can you have too much iron?

[sillyoldfool]

I'm 39 weeks pg with DD3, every pregnancy I've got anaemic, first time I took the horrible tablets that make you constipated, last time and this time I've taken spatone.
I take the max which the packet recommends - two sachets a day, but am still just below the threshold for anaemia.
I've discovered that being anaemic means I'm at a higher risk of a hemorrhage, I had one when I had DD2 and really don't want another!
SO I was thinking of upping the amount of iron I'm taking. The midwife told me to eat lots of iron rich food as well as take the supplements, so am I right in thinking I can't have too much iron?
thinking of upping my intake to 3-4 sachets a day for the last weeks (I always go v overdue)

I had too much, it gave me nose bleeds.
I'd talk to and take your midwifes advice, I do think too much can be a problem (more so then just unpleasant nose bleeds)

ok, thanks, will hold off till I see them on friday.
So desperatly don't want to hemorrhage again, I've never felt so awful as I did for the first couple of weeks after DD2, i was dreadfully anaemic.

You can have too much. In fact it's one of the tablets we would really worry about if a child took their mum by accident (iyswim)

But you might be able to take more than you are- it all depends on how much is in each sachet. So do speak to your midwife!

Iron tablets prescribed by docs contain just over 60mg of absorbable iron, spatone and food contains a fraction of that amount so you could up your dosage and still be taking in less iron than the tablets.

At our 12 week scan we found out we are having twins. As this means I am a higher risk of anaemia my consultant put me on iron tablets at 14 weeks as its better/easier to prevent rather than treat. I am on 200mg of iron tablets (Ferrous Sulfate) twice a day. To put this into perspective the iron tablets that I got in asda when I was waiting for a repeat prescription are 14mg each. My 28 week bloods came back just ok, god knows what they would have been without the tablets!

Check the mg of elemental iron on any tablets (often only listed on the leaflet) as normally the 'headline' figure on prescription iron tablets is the mg of the iron compound which makes it seem like much more than it is (my iron tablets have 325 mg ferrous sulphate which is only 60mg pure iron.)

The figures on multivitamins / spatone / food listings seem really small as they are for pure iron, not iron compound. (e.g 14mg pure iron in a multivit)

The spatone only has 5mg of iron per sachet, 34% of RDA but says "the RDA is based on iron absorption from a typical diet. However, the high absorption of ferrous iron in spatone means it should still fulfill your additional daily requirement for iron"

So exactly what you've said Smerlin I think. MW is happy for me to up my intake to 3 a day.

Interesting, I was prescribed iron about a month ago (200mg ferrous sulphate) as my levels were borderline however at my last appointment with the midwife a few days ago she said while I technically could stop taking it as my levels were good, if I wasn't having problems on it then would be ok to continue as it build up stores for the baby and any potential blood loss during labour. However if I'm not taking iron my levels are always boarding anaemic anyway so perhaps in my case it's better to be taking them regardless of whether or not I'm actually pregnant, presumably they aren't sky high just now if I'm ok to keep taking them.

Very interesting Smerlin learn something new every day :-)