Severe anaemia in a child

[mumtosnchild]

My daughter (age 10) is very pale and is losing weight and has recently been diagnosed with severe anaemia. Her HB is 7.7 and her Ferritin is 2. She has been put on iron supplements which she has been taking for 3 weeks now and has been referred to the hospital.

Has anyone had similar and how long did it take to get the iron levels back up?

Has the underlying cause of your daughter's anemia been diagnosed? The iron will get her hgb up slowly; there might be an option for an iron infusion or blood transfusion to get it up fasteran infusion would have her feeling better in about a month. 7.7 is very low, but you know thisyou really need to know why it has gotten to this point. There are lots of possible reasons, from poor diet to inflammatory bowel disease or coeliacs or other casues. If she has her period already and they are heavy, this can contribute too. If she is losing blood from somewhere, supplements will only do so much good.

I am told it is iron deficiency anaemia. Another set of blood tests were taken last week and am awaiting the results of those. It is possible they will do an iron infusion depending on the results. They will be doing a number of tests which we are waiting on appointments for including looking at IBD etc

She had bowel surgery as a baby so there could also be a link to that. I originally took her to drs as she was complaining of abdominal pain (and still is) which is when the anaemia was picked up.

Ok, so the iron infusion will help her feel well sooner. The iron pills might be making her gut worse if she has IBDI can't tolerate oral iron at all, not even in a multivitamin. Even without IBD the iron pills might be quite hard on her. Iron deficiency anemia alone won't cause weight loss, thoughI'd be really pushing hard for a paediatric gastro referral if she was my daughter. For her to have weight loss and iron that low, any underlying IBD would have to be quite severe. (I have IBD, and my earliest sign was severe iron deficiency anemia).

I am not sure they are keen to do iron infusion and think they prefer to use the iron supplements.

She is now not very well - fever, vomiting and diarrhoea so will be stopping her medicines (iron and omeprazole) until she recovers from that. I am not sure either are making things any easier for her.

We have just started seeing Paediatric Gastroenterologist who has done blood tests, is doing a stool sample for calprotectin and also a barium x ray. Awaiting appointments for those.

Has she been tested for coeliac disease?

Sounds very much like coeliac symptoms

If the fever and vomiting persist, take her to A&E. I don't want to alarm you, but they can be signs of a bowel obstruction, which is an emergency.

Yes OP, my daughter was severely anaemia for 7 months (6 years old). She was put on sytron 9mls twice a day. It made her really poorly for the first few weeks but it settled down. She had the infusion in month 6 and that seemed to clear it up. We've now gone a year at normal levels so back to 6 monthly reviews at the paediatrician.

The fever, vomiting and diarrhoea have settled and they only lasted about 24 hours. We are seeing GP tomorrow.

She has previously had a test for coeliac disease as a baby and that was negative.

I'm not sure she is tolerating iron supplements and wonder if an infusion would be better. She still looks deathly pale with yellow looking skin.

I would discuss an infusion. It takes months to get levels up otherwise and she sounds quite ill with it. The tablets can cause side effects too such as nausea.

I hope you get to the bottom of it all.

@mumtosnchild how yellow does her skin look? how about her sclera, the white part of the eye, is it yellow as well?

I take my iron supplement at night, just before going to bed. If I have during the day, it upsets my stomach.

Sorry, just read she is on omeprazole. You do know omeprazole can causes anaemia. www.researchgate.net/publication/11017924_Iron_deficiency_anemia_-_Induced_by_long-term_ingestion_of_omeprazole
why is she on omeprazole?

@LiliesAndChocolate

She has only been on omeprazole a week. However we have stopped all medication until we see GP. It was given to her to see if it helped with her abdominal pain.

New blood test results are in. Her HB has gone up to 10.9 and her ferritin has gone up to 15. Bit surprised her levels have gone up this much in 3 weeks. Got to continue with iron supplements until back to hospital in July. We have taken her off iron and omeprazole this week due to stomach bug but will restart iron on Monday.

She still has abdominal pain and awaiting stool test and barium x ray to investigate further.

You can develop coeliac disease so just because she was negative previously doesn't mean that she doesn't have it now. I'd ask for a repeat test.

I expect they already checked for coeliac in her recent blood tests but will check when I go back to hospital.

She is still complaining of stomach ache again this morning so it is more than just anaemia.

Definitely sounds like Coeliac to me, it can develop at any time. Poor girl, hope they get to the bottom of it, whatever it is, quickly.

Glad there’s an improvement with her Hb. My son had a similar story and was eventually diagnosed with Crohn’s. Are you sure it’s a stomach bug and not and underlying illness such as Coeliac or IBD.

I had similar symptoms at that age and it was pernicious anaemia - I can’t absorb B12 from my diet, which means I don’t process iron properly so oral iron supplements couldn’t really help without also having B12 injections. Maybe worth checking.

I'm really not sure what it is. For 3 months she has been complaining of stomach ache, then diagnosed with severe anaemia. Then this week she had fever, vomiting and diarrhoea which has now cleared. Dr reckons a virus but neither of us have been ill and we normally catch whatever she has!

Got to try and get a stool sample to hospital next week. That might help work out what is wrong with her.

She sounds pretty identical to dd before she was diagnosed with coeliac. Don't assume they've done the coeliac blood test, we were back and forth to drs with such symptoms for over three years before someone thought to do one.

Average length of time for a diagnosis is 13 years! Medics don't seem to think to do one.

@mumtosnchild I know this is an old post but I’m just wandering if you ever managed to get to the bottom of this ? Similar issues with my daughter . Thank you :-)