Iron Supplements

[bebe127]

Hey all,

Hope you are all having as symptom free day as possible.

Question: Can taking an iron supplement cause an increased appetite? I'm asking because my teen daughter had been feeling really yucky over the last couple of months. Took her to dr. and found out she was anemic. The dr. put her on 1tsp Irofol per day. He then told her to take 2tsp. but we've kept it at one because she is also on a multi vitamin with iron and I don't want her to take too much. She had not been taking it regularly (I can only lead a horse to water) and was still not feeling well (go figure?). I have now been on her case to take it each am. She has told me that she is so hungry all the time and she has been eating quite a lot it seems. Not too big of a deal for her in that she is 5'9" and stick skinny.

Just wondering if this is common with iron supplements.

Thanks for any input,

Bebe

[margiebee]

When I am low on iron I lose my appetite pretty significantly, so I suppose it could just be her appetite rebounding back? I usually do not experience this until I am feeling well in other aspects as well but everyone is different and that could be the first thing coming back for her.

[tinkerbella]

Iron upsets my GI system and makes me sick... although my doctor believes we function better with our iron stores pumped up to around 200. I had iron infusions to do this. They made me so sick...but brought my #'s up quickly. Good ways to get iron in your diet is cooking in an cast iron pan and eating iron rich foods. I had my neuro/ pots dr suggest this way and it was less irritating. I just needed more help. There is also a slow flow Iron that is less hard on the system. I took that for a while also.. I have to take zantac for the upset that iron causes... Does your daughter take on an empty stomach? I take with food.

Good Luck and Hope she feels better soon. : )

[bebe127]

Thanks for the replies!

My daughter takes hers with food in the am. She has not complained about it upsetting her stomach. She takes it in liquid form which the dr. suggested as it is gentler on the system. She has just noticed that she is hungry all the time which is strange for her. Like I said, she is 5'9 and stick skinny. She has been eating like there's no tomorrow. She doesn't eat all the time mind you, but during meals, she has seconds and sometimes thirds. She says that she thinks it's the iron that makes her hungry as that is the only thing she has changed in recent months besides starting on a mult vitamin.

Thanks again.

[looneymom]

You might want to try slow release iron tablets. You can find these at Walmart. The iron is released slowly throughout the day. When I was a runner, many years ago, I had this problem in high school. I would get sick taking a regular iron pill or even the liquid form. Iron will also cause you to be more hungry.

[bebe127]

Thanks Looneymom,

She doesn't have a problem taking the liquid. I even asked her yesterday if she felt funny or had any stomach issues and she told me no. The only difference is that she havs much more of an appetite now. Last night we had lovely homemade savory waffles with Chicken a la King and she ate more than her father!! So...it must be the iron supplement because nothing else has changed for her except that she is now taking a multi vitamin as well. Thanks again

Be well,

Bebe

[Joann]

Bebe, it sounds like your daughter is feeling better? No more feeling like she is going to pass out?

[bebe127]

Hey Joann,

She had some "fluttering" and was feeling poorly yesterday morning. I had her drink some gatorade and relax. She felt a bit better as the day wore on. She was away most of the weekend, and much of the time forgets to take her meds/vitamins/iron with her and with me not on her tail about drinking plenty of water; that goes by the wayside as well, so I really think that she just overdoes things and then pays for it later. We've started trying to keep track of her vitals daily along with a bunch of other information (I made a table for her on Word, an idea I got from a blog http://lethargicsmiles.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/daily-log-to-help-find-patterns/ but I changed dd's up a bit to suit her). We see her cardiologist in a few weeks and hopefully will get to the bottom of this whole "feeling wonky" thing.

Thanks for asking Hope you are well,

Bebe

[bebe127]

P.S. Did a poor man's TTT on her the other day and hr went from 70's to 114 after three minutes. Will definately bring this up to the dr. and have them check her bp and hr while lying down, sitting up and standing. This is something the dr.s to this day have not done for me Hopefully, we'll get some answers, or it's off to a new EP that I was referred to by a friend that is supposed to have knowledge in Dysautonomia.

Be well!