Iron requirements during pregnancy

[M D]

Ok so now I am confussed. The Blackmores multi I take has 5mg of iron in it, the RDI is 27mg for pregnant women. The ferro-grad I just looked up has 105 mg of elemental iron in it? The last thing I want to be doing is taking too much.

[emc2]

Only a certain amount gets absorbed so don't panic.

I would still eat food from different sources, in fact there's undiscovered nutrients in food that they don't know what effect they have.

[berrme]

My dr put me on all sorts of vitamins in doses well above the recommended daily intake. When I questioned it he said that the general consensus was that recommended doses were generally way lower than what can safely be taken, especially when pregnant. He showed me a book containing tables of safe dosage ranges for iron and folate and they went up to about 20 times what they say you 'need' in a day. So long story short, don't worry about ODing on iron.

I had to take the serious iron tablets after my c/s with DS1 as I lost a lot of blood. They made me constipated and my poo black. Not pleasant, but better than serious anaemia. I think I was on 3 a day which is quite a lot.
I take extra iron now, but only the supermarket ones as I don't actually have an iron problem yet. My ob might suggest something more hardcore later on as I know my levels got a bit low in the third tri the last 2 times.

[TaRhLi.]

If you have low iron levels I would say to tak ean iron tablet as well as your multi vitamin. When I was pregnant with DD it wasn't noticed until I was 36 weeks that my iron level was too low and I was borderline aneamic. So I started taking iron tablets straight away but it wasn't enough time to build up my iron levels so I was at risk of having to have a blood transfusion after delivery if I lost too much blood, plus being aneamic delayed my milk coming in as well.

This time around as soon as I got my BFP I was on the multivitamin and iron supplements (ferro-gradumet C) and this was before we knew it was twins. I am also taking Calcium supplements and additional Folate and so far I have had no side effects from all the vitamins and both my boys are growing like little champs.

[bbhappy]

Hiya,
Like Jaycee I am taking ferro-grad c too, 1 a day, my iron levels were really low at 28 - 29 weeks , I was sooooo tired, but feeling much better after 3 weeks on them and eating more red meat too. I take a preggie multi too. I was really worried about constipation and haemeroids, but so far so good, no problems.