Has anyone had their child diagnosed with anemia? Ours hasn't been (he's 5), but he has some of the symptoms. He's pale, he frequently gets tired and complains of headaches and his diet is poor. We've started him on vitamins, which hopefully will help. I just wanted to hear other peoples' experiences to see if ours is similar (we will be talking to his pediatrician as well, of course).

Thanks.

With a child that young anemia would only be caused by a few things: malnutrition, malabsorbtion, or bleeding. I would request a full blood work up so that you have baseline information on file. They usually don't draw blood work on little ones unless they suspect something may be going on.

My daughter was not anemic but they said she could do with more iron (she is 2) her pediatrition sugested more iron rich food .. that can be harder to convince kids to eat .. but veggies even covered with some cheese are still veggies .. plus .. pedisure and a multi vitamin .. just some thoughts.

I'm an adult and I've had anemia off an on throughout most of my life. I've learned that taking multivitamins and a good diet makes a tremendous difference in the way I feel. I was finally able to donate blood for the first time in my life a few months ago because I finally wasn't anemic!

I know it may sound strange but cutting out almost all refined sugars from my diet has also made a difference. I'm not sure if it's what helped me with my anemia but I do know that I have had so much more energy because of it and I no longer feel like I have to take naps throughout the day.

Thanks, everyone.

We had his blood tested and it was negative for anemia. We have started him on a multivitamin, and also will have him tested for allergies. We're also going to take him to a neurologist to determine whether these headaches he's been having are migraines (which wouldn't surprise me because my wife and mother both suffer from them and they can start when a kid is four, which is the case for my son).

It's the strangest thing. When he gets one of these headaches, this normally noisy, active five-year old just wants to go sleep in a dark room, even in the middle of the day. Usually he wakes up feeling fine a few hours later. Sometimes there is vomiting associated with the headaches. He's been having these about once a month for the last year, but had few over the winter. Now that the weather is warming, they seem to be coming more often.