It sounds like you are facing an unusual set of circumstances. I wonder if you have seen a dietician regarding your son's condition?
Formula is generally regarded as a poor way to get iron in the diet. Formula is high in iron, but it is not easily absorbed by the child's body - most of it goes to waste. And it's not really age appropriate - many children will feel like your son and not like the taste. One problem with cows milk or formula in the diet in large quantities is that it can replace other foods in the diet - children are not as hungry for the things such as red meat which are high in the type of iron that is easily absorbed. Many mothers find an iron supplement beneficial. You only have to get a relatively small amount into them.
Good luck - and feel free to share more if you want to.
thanks for the replies. We are using the formula in conjunction with increasing the foods in his diet that are high in iron to try and increase he's intake. We beleive the reason he is anemic is that he has been ill and not eating and has lost weight over the past couple of months, but has recently started to get his appetite back and we are trying to increase his weight at the same time. If we are unable to improve both he's weight and iron intake in a certain period of time, we may have to look at alternatives, and it could indicate something else being the cause of the anemia - so we are keen to give the change in diet the best shot first.
I think he is starting to get used to the taste of the formula, He had it today without complaint - might of helped that it was really chilled (had ice crystals).
My DS was anemic at the start of the year and we gave him a liquid iron supplement for a couple of months as well as trying to get high iron food into him. We found it really helped him and the iron supplement also increased his appetite, I personally would go with this option rather than giving him formula, which he obviously doesn't like, but that's just me
I understand your reluctance to give 'medications'. But really, formula is just one way of doing that, and not a very effective one at that. Barb is right in saying that the iron content in formula is not easily absorbed. And a secondary problem can be that if he is filling up too much on it, he may not be interested in other foods, which have more readily absorbed iron. As the PP said, once a kid's iron levels are higher, they tend to have a better appetite for the foods they need to be eating .
There are kids-safe iron supplements out there (and remember that formula is not a 'natural' source of iron either), which may really help his levels if it's something you feel you can give him. Good luck, I hope you see some improvement in his weight gain and iron levels soon. It's really hard when you're worried about your kid's health
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