Need help..Iron supplement question

Enlist your child's help. Suggest that, if he swallows a spoonful of the iron supplement, you will give him a spoonful of chocolate syrup or ice cream or something else that he loves and is strong flavored. Let him know that he HAS TO be a big boy and take the medicine, but that you will help take away the bad taste. Don't worry about the sweets. As to the constipation, give lots of fruit and juice. Make sure that your son drinks a lot. Give high fiber cereal -- even just Cheerios without milk. Reduce dairy intake and eliminate other constipating foods. Don't try to reduce fat; a little fat or oil will help move things through. And if needed, give a small daily dose of a stool softener or laxative recommended by your doctor; there are some designed especially for children. Sharon

My son is chronically anemic and has been on iron supplements since he came home eight years ago. When he was younger what worked best for us was the liquid iron (we use FeroSul produced my Major most recently) quickly squirted into his mouth with one of those medicine syringes then an immediate juice 'chaser.' Milk also works well but they suggest taking the iron with vitamin C for better absorbtion so we tried to go with juice. That worked better than the mixing becuase no matter how much juice to iron we did, you could still smell the iron. And it is nasty. He is now 9 and can swallow pills so we use Nature Made iron tablets which are tiny. For whatever reason they don't seem to cause the constipation that the children's vitamins with iron and other iron supplements we tried did. Over the years of trial and error we have used a small daily dose of Mirilax periodically to counteract the consitpation which worked well. Hopefully that helps! I feel for you. And him! Feel free to PM me if you want. :)

Thank you for replies.

Just an FYI, I was anemic as a child and always took iron supplements. When I was 18 they discovered I had Thallasemia Minor also know as Mediterranean anemia. Basically I have fewer red blood cells that results in anemia. Iron cannot improve it because I have plenty of iron in my system. Make sure your children really need the iron.

Would you be willing to give me a little more information about this? My son's iron level tests low unless he is on a supplement in which case it tests normal so I am assuming this is not the case for him but I am curious if there is more I should know. The doctor has never been able to give me an explanation for his anemia. Feel free to PM me if you would prefer.

I really can't give you much details. I do know that they have to do an iron test to see if someone has thallassemia. Also, the basic test for anemia does not improve with increase in iron because lack of iron is not the problem.

Thanks for the info. His iron levels are normal when on a supplement so this doesn't seem to be the case for him. Because we can 'fix' it with supplements the doctors aren't worried about it but it does bother me that we don't have a reason. Sorry to sidetrack your thread srishti1775!