HbH - Hb is 11.6

I have not posted in here for a long time.  I wanted to share with you some good news.

My daughter was diagnoised of HbH when she was 1 month old and had one blood transfusion then.  After a few months of monitoring, her Hb has dropped from the highest point after transfusion and stable at around 9.  So the dr. said it will stay more or less at this level. 

She ate very little every meal, it was the same when she started solid food.  When she turned 1, I felt that she was pretty thin and not tall and the growing (weight and height) is slow. Her feet is so pale that we could hardly see any red on it.  But after she turned 1, we gave her more solid food and she loves vegetable and fruit especially grapes and banana.  She is 16 months now and we just found out that her hb is 11.6.  We are so happy and want to share with all of you that maybe the grapes and banana is the reason of putting her at a higher level of hb.

That is a great news indeed

Andy has posted about the fact that Red Grape contains resveratrol that induces HbF. Which can be read on: http://www.thalassemiapatientsandfriends.com/index.php?topic=1649.0

Maybe this is what's happening to your baby.

It is also more likely possible that your baby is now producing more HbA; after all she is not Beta Thal. and the Hb switch is making HbA instead of HbF which is resulting in more over all Hb.

Correct me if I am wrong. What does the electrophoresis composition show now?

Though in small quantities, but bananas too have butyrate that induce fetal HB

manal

I think her overall love of fruit and vegetables is a very good trait and should always be encouraged. There is very little one can do to treat HbH disease and normally the only recommendation is folic acid. The vitamins and minerals in her diet seem to agree with her system and are helping to maximize her health. I doubt the HbF would increase in alpha thal because HbF is the result of alpha and gamma globins, and since no beta thal is present and the production of beta globin is normal, the gamma globin would have little if any significance. If somehow, more alpha globin is being produced because of these foods, it would combine with the beta globin already present, and create normal hemoglobin. It does seem that many fruits have blood building properties and even have an effect on iron deficient anemia, even without having high iron concentrations. As with wheatgrass, the mechanisms of how they work, are not really known. My view is, if it works, keep doing it.

We are lucky that she is no picky on her food so she basically eats or at least tries everything.
Hope this information can help other kids too.

With Hb being 11.6, will my daughter be considered thal minor instead of intermedia?

She would still be considered more of an intermedia. The normal Hb is 8-10 for HbH but the total can be misleading because hemoglobin H has a high affinity for oxygen, which means it easily carries oxygen but it doesn't let go of the oxygen easily, so some of the Hb total isn't very useful. HbH usually leads to moderate to severe anemia but so far, your daughter seems to have mild anemia. This may change to moderate as she gets older but she will probably remain transfusion free. She's off to a good start. You should consider a folic acid supplement if she isn't already taking one.