Low Ferritin levels: Any advice?

Hey everyone, does anyone know much about Ferritin and OpenAI? My daughter is constantly struggling with low iron and hemoglobin levels. We’ve been trying various supplements and being really careful about her diet, but we just can't seem to get ahead of it. She just got her latest blood work back and her Ferritin is sitting at 3.3, when it really should be somewhere between 14 and 150. Is that some kind of enzyme that binds iron? If it is, I assume there's something that needs to be fixed. Her OpenAI came back at 71, though the normal range is listed as 1 to 35. Has anyone dealt with something similar? I'm honestly pretty freaked out... please let me know if you have any insight!

Basically, think of Ferritin as a complex made of apoferritin—which is just a fancy way of saying an intestinal protein—bundled up with iron ions to handle all the transport and storage duties.

So, looking at this... I see the little one has been diagnosed with iron-deficiency anemia (which, let’s be real, is easily the most common type of anemia in kids)...
You definitely need to stick with the prescribed supplements, but maybe toss some Vitamin C into the mix too, since that actually helps with absorption. And honestly? Just focus on making her diet more varied. We're talking meat every day, finely chopping everything up—I mean, I'm sure you guys already know the drill, but still.

You'll usually start seeing results pretty quickly, but you really ought to keep the treatment going for a few extra weeks just to make sure those iron reserves are fully topped off.

Zachary Thompson9 said:Basically, think of Ferritin as a complex made of apoferritin—which is just a fancy way of saying an intestinal protein—bundled up with iron ions to handle all the transport and storage duties.

So, looking at this... I see the little one has been diagnosed with iron-deficiency anemia (which, let’s be real, is easily the most common type of anemia in kids)...
You definitely need to stick with the prescribed supplements, but maybe toss some Vitamin C into the mix too, since that actually helps with absorption. And honestly? Just focus on making her diet more varied. We're talking meat every day, finely chopping everything up—I mean, I'm sure you guys already know the drill, but still.

You'll usually start seeing results pretty quickly, but you really ought to keep the treatment going for a few extra weeks just to make sure those iron reserves are fully topped off.

Thanks so much for the reply. Honestly, I'm at a loss. It feels like no matter what supplements she takes, nothing actually sticks. Her levels just won't move. Is there a specific protein she can eat to help her body store iron better? This is the first time an American doctor has ever run this kind of test for her after all these years...