Iron tablets

Had my baby in July but saw this and wanted to recommend you try Spatone instead - you can get it in Holland & Barrett and it’s gentler on the stomach x

I recommend taking with food before bed. I take all my vitamins before bed so not awake to feel sick x

Definitely take with food/a meal if you can! When I started taking my vitamins, if I took them on an empty stomach it would make me so sick x

Take them after a meal, iron is quite aggressive to the stomach and orange juice can be irritating as well!

What dose and type of iron is this? Different forms are easier on the stomach like Iron Biscglycinate

My midwife told me to take 1 hour before food preferably main mean and it’s important to have the food! Orange juice helps the tablet break down

I’m on Ferrous Sulphate 200mg every other day for anaemia. The instruction is take one hour before and after food but this had proved impossible for me. Prior to this I had been on spartone, but as it is only 30% of the recommended daily for iron it didn’t have enough of an effect.

@Lucy I use this too - it’s so kind on the stomach and my iron levels have gone up since taking it! I buy it off Amazon :)

@Tara that's such a high dose so it makes sense you will react. And one that was recommended to me recently by doctors when I got my recent feratin levels tested at 28 weeks. I managed to get my levels up to 64 from 27 in the first month of pregnancy and by eating more red meat and cutting out things that affect iron absorption (there are so many!) and was taking two spatone sachets a day also. But now in my third trimester even though I've been still on the spatone my levels plummeted down to 23! It's such a low dose. It's shocking how pregnancy can drain your iron levels. I'm scared to take the synthetic 200mg nhs supplement so I'm taking solgar Iron bisclycinate but it's only 20mg so am waiting to hear from doctors if I can take more of these as they are gentle on the stomach and the most easily absorbed form of iron. Will let you know what they say! Also look into ways to increase stomach acid as this goes down in pregnancy and this is what we need to help our bodies absorb iron.

Also if you need to take with food to help with the gastrointestinal effects take with foods low in phytic acid/oxalates/calcium as these foods can prevent up to 80% absorption. So no dairy, dark green veg, wholegrains, nuts, seeds, berries, chocolate, tea, coffee etc. Maybe take with plain white rice or white bread (Lower phytic acid content than whole grain varieties) and papaya or oranges (vitamin c and enzymes to help absorption)

@Mitra ahh I defo will have a look at what to cut out too. I don’t eat meat so i know that is partly the problem, but I never have, and although I would be willing to try it, the thought of it doesn’t appeal right now, probably because of the nausea in pregnancy. I think I will write to the midwife see if she recommends either taking my current dose with food or switching to another dose. And yeah, I will look for alternative ways for it increase.

Okay great, I will try with a crumpet tomorrow. I take alternate days but after this mornings fiasco I will try and take another tomorrow

@Tara oh bless you so your problem is probably not enough iron in your diet rather than issues with absorption - which is what I have. If you can try sirloin/rump steaks - I've been having them daily now since my low iron diagnosis asking with oranges or papaya to help absorption. I'm even going to look into eating liver as it's the most nutrient dense food with the highest amount of iron. You can't have too much in pregnancy because of vitamin a but you can have small amounts. Sadly only 1 - 10% of iron is absorbed from plant based foods (non heme iron) compared with 25 - 30 % from animal based food (heme iron). I have just two months till baby comes to shoot my levels up and am trying everything because the risks of low iron for baby and mother are so scary☹️ I really hope you start seeing improvement and can get your levels up without any bad effects. 💕🙏

@Tara yes crumpet and an orange juice would be perfect!🙌🏼

@Tara I’ve just started on these and they make me projectile vomit. I’ve also been going to the toilet a lot for a number 2 aswell 😭

@Mitra yes defo not enough iron in my diet. Okay I might try a steak….. liver will defo be too wild for me! Good luck getting your iron levels up too, sounds like you are doing everything you can!

@Tara haha it's still a bit too wild for me and I love my meat😅 steak is the best way to go 👏👏😆

@Helen oh no, yes, they are so difficult to take. I will try with a crumpet this week and have a read of this thread as there are some tips which might help you too!

@Tara Ha! This was me. It was so bad I ended up in hospital. They gave me a new prescription for liquid iron. Ferrous Fumarate. I have to take it immediately after I eat or it also makes me vomit. Could be worth asking them for a different form of iron.

Ask for your prescription to be changed to liquid iron. It’s much kinder on your stomach. I was so unwell with the tablets but haven’t been sick at all on the liquid version and I’ve gone through 2 bottles now x

@Naomi oh that sounds awful. I hope the liquid iron is now working for you

I was getting a very upset tummy with the iron tablets so went back to speak to gp. They gave me a lot milder version that's gentle on the stomach.

@Tara I've been on iron tablets for 6 months - it definitely takes trial and error to work out what's best for you My gp and midwife said whatever my routine needed to be, I needed to be able to tolerate keeping taking them daily/regularly. So I've sussed it for me to be straight after dinner with a glass of orange juice as it's the vitamin C that helps the uptake of the iron. And taking every single day is key for me - skipping days causes chaos for my tummy 🤣 I was on 600 3xdaily but now on 300 1x daily. Best of luck finding a system that works for you x

I’ve been taking iron drink sachets spatone, if you have one daily with orange juice in the morning you can’t even taste the iron 😊

Same with me I stopped taking it

@Rachel you were taking 1800mg of iron a day?

@Mitra sorry, my bad phrasing I was taking 210mg tablets 3 x daily so a total of 630mg a day