34 wks pg with Blood count of 9....

[Jellyrollgumdrop]

& been put on iron tabs, 305mg galffer. Not looking forward to the side effects and had asked Dr for Spatone instead but she said it wouldnt raise blood count enough. Was wondering is there anything else I could take to raise sufficiently without horrible side effects?

mine has been around 10 and dropped at second lot of bloods at 33 weeks, mw said to take 3 sachets of spatone instead of usual 2, iff i could tolerate it. can and have, and am feeling much better! hth

i agree with the lizard - spatone is much more palatable, if not a bit pricey. I'm 34 weeks tomorrow and have been on iron since January and its STILL falling. Having my second iron infusion tomorrow which seems to be doing the trick. My advice would be steer down the spatone route rather than the tablet route for sheer palatability(?!). My consultant also recommended cereal. My iron is now 10.6 and hopefully after tomorrows infusion, it'll shoot up to 11 - 12! Wowsers! Good luck Jelly :)

Thanks for your advice ill try it & hopefully itll work...

Hi Jellyrollgumdrop - I have to say my experience is that spatone didnt do enough for me. I forget what my results were but said to the consultant I was trying spatone first as I know I have horrid side effects with iron tablets. I took two sachets a day and 4 weeks later repeated my bloods and they had stayed the same. They then put me on Pregaday which is a milder iron tablet - which has helped along with the spatone on top.

Been in the iron tablets since Thur & im still feeling as bad as before, exhausted, weak, light head & seeing spots ..... how long before the tablets stare to work??

anyone??????????

Thanks Lunatic, GP said to come bk in 2wks but will go earlier as cant hack feeling so ropey!

It can take up to 2 weeks to feel the difference. Spatone is more easily absorbed but it's such tiny amounts 5mg IIRC that it won't make any difference if you are properly anaemic. There are several variations of iron you can try - ferrous sulphate, ferrous gluconate etc and I've found the gluconate 300 mg - gives v few side effects. With a Hb of 9, I wouldn't mess about with anything less than prescribed meds - you absolutely don't want to face delivery and potential blood loss whilst already anaemic.

I tried different tablets when I had the same levels and also found that the gluconate ones had fewer side effects. I also ate steak and apricots for every meal, spinach for every other meal and oj like it was going out of fashion. I managed to get my levels up to just above the acceptable level for a homebirth.

Then had an em cs and dropped back down to 7. Ah well.

Take the prescribed meds, ask to change if you have side effects and I really hope you feel better soon.

Just a thought but you could try Floradix as well. Doesn't have any nasty side effects and tastes quite pleaseant.

I've just started tacking it again due to very heavy periods and I was a different person within days.....even DP noticed!!

Floradix and Spatone are pretty much the same thing. If you've got a v low iron count and are due to deliver in weeks, prescribed iron really is necessary.

Thanks for the feedback....off 2 Dr in mrng to see if she'll give me something else as its the ferrous galffer sulphate im on atm...