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My lo had zero iron at his last check. My ped said to give at least 2 droppers of fer-in-sol (15mg per dropper) per day. My lo is 15 months.

Here's a link to my blog post on iron:
http://babymakingmerrygoround.blogspot.com/2014/05/zero-iron.html

@Mrs Green Grass: did I already ask you this? But why does your LO have zero iron?

@mdf106: Did they tell you what LO's levels are? At LO's 9 month check up we found out her levels were about a 3. Severely anemic and we later found out it was because she has thalassemia minor. Any she was on iron supplements for about 9 months before she finally climbed up to a about a 9 which was satisfactory for someone with thalassemia minor. At that point we switched her to a multivitamin with iron. At her 2 year checkup she's up to a 10!!! I guess somewhere around a 12 is "normal" for the average person.

When the doctor told us how low her levels were we very consciously started to make she she had at least one iron rich food item at every meals. Dark leafy greens, meat, beans, etc. We also started cooking with a cast iron skillet. Vitamin C helps with iron absorption.
The American Red Cross has a fantastic list of iron rich foods and talks about which foods are easier for the body to absorb the iron.

When we filled LO's iron supplements the pharmacist was also taken aback because it was at the highest level allowed for her age. We called our ped to double check the prescription. You *can* overdoes on iron so I might call your ped if you're concerned about whether the scrip is right?

@mdf106: yes, @locavore_mama: has really good advice. We do a lot of kale in smoothies because it has iron and vitamin c. Organic peaches are high in c and okay at that age. We also do mango.

Also it's hard to absorb non-heme iron (basically not from meat sources) so although a good might be high in iron, it doesn't mean that is what LO is getting. So sometimes supplements are essential.

@Mrs Green Grass: I've also heard that pairing nonheme iron with Vitamin C helps with iron absorption as well. Although spinach also contains a lot of Oxalic Acid (?? I think that's what it is?) which naturally inhibits iron absorption.

I've lived my life being mildly anemic. I started using a cast iron pan to cook 80% of our meals now (not for iron purposes, just because I like the pan), and I haven't been anemic for over a year now! I had heard that cast iron pans release iron into your foods, but wasn't really sure about that. Seems to be helping me though.

How did they test LO's levels? At our 9 month check our girl's came back at a 9 from a toe stick, which they considered very low, but they wanted to retest before supplementing because I guess the toe stick reading can be artificially low if the iron starts to hemolize while they're taking the sample. When they retested her with a vein stick she was low normal. It was the difference for us between just giving a multivitamin and needing a strong iron supplement, so I was glad we retested before treating her. Might be worth asking if they will see you to retest sooner than three weeks.