iron supplement needed?

My dd Gemma was born at 33 weeks. She is now 6 months old, still petite but doing very well. Question, does she need supplemental iron? Her discharge papers, which are full of mistakes, say that she was discharged on iron (she was NOT). She is fully b/f so by her age it would be time for more iron from food anyway...but she is not interested in Farex yet. I forgot to ask about this at her last visit.
Also, should I do something about correcting all the mistakes in her papers since it will be part of her record? Or just let it go which I am tempted to do because I am so busy with 4 children.

Willow was iron until she was 8 months old. Your DD would have been on iron when in the SCN and if her papers said she was discharged on iron then she really should be on them. As Willow was born 10 weeks early her doctor wanted us to wait until she was 8 months before she started food and go off the iron, she had to be 6 months corrected age before he would allow this to happen.
You need to talk to your doctor ASAP about this.
I hope this help :)

Raven

She was not on iron in the SCU. We did all her cares so I am sure. But when I got her discharge papers (6 weeks after her discharge) they said that she was. She was on multivitamins and folic acid. There were lots of other mistakes in the papers: they said I had a full course of steroids before delivery, her birth weight was wrong, no. of previous pg was wrong, they said she was fully BF by day 5, lots of things. So this was just one more. I might give the NICU liaison nurse a ring about it.

That sounds like a good idea, I would ring them too.
What hospital was it??? If you don't mind me asking. You should of got the discharge papers on the day your DD was discharged and not 6 weeks later, I have never known any hospital to do that!! Better still, I would be asking for a copy of your DD's records to see what else they have stuffed up.

Raven

This was at the John Hunter in Newcastle. I was not thrilled with the care in NICU. It happened to be very busy when she was born & I thought she didn't get the attention she needed. There was nothing wrong with her, no breathing or heart problems, she just needed to grow. They pushed her out the door as soon as she regained her birth weight (1800g). She was discharged w/o rooming in. They actually wanted to send her home sooner, at 10 days old, but I refused b/c I didn't feel she was ready.

OMG... Willow's B/W was 1820gs and she was tiny. I was told that before any premmie bub can go home, they have to be able to feed without problems, hold there temp and be able to breath on there own without any problem.
Now being only 1800gs I can't believe they would of let her go home. I was also told they have to be 2kg+ before they could go home.
Now thats just really poor care from the hospital.

Raven

Hi Castle,
My babies also went through the NICU at JHH. We were on the iron, folic acid, multivitamins and they most certainly weren't allowed to go home until they fed properly, maintained temp and were a good size.They were on these meds until they were just over six months old... I think something went very wrong with your little one's care.Who was your neonatologist?
Have you thought about having a debrief with the Clinical Nurse Consultant in the NICU? We did that with our forth baby and it was good. We also saw her with Ivy and Noah when our paediatric care was lack lustre. She offered suggestions and didn't try to protect the doctors in any way - a very open, friendly lady. Her name is Sue( I can find all her contact info for you, if you want).
I would contact her and take your paper work with you so she can see all the mistakes. Also, are you having paed follow up? Perhaps it might be an idea, if you are not to find a good one and find out what Gemma's haemoglobin is, discuss you concerns and at the same time he can look at how she is developing post premmie( also good to talk to someone exterior to the hospital in the event that you want to make a formal complaint - which is also available to you through patient advocacy services within the hospital).
Your breast milk should be enough for her atm but if you are worried, you could try giving her pentavite, which has iron in it as well as extra vitamins and minerals. I used to mix it with a small amount of EBM, offer them a bottle teat ( you can get some with a medicine mearsuring device in Big W) and they would suck it down. Because of that suck/swallow reflex, it was gone before there was any taste.
Hope some of this information helps. If you want to email me you can, it's tigga_m@hotmail.com

Hi and thanks for your thoughts, girls.
Raven, they said that they no longer want a certain weight or corrected age from the babies...they can go home if they are doing well.
Tiff, I am going to email you privately anyway. I sent Sue an email earlier this am--I was going to page her but I thought a note might be better, then she won't be on the spot. I didn't realize pentavite also had iron.
Gemma had group care from the neonatologists. Rebecca was off service the first week she was there. Paul saw her a few times and Javeed discharged her. We probably had the most contact with the registrar. Can't remember her name, a nice blonde who was as slim as a toothpick!

LOL, that you couldn't remember her name but her physique, just what we post preggie of premmie mum's DON't need, a beautiful smart, blonde woman, looking after our babies!

Glad to hear that you emailed Sue. Look forward to hearing from you.

Just to clarify, while I was disappointed in the NICU at the JHH, I don't think I'd call it poor care. The biggest issue was that they were busy, and DD did not have or cause any problems. Also, they could see that we were not first-time parents and didn't need quite as much hand-holding.

Castle,
You didn't come accross as though you thought the care was poor, just that it was not what you expected and it left you with some confusion.

Hi Castle,

Nixon was also born at 33weeks and he was on an iron suppliment while he was in hospital, Feron i think it was called. He continued having 0.5ml once a day until he started solids at around 6months actual . as well as having the multi vitamin daily.

It sounds like although Gemma was small she did extremley well not needing any intervention for breathing etc. Although i would think it would be a bit soon for a 10day old 33weeker be ready to come home, I have no medical background and wouldnt think they would have offered if she needed more care.
Nixon was able to come home after 4 weeks once he was tolerating all suck feeds (breast & bottle), gaining weight and manitaining his body temperature.

I think going back to the hospital to clarify things would be definatley benefical. i think they should get all the details correct ie: her birth weight/ number of children u have etc etc.