j4 | In rust we trust

An update on the iron situation, if anybody's interested: the results from Monday's blood test showed that my iron count was stable at 10 (without having been taking supplements), so I'm hopeful for an increase next week if I carry on ~~drinking blood~~ taking supplements and eating iron-rich food this week. Fortunately iron-rich foods are all really tasty. Clams! Who knew? Not that I have any clams, but still. Blackstrap molasses! Om nom nom!

Opinion seems to be divided on the question of liver, which is why I don't put much faith in opinion. It's currently not recommended in pregnancy (though the disrecommendation is a bit buried in that page, sorry) because vitamin A "could harm your baby if you have too much" ... but I've been struggling to find any actual scientific studies that even look at this, let alone conclude anything. (Anecdotally, I know that my mum was recommended to eat liver when she was pregnant with me because of the extra iron; but I also know that anecdotes are not data.)

BTW, when my GP told me the results of the blood test he reiterated that 10 was "really nothing to worry about", but was (as I suspected) surprised when I told him that the midwife had said that that was the cut-off point for allowing a home birth. He suggested upping the dose of the iron supplements he'd prescribed if I was worried, but he didn't have any opinion on Spatone or Floradix except that both were "worth a try".

Several of you recommended Floradix -- I've tried it and I'm afraid I think it's even more vile than Spatone! YMMV I guess. Hard to know which will work better though -- I suppose I should try each for a week, or something (while keeping diet more or less the same).

Sorry for such a boring post. :-} I would say "normal service will resume shortly" but I fear the boringness is becoming the norm....