophil count of 1.3. The doctor refered him to hospital where he was kept overnight. They have said he is failing to thrive (weighs 15lb 5oz and has dropped to the 2nd centile. He was born a month early and weighed only 4lb 10. The doctor has said that she thinks its iron deficiency but he eats 3 meals a day which I make myself and is breastfed. They have taken lots of bloods which I will get the results on Thurs. Just wondering if anyone know's why he could be so anaemic and why his neutrophil count is low?
He has been started on sytron also. Thanks

Hi
My daughters baby was born 3 weeks early at 4 and half pounds - also placental insufficiency so was a bit of a tweeny. he was diagnosed at 6 months with anaemia, Hb of 6.5 So was extremely pale and tired all the time. My daughter had breastfed exclusively up to that time as per HV advice. It turned out that his iron stores were just not sufficient to get him to the 6 month point when the stores (in the liver, I think) normally run out. That is why they say solid feeding at 6 months. He had iron supplement for 6 months (it takes that long to Hb to become normal) absolutely hated it, traumatic getting it down - awful. Also started solids, but is rubbish feeder but managed to get Hb up to 12 ish by a year, stopped iron syrup, but struggle like mad to get iron rich food into him. still below lowest centile on weight scale but only just and following steady line. iron in food better absorbed than medicine, so dont worry and look into iron rich diet. im sure he will be fine and lack of stores, which baby calls on in first 6 months was low to start with. hope this helps.

Thanks for replying, does make me feel a bit better, was worrying that it was something more serious, he hates the iron syrup too but does eat really well. Just brought some iron rich foods for him!