My iron story

[Guest guest]

I guess I'll add my 2 cents to this - our story is long, but might be

helpful to you. My son was not premature but he had a placental tear in

utero, which caused him to almost bleed to death. He bled from him into my

bloodstream, so no one even knew there was a problem until I came in at 38

weeks gestation because he wasn't moving anymore. They saw from the

ultrasound that there was something very wrong with him so they took him out

by emergency c-section. They weren't sure if he would be savable once they

got him out. He was literally white as a sheet, and had a hematocrit of 12

(normal for a newborn is 45-60). That's about as anemic as you can get short

of death. He had 4 blood transfusions immediately, and was put in the NICU

for 4 weeks. All his organs suffered damage from the blood loss and

resulting lack of oxygen. They told me if I had come in a day or two later

than I did, he would not have survived.

 

He ate nothing for a week or two - he was intubated and kept alive with IV

fluids. After that, he was fed pumped breastmilk (I had an ample supply from

still nursing my 2 year old daughter). He was discharged after 4 weeks, and

I exclusively breastfed him for 6 months. I have a great, knowledgable

pediatrician who had no qualms about our vegan diet. My son has been vegan

since birth, and has never had any problems with iron, even with his

horrible start in life. I did feed him organic iron fortified baby cereals,

but otherwise he just ate a range of fruits/veggies/grains etc. His iron

levels have always been good.

 

He has cerebral palsy as a result of the brain damage he suffered in the

womb, and because of his high muscle tone needs to eat 1700 calories a day

to gain weight, where the average kid his size would be eating 1100

calories. I consulted a vegan dietitician, Reed Mangels (from vrg) about

him, because I wanted to make sure I could do this while keeping him vegan.

She helped me see that it was no problem. Yes, we work hard to get all those

calories into him, but I wanted to write this to explain that for a normal,

healthy child, even one born premature, you can give them great and better

nutrition on a vegan diet than anything else. We had a nutritionist visit

with my son once a month as part of his therapy team, and she said he had

one of the best diets of any kid she sees.

 

I second everyone else's opinion that you need to find a supportive

pediatrician. We switched from our original one when my oldest daughter was

a baby because I found him condescending and intolerant. Our current one was

in the same practice, but so much more knowledgable. He knows I know my

nutrition better than most docs, so he's comfortable with our choices.

Definitely read some good books, like Becoming Vegan, by Davis and Melina,

and the others that people have recommended.

 

Also, I have known some friends with kids tending toward being anemic, and I

always advise them to get the dairy out of the kid's diet. Cow milk products

do not contain iron and can cause low level iron loss as well. Meat is NOT

a good source of iron because it comes packaged with all the things you do

not want: no fiber, no phytochemicals, plenty of cholesterol, saturated fat,

dioxins and other concentrated environmental pollutants accumulated in

animal tissue, carcinogens etc etc. It's like taking an iron pill and

dropping it in the toilet before eating it! Other emails contained good

suggestions for good veg sources of iron. We like grains like quinoa,

millet, and all the veggies suggested too, but of course my kids are picky

as all kids are at some time. I do recommend iron fortified cereals as well

for the little ones.

 

Hope that helps some!

Leena