Iron supplements

Well ladies, have a question for someone who might know. My OB did some blood tests and has determined that I need to up my iron intake- in addition to the prenatal I take daily and a chewable iron. I was getting in about 256% of the RDA which has been fine until all of a sudden. Anyway, she gave me two samples to try. One is called Ferretts and is 325 mg (586% RDA!) of iron as ferrous fumarate. I would take one daily. The other is called ferralet 90, as Carbonyl Iron. It has 90 mg and I would need to take 3 a day. She wanted to give me a little variety to see what uupset my stomach or not. I'm not too worried about constipation because I actually have diarrhea a lot since becoming pregnant- not sure what that's about, but Dr. isn't too worried. Have any of you ladies taken any of these or something else that was helpful? I'm not sure if I shoudl really be taking 600% RDA of iron- I'm worried about the side effects which is why the Ferretts brand makes me a little nervous. However, the other is much more expensive and is less per pill, so I'm not sure. Thanks for any advice!

Carrie

I have taken both!  Other than giving me heartburn they were fine and got my iron levels back up to normal.  I have since switche to an OTC ion, just your basic slow-fe and that seems to be working as well and no heartburn!

Good Luck,

Kim

Late to this, but remember that while these are high in RDA, you are malabsorbing a large chunk.  Plus, if you are low in things, then RDA is thrown out the window.

Carbonyl is best for constipation issues, and for OD issues if you're concerned.