Anyone ever had their toddler tested for low iron?

[Iambeat]

My DD has symptoms of low iron and maternal history of low iron / poor absorption. She doesn’t sleep well, is a picky eater (eats lots of dairy), is pail, black circles around eyes, bites her finger nails until they bleed, blue tinge to whites of eyes. GP wrote to paediatrics who refuse to test amd say it is extremely unlikely. Given the ‘trauma’ of venous blood test they will not test.
Advised giving her iron supplementation is not recommended. Did anyone go through this amd actually get tested? What was the outcome. I’ve had to supplement iron regularly for 20 years, sister and female first cousins are the same.

Note - can’t edit typos, sorry

Yes with the same symptoms. She was the low end of normal. Same symptoms as you have described. She did however have a gluten intolerance, which we identified by excluding things.

I supplemented with iron and vitamin C gummies. You can’t process the iron without VitC, so you want to take them together or have the iron when they are eating fruit.

It says my reply has been hidden until MNHQ can look at it.

Basically, I just said my daughter had similar symptoms and was tested, but was low normal.

Yes dc1, took me till dc was 4 (said I had concerns from weaning at 6 months). Found to have low iron and that lead to a coeliac diagnosis.

I haven't, but just to ask if you have tried the Arla milk? It is fortified with iron and vitamins A & D. It has been a life saver for my daughter who has ARFID.

Thank you for replying. As she is extremely picky I can’t get her to take any vitamins. I tried to disguise vitamin drops in a fruit pouch (as she only drinks milk or water) and she now refuses this. Even if I supplement i have no idea how to get her to take it. I will keep trying alternatives and coming with vit C. Thank you

Thank you. I had no idea about the connection amd will look in to this

Thank you. I had no idea about the supplementation with milk. The doctor advised refusing daily because it can block / slow absorption but if this works I will definitely try it. She devours milk but I’ve been holding back on it during the day because of the GPs comments (she has some before bed)

I’d really limit milk and dairy. Over 12 months they don’t need to drink milk. If shes very picky can you look at getting some dietician support? Would be better to deal with that than rely on supplement. Can you sneak iron in to things she does eat? Like ready brek, Heinz spaghetti hoops, blitz lentils in pasta sauce or get the lentil pasta? Blitz white beans into white sauce fkr Mac and cheese?

Yes my daughter has a blood test for it at about 18 months from recollection. Her iron was fine.

Another time she had stools samples tested for malnutrition and inflammation markers. She has food allergies and reflux.

Have you considered food allergies there's a symptom of food allergies called "allergy shiners" where it looks like they have black eyes.

My daughter has limited diet and is a poor eater so we often rely on fortification and supplements for essential minerals etc. She has oatly barista which is 3% fat for extra calories (equivalent of whole milk) 120mg calcium and iodine too. Her dietician suggested we included ready brek with her morning porridge of plain oats for the fortifications. A mix of the two balancing that the whole oats is better for her but accepting that they aren't fortified. She's currently also has fortified milkshakes on prescription to help with calories and nutrients as she's dropped 2 percentiles for weight and 3 for BMI in the last 2 years.

She has an omega 3 supplement (fish allergy) and a multivitamin with iron in - health aid children's multivitamins it is chewable from 2y as it's the consistency of a love heart rather than a gummy.

The issue with getting iron through fortified dairy is that calcium can reduce the absorption of iron. I have low iron at the moment and am also breastfeeding so trying to make sure I get plenty of calcium due to a family history of osteoporosis. Due to this I am taking my iron when my son wakes early morning with a glass of orange juice. This means that by the time I get up and have my breakfast and morning drink it's been 2h so the iron absorption won't be affected.

How is your relationship with your HV? I've found them good for getting support from other professionals. My daughters paediatrician did a referral to dietician when I said my HV thought it might be a good idea

I’m puzzled as to why your gp can’t request a blood test.

when my dd was two (she’s late teens now tbf) I was concerned about her pallor and she slept a lot. Took her to gp who requested a blood test in hospital. Got the appointment the next week at 10 am. Got a call at 2am to get her into hospital as her ferritin was zero. She was subsequently diagnosed with eosinophilic colitis.

I was told the actual test is very distressing so they avoid it. But I would rather 2 mins of of her being uncomfortable with me by her side rather than guessing games. It may not be low iron but it also could be.

It's not pleasant but short lived. They go in the back of the hand which means they have to be quite restrained. My daughter had a nurse and myself holding her down and the second nurse try to take the blood.

They had to hold her wrist as a tourniquet and they only managed to get a couple of drops of blood before she got too distressed. They weren't sure if they had enough to do the tests but they didn't want to traumatise her by pushing to do more and risk her having greater problems further down the line.

They were also testing my daughter for coeliacs as she was having issues with wheat and gluten, I'm not sure if they would have tested for iron alone.

My daughters paediatricians do let's treat and see if it resolves as part of their diagnosis rather than investigate using evasive tests. My daughter has severe silent reflux and it wasn't being controlled by her medication. We saw a specialist paediatrician to see if it would be worth her having an endoscope. This would involve a general anaesthetic. The paediatrician said that we know she has reflux, it's likely that the scope would tell them that she has reflux and needs higher doses of medication so why don't we just increase her dose and see if it goes away. If it doesn't we will the reassess where an endoscope would be beneficial. They moved her from 25mg once a day of omperazole to 20mg twice a day and her domperidone went from 5mg once a day to 3.5 mg twice a day. This resolved her reflux symptoms with needing evasive procedures. This was when she was 3-3.5

She's 6 now and we are having other symptoms and we are now wanting to have another conversation about endoscope and similar tests. To see if that would help with the general picture.

It might be a case of increasing dietary and supplemented iron and seeing if that makes a difference before doing the blood test. (Sorry I can't see your reply to me at the moment)

My eldest had blood tests done twice as a hound toddler- this is about 2 years ago now. They weren’t specifically testing for low iron, but it came up in the results. Once at hospital in UK- they took blood sample from the arm. It was a bit distressing for him, but know worse than the routine vaccinations, though was done in a paediatric unit where they are very skilled with doing them for young children. We also had them done in Spain by a private paediatrician just as part of a routine process, and he did it with a finger prick test that my child barely registered and was able to provide results for there and then. I always wondered why the same process doesn’t seem to be available here.