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Child Has Thalassemia And On Iron Supplement. Stopped Giving Iron Supplement. Any Thoughts?

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Posted on Thu, 14 Mar 2013
Question: My daughter had been on iron supplement twice a day sine she was 14 month old ( now she s 22 month old) she s beta thalassemic and her hemoglobin is 9.8 now. Was 9.5 8 month ago. I stopped giving it to her a week ago because I want to take her to see a hematology dr. I was scared from iron overload .when I was her age I was beta thalassemic but my dr didn t give me iron because my blood due to thalassemia doesn t absorb the iron well . Did I do the right thing of stopping the iron?
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Answered by Dr. Ram Choudhary (37 hours later)
Hi XXXXXXX,
I hope the child is thallassemia minor variety. The thallassemia major patient have need for blood transfusion regularly since childhood itself.
Thallassemia is a blood disorder where there is fault in the protein components of the hemoglobbin which result destruction of blood by hemolysis. There is virtually no error of iron metabolism, so replacing iron is plainly unnecessary.
Her hemoglobbin needs to monitored every three months or when child falls ill for any cause.
The target hemoglobbin should be 7 to 9 gm/dl.
She should get a balanced diet with high protein content then any thing else.
I hope the answer would be helpful.
Note: For more detailed guidance, please consult an Internal Medicine Specialist, with your latest reports. Click here..

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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Dr. Ram Choudhary

Internal Medicine Specialist

Practicing since :2001

Answered : 2270 Questions

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Child Has Thalassemia And On Iron Supplement. Stopped Giving Iron Supplement. Any Thoughts?

Hi XXXXXXX,
I hope the child is thallassemia minor variety. The thallassemia major patient have need for blood transfusion regularly since childhood itself.
Thallassemia is a blood disorder where there is fault in the protein components of the hemoglobbin which result destruction of blood by hemolysis. There is virtually no error of iron metabolism, so replacing iron is plainly unnecessary.
Her hemoglobbin needs to monitored every three months or when child falls ill for any cause.
The target hemoglobbin should be 7 to 9 gm/dl.
She should get a balanced diet with high protein content then any thing else.
I hope the answer would be helpful.