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Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

Best Iron supplement to take during pregnancy please

6 replies

runaroundstartsnow · 28/11/2011 14:44

Midwife wants to see me, my iron level is still only 9.8 and i had been taking pregnacare and 2x210 mg ferrous for the previous 2wks before blood test.
I am usually anaemic anyway and back in Nov 2010 had misscarriage where i bled a lot (tmi) but i was filling a pad every 15mins and in the end just sat on the loo crying while blood poured out like a tap.I also had very heavy periods afterwards.
I dont think my iron levels ever caught back up and now at 31 weeks i am exhausted and dizzy (low bp) Please help me find a supplement that is quickly and easily absorbed.
This is the 2nd lot of iron during this pregnancy , been taking pregnacare all the way through but from week 11-16 i had ferrous tablets also.

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Iggly · 28/11/2011 16:01

Two sachets of spatone a day or try floradix.

Look at your diet too - cut out cups of tea at least an hour either side of meals, drink orange juice with iron rich foods (red meat, other meats too, legumes are good). Also avoid dairy when having iron rich foods (so no cheese on your spag Bol) as this makes it harder for your body to absorb iron.

rabbitfeet · 28/11/2011 17:02

Floradix is really good - apparently orange juice helps your body to absorb the iron better, but don't drink it with floradix as you'll be sick - the taste combination is foul!

xkatyx · 28/11/2011 18:25

I'm the same, I'm 33 weeks pregnant with twins and about 4/5 weeks ago my levels were in the 7's .. I am now 9.7 and I can't seam to get it much higher.

My community midwife said nettle tea? Apparently shoots Iron levels up but I'm worried to try it as no one is 100% sure it's safe!

KateShmate · 28/11/2011 18:35

I second SpaTone - have been taking it for ages as just generally suffer from anaemia.
Make sure you take the sachet with some kind of fruit juice (not grape) because it takes away the metallic taste and you cannot taste any different! You can put it in a big/small glass - makes no difference.
Have taken it with normal squash and have heaved as the taste of metal makes me feel sick.. Confused
But anyway, SpaTone is brill - no side effects and you will feel a lot better really quickly!

runaroundstartsnow · 28/11/2011 22:39

Oh thankyou, i will try those.

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MandaHugNKiss · 29/11/2011 11:20

Yup, spatone is great - I had quick, impressive results with it when pregnant with DS2 (also took pregnacare+ all the way through).

They're small sachets and the content of iron in them seems very low compared to the tablets - but the key is that the form of iron in the spatone is naturally occuring and very readily absorbed by the body whereas the body struggles to metabolise ferrous sulphate (hence very high doses in tablets may not actually make much difference). Can also cause stomach upset which the spatone doesn't (or shouldn't - anecdotally at least, I've never heard of it causing any issue).

The advice wrt avoiding tea and coffee is also good - tannin in these inhibits the absorbtion of iron. As does phosphates in dairy produce.

The other key thing already mentioned is to take vit C with the iron supplement - it really helps absorbtion, they go hand in hand. So, tipping the spatone into orange juice works well (because, yes, it has a metallic taste but it's easily disguised by the juice so that's a win/win choice!)

It would probably be a good idea for you to take two sachets a day (until levels come up and then drop to one sachet a day), with vit c/orange juice and I reckon you'll see good results. Good luck, it's rubbish feeling so wobbly due to low hb and blood pressure but spatone should really help.

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