Vitamins

_Minnie09_ · Jul 29, 2010 1:36PM

Just wondering if you give your lo vitamins and if so which brand and are they drops or water soluable etc?

Love NN xx

wannababy · Jul 21, 2010 3:24PM

Im not at the moment and it was what i was meant to ask hv about! my doc said to me i should be giving Lizzie a mulitvit everyday as its now advised for under 5's but this was the same doc who gave me soya milk when lizzie was 3 months old so i wanted to check with hv first and as her which would be best for lizzie.
what are you using?

sarah-jb · Jul 21, 2010 4:21PM

we use Abidec multivitamin drops. It comes with a little syringe with a measure on it and you just squirt it at the back of the tongue.

mybutler · Jul 21, 2010 6:54PM

I would have thought that they should be getting all they need from their milk and food. Especially those babies that are ff as they have added vitamins, eg iron in follow on milk. I understand that it can be dangerous to take vitamins in high doses as some are very difficult for they body to process efficiently and put unnecessary stress on LO's renal system.

Have a read of this extract:
Most risky are the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K), while taking very large amounts of water-soluble vitamins rarely causes toxic effects because these vitamins are simply washed out in the urine. However, adverse reactions to Vitamin C and Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) have been reported.

Specific risks are:

Vitamin A
Vitamin A is one of the most dangerous vitamins in excessive doses, causing a syndrome called hypervitaminosis A, which includes symptoms such as nausea, headache, appetite loss, skin changes and irregular periods. In extreme cases there may be liver damage.

Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)
High doses of vitamin B6 can cause nerve damage, although there is currently some debate at to how much constitutes a dangerous dose.

Vitamin C
The dangerous link with high doses of vitamin C (more than I gram a day) is to nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and kidney stones.

Vitamin D
Excessive amounts of Vitamin D can cause chaos with levels of calcium and phosphate in the body, with high blood levels of calcium causing thirst, muscle weakness, stomach upsets, kidney stones and growth problems in children.

Vitamin E
If high doses are continually taken there is a risk of stomach upsets and
abdominal pain, and disruption of absorption of other fat soluble vitamins into the body. Source bbc.co.uk

This is not meant to be scaremongering by any means! I lived on berocca for about 5 years before we started ttc, it was the only thing that got me functioning in the mornings, so i'm an avid fan of multivits. Think I need to do some more research into this topic - great thread NN!

Liz x

xpatbeth · Jul 22, 2010 2:53AM

I was told to give vitamins K and D if your baby is BF but no need if they\re FF. I can't remember for how long though and I'm sure it was a Dutch thing!

When I was BF I had to give ones in droplet form from a spoon. it was such a pain trying to give a newborn a spoon!

Liz x x

piggypops · Jul 22, 2010 4:12AM

my HV also said its only BF babies that need extra vits as the formula contaoms these x

_Minnie09_ · Jul 29, 2010 12:11PM

Thanks everyone.

In the weaning booklet the HV's give out it said to give babies a multivitamin (and I'd read it elsewhere too) but everytime I asked either HV they said no! My regular HV has just done some updated training and came back to me and said 'oh you were right, they do need vitamins'!! :roll:

I've just got the Abidec for Lyvi. She's not too impressed with it!

Love NN xxx

Bambina_Mia · Jul 29, 2010 1:36PM

My HV told me to give vitamins, but did say that if you were using follow on milk and were feeding a variety of pruee's including meat and fish not to bother. She did say that they recommend giving vitamins to BLW as they dont eat as much.

I think it a personal choice. I had read that any vitamins they dont need the body just expels through thier poo like we do.

Its another case of different things being said by diff HV's!!

Vitamins

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