Nutrition for the Breastfed Infant

Baby has low iron, concerned about anemia

 My son was recently diagnosed with low iron. My pediatrician said not to worry and that I should give him an oral iron supplement 2 time per day with juice.  I have been doing this for 1 week, and the baby is terribly constipated.  I've been trying to give him more foods rich in iron and have purposely not given him the supplement to ease his constipation.  Also, I recently began dieting to lose my pregnancy weight and am wondering if this has contributed to the low iron?

My question is:  Am I hurting him by not giving him the supplement? Can I eat more iron rich foods for him?  Should I be concerned about this anemia?





First of all, it would be helpful to know exactly what you mean by "low iron."  Is your baby actually anemic?  Or does he just have a low serum iron?  Based on your pediatrician's comment, it sounds more like your son has low serum iron and that your pediatrician does not want this to progress to anemia.

You should let your pediatrician know that your son is very constipated, and find out whether you can give him the iron supplement once each day instead of twice.  Or, you might ask about alternating the days that you give him the iron supplement.  Also, try giving him the iron supplement with juice, preferably prune juice, which may help counteract the constipating effect of the iron.  He probably won't take much juice, but even a small amount may help his constipation and shouldn't cause diarrhea.

You are very wise to be giving your baby more iron rich foods.  I recommend that a baby of his age (9 1/2 months) be given wedges of cooked liver.  Red meat, especially liver, has a high concentration of iron in the most bio-available form for humans.  If your son is teething, cook the liver, cut it into strips and freeze it.  Then, let him chew (or gum if he doesn't have many teeth) the strips of frozen liver.  This will both increase his dietary iron intake and may help the discomfort of teething.

You asked whether you are hurting your son by not giving him the iron supplement?  This depends on how iron deficient your baby is.  As I said previously, I suspect that your pediatrician is trying to prevent your son from becoming anemic. This is very important and is not something that you should ignore since severe anemia can have serious, long-term effects on central nervous system development.  However, if your baby does not have anemia, but has low serum iron, a reduced intake of supplemental iron to alleviate his constipation, combined with increased iron in his diet, may be sufficient to build up his iron stores.  I want to emphasize how important it is for you to work with your pediatrician to make sure that your son is getting enough iron and to alleviate his severe constipation.  If your pediatrician agrees, you can try these different ways of giving your baby iron, then follow-up with the pediatrician in a month or so, at which time he or she can check your son's serum iron level.  Then, you will know for certain whether what you are doing has helped!

You also asked whether you can eat more iron-rich foods for your son.  The answer, basically, is no.  The impact of a lactating mother's diet on her baby's iron status is very minimal.  A baby's iron status is primarily related to his or her size at birth, rate of growth, whether cow milk has been used in significant amounts, and the kind of supplementary foods used.  If supplementary foods are introduced too early, this also can interfere with the absorption of iron from breastmilk.  If these foods also are low in iron, they will not be very helpful. Even though your intake of iron-rich foods does not benefit your baby, you still should be eating these foods for your own health.  




 

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