Vitamin Supplements..yes or No

Hi. I didn't have time to read all the responses. But we have an adopted daughter and she had high lead levels when we got her so the dr. put her on the Poly Vi Sol with Iron. She told us to mask it with food, so I never tried to give it to her straight. So she gets a shot of it in her morning bottle.

9 months later - she had blood work done last week and all her levels are normal and healthy, but we are still going to keep her on them.

Mimi,
Ask the doctor to do a vitamin panel if you are concerned about giving her something she may not need. If you are still taking a prenatal vitamin and she is exclusively breast fed, she probably does not need it. They can just test for iron defiency also. It may be standard "practice" to start babies on vitamins -but even if on formula they already have vitamins in it also.

As for giving the vitamins, I always gave in a little juice or mixed with one of the formula bottles.

If you're exclusively breastfeeding and still taking your pre-natal vitamins (with iron), then your daughter should not need supplements. Breastmilk is the perfect food provided the mother has a good diet and quality supplements. The body will deprive the mother's body of nutrients such as calcium before it will not include them in the breastmilk (my sister learned this the hard way as she had lots of dental problems while nursing). The best thing you could do would be to get your doctor to measure your nutritional status to see if you have issues. Things like ferritin, vitamin B12, folate, magnesium, calcium are some of the most important. IF the mother is deficient, the child could have problems once they wean.

Please ask the doctor if you can use something else if it is really needed and do not give this to your baby. I had to take this as a baby, I was born in 1980, because I was born anemic. Of course at the time they started giving this to me I did not have any teeth, well when my teeth started coming in they were stained because of this liquid iron. To this day at 28 years of age they are still slightly stained and there is nothing the dentist can do because it stained my gums as a baby and the stain is all the way through my teeth, so scraping the enamel or whitening won't work. I say don't give this to your baby and if something is really needed after a blood test, they usually just prick the finger or heel, then see what other options you have. Good luck!

I have been giving it to my DD since she was one. I mixed it at first in her food and she didnt notice one bit. She now gets it in her juice...doesnt even phase her a bit.

I have tasted her juice with it and YUCK! I think she is just used to it and knows no difference.

She takes Poly Vi Sol every day...and we have no prob with her. Everything is bad in Over quantities.

The baby vitamins are fine...just give the daily reccomended amount.

My family takes a product that is great tasting and is the most complete liquid supplement on the market currently. It is extremely high in antioxidant value as well, which is critical to the immune function. Please contact me for more info or visit www.nobrainernutrition.com. If anything, you being the breastfeeding mom, should be taking a quality vitamin.

A. ###-###-####

I gave both of my kids vitamins. I didn't breastfeed my first due to a hole in her soft palate however I did with my second. When the Dr gave my the vitamins I put it in her bottles yes it smells horrible but it is worth it.

Definitely no!
If your Pediatrician doesn't have any special concern regarding your baby and prescribed the vitamins as a routine, then again, no!
As you said so yourself, by breastfeeding your baby, you provide her with everything she needs. Once she starts solid food, you will have to give her some rice cereal to boost her intake of iron but that's all!!
Later on, if she eats a well balanced diet of varied foods, she won't need vitamin supplements either.
Prescribing automatically multivitamins to babies, children and adults is so typically American. Just because most people in this country have an unbalanced diet, then everybody should take some vitamins without thinking.
I applaud your concern, your research in the matter and your questionning.
More and more we learn that vitamin supplements don't work at best or may even be dangerous to your health.
Make sure that you and your family eat a little of everything regularly and you'll be fine : you won't have any carence in anything.
As for your baby, she will grow into a healthy child that hasn't been poisonned by unnatural chemicals.

F.

Just writing to let you know that if you aren't already, you should be taking good prenatal vitamins so your breast milk contains all the nutrients-Rainbow Light Complete prenatal system is the one I take, it's the best in my opinion, and the top seller. You can get it at Whole Foods or any good health food store. Taking a good essential fatty acid would be good for your breast milk too. EFAs are necessary for the baby's brain, nerves and eye development.

I tried the poly-vi-sol vitamins with iron and they smelled horrible and stained anything you got it on. My pedi also recommended MyKidz Iron. You have to give a little more than the poly but it doesn't stain and smells alot better. I special ordered it at CVS pharmacy. I am exclusively breastfeeding.
My pedi also recommended them to my three month old son. I give it to him every other day. I am also torn but I called my pedi and asked more questions and he said that the research he has seen makes him believe that it is a good thing. He said it helps with his IQ. Who knows, you can find so much info either way. Good Luck!

