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Can you mix it with his food? I do that with LO's vitamin D.

My lo has ZERO iron. Poly-vi-sol is best because it also has Vitamin C which helps the iron actually get absorbed, but you can also buy Ferrous Sulfate and give it in OJ.

FYI...dairy inhibits the absorption of iron, so don't give it at the same time. Vit C increases absorption by 300%!

I've been doing tons of research...Also heme iron from mostly red meats is absorbed pretty easily, but non-heme (from plants and beans) is not. Many children's foods are fortified with iron. 3/4 cup of cheerios has 50% of the daily value. BUT...it's really hard to catch up with food alone if there is a lack of iron, so the drops are pretty impt.

@Revel: ooh, I like a powder form!

You might also keep trying on the poly vi sol - my LO refused it at first, then we started mixing it in a couple tablespoons of OJ and giving it in a shot glass, and now he'll take it by itself. It took a few weeks to get there, though.

@Applesandbananas: We use a pediatric iron chew - grape flavored that we crush up and give to LO from a spoon.

He has iron deficiency anemia that we caught right around his 1 yr appt so we give him 2.5 tablets a day total. They told us to do the poly-vi-sol which he took the first time we gave it to him without problems but then refused/spit out every time after that. At our appt w/ his hematologist I asked about other options for iron supplements and the pharmacist was very helpful in coming up with other options! There are grape flavored drops that they could have special ordered for us but they had the tablets so we gave them a try and he LOVES it - I tried it too - they taste like grape pixie-stix sort of (way better then the poly-vi-sol)

We figured that if we were going to have to give him iron twice a day for a few months it might as well not be a struggle!!!