Iron

[Kirstystar]

Hi there,

First time posting on here so unsure I'm doing this right !
I'm a first time mom and my little one came 5 weeks early, his doing well but when leaving the hospital they prescribed him sodium feredetate (iron) for take lml daily from 28 days untill 6 months. His not low on iron they said its because his premature ?

Has anyone eles known this ? I've asked my midwife, GP and HV and none of them have known it before ?
They also want to up his dose as he gets bigger.

Any reply would be appreciated

Xx

I think this is standard for prems. Both my children were premature and both have been on iron until they were 12months corrected. We didn’t have to increase the amount though. I think it is because babies born early miss out in the iron transferred from mum to baby in those last weeks of pregnancy and so don’t have the stores of it built up. If you are having a follow up with a consultant you could check with them at your next appointment.

My little one was born 7 weeks early and was also prescribed iron for the first year, but it stayed at the same dose until it stopped.

Mine was 9 weeks prem. It's apparently something to do with iron not passing through the placenta before a certain gestation and babies born before a certain gestation cannot absorb it. I breastfed mine and struggled to get the iron in him and because he was exclusively breastfed I thought he would be getting all the vitamins he needed and didn't worry about it. My poor boy ended up so anaemic he needed a blood transfusion and I couldn't have felt more guilty.

It takes time.

Mine was 6 weeks early and wasn't given iron. I did ask about this and was told it wasn't standard. I asked friends etc with prem babies and put a post here at the time too and lots of people hadn't

Yes we are due a check up soon so will double check it thank you. Can I ask how you gave it to your little ones ? I'm currently giving it orally but have read it can go in there bottle.

Thanks 😊

Thank you for all your replies, I'm a first time nervous mom and anyone I asked wasn't sure and I don't know anyone eles who has had a prem baby.

Another question is did all your babies have there immunisations on time or was it later due to them arriving early?

Thanks 😊

I initially gave it through a bottle teat as I was breastfeeding with bottle top ups, but I soon moved to syringes as it was easier. I tried giving it with her milk, but she didn't always finish her bottle, so I couldn't be sure that she got it all.

I would recommend asking the midwife/gp/health visitor/neonatal outreach nurse for current advice, but 2 years ago, I was told that immunisations are done on their actual age and not adjusted.

Don't apologise, I was a nervous first time mum and having a premature baby made it worse.

Congratulations and enjoy all of your baby cuddles. I miss them now

Immunisations on actual age, not adjusted. My GP calculated the dose of Calpol he was allowed because he was so small but coped well with them

My twins were born at 33 weeks and were on Iron till 12 months old. The immunisations were all at their actual age and not corrected.

Just to note a thing with immunisations that they often advise to give calpol woth first imms due to risks of a temperature but a prem baby won't be able to have the dose that's normally given to a 8 week old (as they will be under the weight limit). So you will need to get the GP to calculate the amount of calpol you can give dependant on their weight.