Pump up the Iron!

At Gavin's 9 month check-up his pediatrician did a quick blood test and said that his iron level was low. She said that she wanted to get a full blood workup and we needed to go to a lab to do that. They had one in the same building so we just went straight there to get it done.

Worst mistake ever.

The 2 ladies in that lab were completely incompetent. They tried multiple times to get a line in to test his blood. They just kept poking him and tying the band around his arm tighter and nothing worked. Poor little guy was just screaming the entire time. After sufficiently poking him in both arms they finally gave up. They told us that it is too difficult to take blood from babies and that they just couldn't get through his layers of baby fat. They suggested that we wait 3 months until he is older and just try again.

Here he is at the lab waiting to get his blood drawn. He looked a little concerned.

They came in and tried on his first arm. He seemed interested in what they were doing. Until they wrapped the band around his arm. And then he was not happy.
"Please get me out of here!!!"
Poor little guy! It just absolutely broke my heart! I'm not sure who cried more, me or him.
I tried to get a picture of his little arms with the bandages wrapped around them. This was the best I could do. He was such a tough little guy and bounced back pretty quickly!

After that traumatic experience we went down to the pediatrician's office and the nurse told us to wait a week and to go to another place and try again. Later his pediatrician called us and asked us what the situation was. After explaining what happened she said that we could not wait 3 months. She said that was horrible advice because if he is anemic then it can affect his brain development. She suggested a few different labs to go to that would do a better job with babies.

Andrew took him to another lab. I stayed home this time because I just couldn't handle seeing it again. Luckily these people knew what they were doing and they got a line in on the 2nd try!!

The next day his pediatrician called us back and his iron levels are low. So she told us to give him 45 mg. of iron supplements a day. After 1 month we will retest and go from there. I heard horrible things about the iron supplements so I was really worried. But it hasn't been that bad. I mix them with his food in the morning and he eats it all up.

I really hope that his levels go up and we can take him off the supplements though. I would rather just focus on feeding him foods that are high in iron. But I guess we will do whatever we need to in order to make sure this little guy is big and strong!
Check out those muscles!