Children with Sickle Cell?!
Question: I have a 2 year old that had complications with hemo level dropping because of many virus she received basically coming in and out of the hospital. She been on chronic transfusion for about a year. March is will be taken off transfusion. I refuse to let the doctors take her spleen out. What foods can she eat after she is taken off transfusion to keep her blood levels up? Anyone living with sickle cell, please tell me your experience. Being a single parent, with her only child. I need to know from personal experience, websites, anything what I expect.
Answers: I have a 2 year old that had complications with hemo level dropping because of many virus she received basically coming in and out of the hospital. She been on chronic transfusion for about a year. March is will be taken off transfusion. I refuse to let the doctors take her spleen out. What foods can she eat after she is taken off transfusion to keep her blood levels up? Anyone living with sickle cell, please tell me your experience. Being a single parent, with her only child. I need to know from personal experience, websites, anything what I expect.
Foods that are high in iron, thiamine and folate will help her keep her blood count high. Spinach and other green leafy vegetables, red meat, etc.
Your doctors are correct to recommend splenectomy. I understand your reticence, but the spleen becomes very dysfunctional in sickling hemoglobinopathies. Eventually, she will lose her spleen anyway, through a process called "autosplenectomy."
Sickle cell is a difficult disease to live with. Here are some websites that you may find helpful. Good luck and good health.
http://www.scinfo.org/
http://www.kumc.edu/gec/support/sickle_c...
http://www.sickle-thalassaemia.org/Suppo...
Please try calling this number tomorrow at 9:00pm and Saturday at 1pm. You can talk to someone LIVE. East coast time(EST). The number is 212-990-7002 pin # 3024. Call in early they normally have a high volume of people listening. You make sure you get your question in and answered. See if they can help find you a product fruits or vegetables you can give to her to boost her immune system. You take in the facts and research the products yourself. I'm a parent too I give my child 2 of these products and he is 7months. I don't give him a small adult quantity. I think the site and conference call speaks for itself.