Thank you to the 2 readers who have already written in with suggestions! I would love to hear what others have done for anemia in the past, especially those of you who have had to go the prescription route. But first, a little background. I have nutrient malabsorption problems from a serious illness years ago. That means that I don't necessarily get the nutrients from whatever I eat. I am (not yet) on prescription prenatals but to attempt to compensate for that, and the damage from pregnancies this close together (my midwives recommend at least 2 years) and from the infection in May this is my daily regime:
Liquid Floradix 2-3 times a day. Every midwife I have spoken to recommends this as the strongest OTC iron supplement. It is absolutely disgusting and also has to be refrigerated, so I can't take it with me.
Calcium twice a day with my snacks, but not closer than 3 hours to the iron supplement.
Prenatal with some food during the day but never with iron or calcium supplements.
Probiotics to ward of Group Strep B (in case this is an even faster labor and because I can't really take antibiotics ...). Luckily can be taken on an empty stomach.
To give you a sense of the nutrient malabsorption, I am rather vitamin D deficient. Which is a bit absurd given that 5 of my 6 supplements contain a full dose of Vitamin D and I spend at least an hour outside every day. My GI doc said no more Vitamin D supplements for me when pregnant, but he's all for it post-pregnancy (he is uber-conservative with drugs during pregnancy. This is not to suggest that anyone should stop their supplements based on his advice ...)
I am also following a gestational diabetes diet, so no OJ and fruit only with a protein snack. Which makes it really hard because the only easy protein snacks I like are dairy, which can't be consumed with the iron (oh, and I keep kosher so I can't have dairy and meat together).
A large part of me just wishes we could start some type of serious prescription supplement, even if it's not oral, because my diet already feels so regimented. No dairy with breakfast or dinner, dairy snacks and a dairy lunch so that I can take calcium in the afternoon when I am out and about.
Leaving JD and the baby for a work trip. Maybe one night, maybe two (the conference ends at 9 pm Saturday night. If I leave immediately I'll be home by 2 am. Or I could have a good night's sleep all alone in a hotel bed and head back in the morning. My guess is I'll be waking up in NYC on Sunday ...)
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4 comments:
Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you. I'd never heard of floradix before, and I can only speak from personal experience, but amino acid chelated iron made a huge difference for me. Ask your midwives about it next time you see them. I think AAC is newer and they may not even know about it yet. And a bonus for the Rainbow Lights is that they have a lot of probiotics in them already. You can get them at Walgreens and Target ($10 for 50) so that is nice to in case you think about switching.
I was on supplements galore when I was pregnant (and still am for the most part). Metformin, 5mg folic acid, baby aspirin, 1000iu D3, 900mg DHA, B12, B6 and my prenatal... I have MTHRF and was high risk and my MFM was big with the supplements. I had group B strep too and did not get to the hospital in time to get the antibiotics so I stayed for 48 hours to monitor the baby and everything turned out fine, thankfully. Sometimes I felt like such a medical freak, but I went home with my baby, so it all turned out alright.
Though it may not be the route you need, I had to go through about a year of I.V. therapy to get my anemia under control. I'm a little weird in that I can't absorb iron pills, but I can absorb iron in foods (a little bit anyways, not much). I had weekly I.V. infusions of Ferloset (iron) until my numbers stabilized. I never realized how exhausted I was until I had more energy again after treatments.
almonds? protein, iron, non-dairy, energy boost?
I had anemia with both pregnancies, much more severe with Emma (my OB also - rather belatedly - said this is one reason why he recommends women wait two years between pregnancies). I took a slow release iron (OTC) pill, as well as increased my leafy green intake (spinach and brocoli), beans, and red meat. I also had to have iron infusions, which were time consuming, but definitely helped with my energy level.
Hugs. Just lots and lots of hugs.
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