Warning! This post contains information on pork liver, pooping, & breastfeeding! Do not proceed if you are grossed out...
Hannah's hematocrit two weeks ago was 9.0, one week ago it was 10.5 (yeah!) and today it was 10.4 (sort of a yeah). It should be at 11.0. It is barely low and has shown improvement from two weeks ago so the pediatrician is going to give Little Miss one more week to raise it again, before we do the comprehensive lab work again.
When we did the labwork when Hannah was around 3-4 months old it came back consistent with iron deficiency anemia, so I was unsure of what/if any new information repeating the labs would offer. The doctor said we needed to make sure that it was still consistent with that diagnosis (which she was sure it would be) and to make sure all the other labs besides hematocrit were okay.
The MD increased Hannah's iron dose today so hopefully that will help. I also have been filling Hannah up with lots of iron rich foods like pork liver, turkey, cooked beans and lentils-those are all excellent sources containing iron aka lunch for Hannah. Dinner usually contains strawberries, broccoli, or orange juice which are excellent iron absorption enhancers. Hannah loves sweet potatoes but those are an iron absorption inhibitor so those are out now. In the morning Hannah has iron enriched rice cereal mixed with prune juice to help all this constipating iron stuff come out! All I can say is my poor baby. Luckily she is a trooper and actually likes her 'yummy' foods.
One thing you all might be wondering (and Cam accused me of!!) is the relation of this with breastfeeding- especially because I am a vegetarian and therefore am most likely not getting a lot of iron myself. Well, the answer is there is NO relation! Even if I ate pork liver all day long it would not help! So, sorry Cam, I will not be eating any meat.
So there you have it...I am sure you are all impressed with my iron knowledge-its amazing what you learn (and what you will do...can we say pork liver??) when it affects your child!
I hope and pray that next Thursday Hannah's hematocrit will be above 11.0!! The MD did say that Hannah just doesn't match the lab result. She isn't pale or overly sleepy so she believes it is mild and Hannah has compensated well. That made me feel good but then she said..."I still want to see the result over 11.0 though" so we will see.
4 comments:
april that makes me so sad when i read the stuff that she has to go through. you guys have to be so tough! i hope everything works out. and i love the tball pictures, i can't wait to start that time of our lives.
Wow! What a yummy diet sweet Hannah gets!
Poor little Hannah! That is no fun at all. It is so funny that you should mention that you are still a vegetarian, because I was wondering about it just the other day. My sister in laws sister use to be a vegan (not sure on spelling) and I was talking to her about it last week and that is what made me think about it. Now I know. Still no hotdogs in mac & cheese. :)
I hope that she does well too. We haven't gotten into the sports with our kids yet but it won't be too much longer.
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