So my daughter has low ferritin levels

Is it really Friday? It's been a long week. I've been dealing with a sick kiddo... no fun. We had the allergy testing and blood draw on Tuesday. Wednesday was her end of year carnival for the school we go to a few days a week. Thursday she woke up early complaining of a major stomach ache, total IBS issues and seeing aura (colors) in front of her eyes like as if a migraine. Went to the doctors and they said to watch her because she had a low grade fever and her area around her appendix was tender, but other than they they HAD NO CLUE! I think it is an abdominal migraine. Her great grandfather had the no-pain migraines (although I will tell you it was painful for her, just not head pain).

Our system of health is very mediocre if you ask me. Also, I got the call from the doctors office saying that her labs were normal except for low ferritin. She eats meat for any of you that want to jump down my vegetarian throat. She actually likes a eating a grass-fed steak with dad, she eats wild caught tuna fillets, and pastured organic eggs, as well as greens. She does have a nut allergy so no nuts, but she should be getting enough iron, but she's not storing it well. I know that she showed the top end of calcium, which blocks the absorption of iron, but she doesn't drink any dairy. But, I am going to have to get more paleo with her, which she won't be too happy with. We know that phytates actually bind to iron and take it out of the body. And I have read that one egg can reduce absorption of iron in a meal by as much as 28%. So where is the logic.. I'm sorting through it. ;)

So what did those labs say? 

So I ask for the labs, and several items that were clearly marked high, as well she has several items that are either at the max mark, or very low. NONE of that was addressed. So I've been chatting with Dr. Gupta trying to sort it all out, since I need actual intelligence in my life and these regular pediatricians just do not have it. Our pediatricians answer when I asked about the abnormal issues is just that her white blood cell counts look fine and I see nothing to concern me currently. REALLY? That is why I am not a fan of stats with our blood work. They train doctors to look at the norms, and just go with it.


For the low ferritin they wanted me to put her on a ferrous sulfate... really? A kid with digestive issues you want me to stick on a supplement known for causing digestive issues? So I've put her on a lower dose (more bioavailable) chleated iron and giving it to her in juice with a chewable acerola berry C vitamin. I'm also going to start her back on a vitamin D, even though it is summer, because all of her symptoms really could be tracked back to chronically deficient vitamin D. Researchers in Germany were the first to correlate asthma severity, asthma control, and markers of asthma severity with vitamin D levels. Hmmm... not researchers in the US?? LOL... and asthmatic children with low blood vitamin D levels may have a greater risk of suffering severe asthma attacks. Cells in your digestive system have vitamin D receptors needed for protein synthesis. And I can't tell you how many GI doctors have said that they see the number one low vitamin in their patients as being Vitamin D. I will say my bad. She wanted to go back to the whole foods gummy vitamins, and I agreed. And I just realized today they don't have any iron, and barely any D, so she'll be going back to the chewable essential oil infused vitamin when they come next week. Since vitamin D is absorbed in the small intestine, a leaky and inflamed GI tract is extremely common. So she's also going back on the pre/probiotic.

The more I think about all of this the more irritated I get. For a child complaining of joint pain for several years the first test I believe should have been Vitamin D. Especially with the high case of deficiency in the Pacific Northwest. So much so that they have been writing about cases here and sharing them all around the world. What I take away from all of this is NATURE. I find that it always comes back to nature, and how our body functions. When you look deep into the body functions you figure out what it needs... and that may mean you go outside of your doctors to figure it out.