Both of my sons took poly-vi-sol which is the one I'm assuming your mentioning since I remember that horrible smell! They didn't take them though until they were diagnosed as anemic at their 1 year well check. I've never heard of a baby that young getting them.

Unfortunately, many pediatricians are sadly lacking in up to date and accurate information on breastfeeding. While some people may feel that a doctor always knows best, I feel that my health and that of my children is mainly my responsibility. A doctor doesn't always know best, unfortunately so I think you are right and responsible to question a doctor's advice if you have doubts. YOU GO GIRL! :-)

I say no, for the healthy breastfed infant. Your breastmilk gives her EVERYTHING she needs nutritionally for at least the first year.

Did the dr. give a reason for wanting you to give the vitamins? Some iron supplements can be horribly constipating too. Here is an article from a great website that has soooo much breastfeeding info. http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/vitamins.html

Also, I want to tell you about the free breastfeeding support group I am a member of. It is called For Babies Sake. There is a yahoo group for online support and we also meet every Tuesday night at the South Arlington Church of Christ at 830 Eden Rd. 76001. We meet at 7pm and it is led by a professional lactation consultant. There is a great group of ladies who attend and it is all very informal. Maybe I'll see you there.

If you are breastfeeding, continue taking your prenatel vitamins for your baby. that should be enough!! as far as iron.....my pedi told me that the iron we pass through our milk is not enough and an iron supplement is sometimes needed..BUT>>>>>> they checked my daughter's levels by drawing blood. I would suggest checking that before giving her any over the counter iron stuff. Talk to your doc about it. hope this helped a little

My doc suggested we use that for our daughter as well. I just mixed it in with her bottle. With at least 6 oz of milk or formula the basically dissolves and cant be tasted.

Yep, I gave that stuff to my daughter too. It tastes nasty and it stains everything. I exclusively breastfed my daughter until she was 6 months old. I did continue to give her the vitamins because they contain fluoride and since she was exclusively breastfeeding, she wasn't getting fluoride from water mixed with tap water. The fluoride will help her have good teeth. To be honest, I wasn't very good about giving my daughter the vitamins, but I did it some of the time.

If your dr said to give her the supplement(PolyVisol?) than I would do what is told. Remember you are breastfeeding exclusively and this is probably why the dr recommended the supplement. Yes the stuff smells horrible and the taste is no better. This is your first child and you will probably question everything but if this is something the dr said do I would. It would be different if a family friend or family member had told you to do this.

I gave my son and daughter this same supplement and even though I thought it was horrible, they did not have a big problem with it. My nieces and nephews have also used this when they were that age until age 12 months. As a side note, all of the children, nieces and nephew included do not have stained teeth and have had no dental problems. As a matter of fact, their teeth came in perfect. There was no other side effects that hurt them in any fashion. The stuff is measured out and can only be given too much if you give her to much. Wouldn't you as mom want to err on the side of caution versus not give the supplement and delays happen as your child gets older?

Lastly, I would only stress that the dr is not going to suggest something that will do harm to your child.

Our family drinks Mona Vie. It is a whole food product so it is readily and easily absorbed by the body without all of the junk that your body doesn't need. It tastes and smells great. My kids love it and ask for it every day. Great for immune function, energy and digestion. It's safe for nursing mommies too!!!!

Feel free to contact me if you have questions!

MyMonaVie.com/LanissaBrantley or ###-###-####

I would say no. The doc was just making a generalization, as what all docs do. Now, w/o blood work, who is to say if your baby is deficient at all. I know some people naturally, have elevated iron levels, so if you give her more iron, you might be overdosing her. I know that's extreme, but my point is that docs aren't God; they don't know everything, that's why they're supposed to run tests in order to give accurate advice, not just "well it worked for Kid A, therefore it must work for Kid B". Ours suggested the same thing, but we never did. My (just turned 1 yesterday) son was strictly breastfed, has a dairy and soy allergy, is in the 75% of weight and height and, incidentally, his front 8 teeth came in perfect (he's cutting molars right now). Remember, breastfed babies literally suck nutrients out of you, so if you're supplementing yourself, like I was on prenatals, I think that's good enough. Also, if you eat a balanced diet, your baby will reap the benefits too. Good luck and great job on breastfeeding!