advice on iron tablets

[janx]

I am 26 weeks and my iron is low. The thing is all iron tablets seem to really disagree with me. Have been to gp to change type - but they all give me rotten stomach aches or the runs or constipation. Is floradix a good alternative - is it strong enough? Any ideas/advice appreciated

I didn't get on with iron tablets either, but try a bit of googling on foods with lots of iron - green leafy vegetables, some pulses, red meat etc. - and that may be enough.

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My friend really recommends floridex. She took it during her pregnancies and her dad, who sadly died a few weeks ago, took it to keep his iron levels up while dealing with cancer. The Dr thought his iron levels were really good considering his illness.

HTH

my super midwife recoomended floradix or spa tone with almost religious zeal. spa tone is absolutely brilliant -got my iron levels up massively in just a week or so - its an iron-rich water, comes in little sachets, you can get it in bovts and health fovd shops.

can second the recommendation for floradix - I had to have it after suffering severe bleeding last year ... the normal iron tablets the doc had given me were just upsetting my stomach too much!

I have just started taking SpaTone, and giving it to the kids. It has the advantages of not having the usual side effects (constipation etc) that you would get with tablets.

I have been lucky not to have needed iron during my pgs, but had to take tablets after having ds2 because of blood loss during delivery. If it's constipation that is the main symptom, there are other things you can do to help alleviate this - I found that a handful of linseeds on my breakfast cereal did the trick. However, if you want to avoid the tablets altogether, I do have friends who have managed to get their iron levels up sufficiently just with dietary changes - dark green leafty veg, apricots and so on.

HTH

I second the recommendations for Spatone. My iron was low around 28wks and I didn't want to take iron tablets so went on Spatone instead and it did the trick. I was taking 2 sachets per day for a while and I'm back to 1 sachet now.

Spatone.. Felt awful last week and couldn't even get past midday. Started on Wednesday and was like a brand new person by Monday. Can't recommend it enough! I moaned to everyone about feeling awful when diagnosed anaemic, so a lot of my pals have backed off. Now I feel better I can take more time for myself for the rest of the pregnancy (I'm 29 weeks) without having to go out socialising 3 times a week. Very happy! You will feel amazing once you get your levels back up. Another hint it to take with 1000mg vitamin C tablet to assist absorption. Good luck

spatone
spatone spatone

floradix good, iron tablets bad. felt even more dizzy and weak on the tablets than off them!

not:NOT OFFICIALLY RECOMMENDED AT ALL but helped me.

a can of guiness a few times a week in the last few weeks of pg

floradix is good
another alternative is a different iron prep such as ferrous fumarate ( its in pregaday) rather than usual bog standard ferrous sulphate which often does lots of interesting unpleasant things to stomach