vitamins and flouride for breastfed babies

the dr prescribed addison vitamins since breastfed babies supposedly dont get enough D and 2 others i cant remember and flouride as well.  my problem is, or her problem, they taste horrible!! they stink, she looks like i am putting poop down her throat i feel so bad!  does anyone have a better tasting one they take? i hate to start her on additives but man i tasted them and its really really bad!

[AndiJ78]

I never did the vitamins for the babies, I ate good and took my vitamins, got my boys sunshine and that was that. As they got older we did the flouride drops and now the tablets, but not in the beginning because it was impossible to time it with as often as they nursed. It interferes with calcium or rather the other way around. So you cannot give the flouride less than an hour before nursing or less than 2 hours after nursing. With my boys that window rarely existed until they were almost 1 ;-)

They have a separate flouride drop without the poop brown vitamins as well which is what we used.

The D can be achieved by you taking 3000-4000 MUIs a day as well as making sure she gets about 10 minutes of sun a day (watch for burning). The iron in breastmilk is highly absorbed, much more than any other source so I would not get freaked out by that so much either. A small amount of rice cereal given after 6 mos can help with that if you are concerned. Other than that your milk provides everything else in the perfect mix.

I never supplemented the kids with those vitamins because they were so foul. I had faith in my diet and they did well.

[pertykitty]

i didnt know or remember about the calcium and waiting time, she eats all the darn time lately.  they are foul, i do eat well and still take my prenatals, im going to have to reconsider giving these, its too disgusting for her poor baby!  

[tiredbuthappy]

which ones are they? dd LOVED the trivisol- it's OTC and it's what her ped said to give her. In addition to vitamin D, it has vitamin C, which is something that is not passed along in breast milk.

[meiram]

Perty--thanks for bringing up such a good question.  My dd's ped never brought it up and I didn't know enough to ask.

All--when are you supposed to start with the vitamins?  My dd is almost 5 months, should I call her dd and ask about this yet?  

[AndiJ78]

Actually, Vitamin C is in breast milk.

http://parenting.ivillage.com/newborn/nbreastfeed/0,,3x88,00.html

[pertykitty]

tired ill probably continue the trivisol it doesnt taste bad, the prescribed vits with flouride is the one her dr just prescribed.

addison is 7 months, i think it was 4 months her dr wanted her to start the trivisol.

[tiredbuthappy]

we started trivisol at the very beginning. at 6 months we got the doc to prescribe separate flouride drops because i heard horror stories of bad taste and staining skin and clothes about the multi with flouride. the flouride drops alone have a mild peach taste.


Seems AAP recently changed it's position about vitamin D- here's an interesting link as an fyi, not to start a debate :)
http://www.aap.org/family/vitdpatients.htm

You're right Andi- it's not the vitamin C they need, it's just that at the time of publication, there were no D-only drops available.

[AndiJ78]

I just did a bunch of reading on this for another member and found the information on ways to avoid having to do the extra supplementation with D. It does appear that the maternal supplementing brings the Vitamin D in the mothers milk up to par. Sun of course is the best source for everyone, in moderation.

[meiram]

Thank you, Tired, for that link.

[boosty]

i was told by my pediatrition to start giving poly-vi-sol at 6 months. what i wasnt told was NOT to give the ones with iron. cause some have no iron and some have iron. i gave the one with iron and i had such bad constipation problme with her that i ended up in the emergency room. poor baby. as soon as i changed it to no iron, she was fine. BUT i have plenty of friends and families who dont give any vitamins to their babies. i dont think its necessary. i dont think i will give my new baby any. they get enough of their vitamins from their milk.

[boosty]

its good to give vitamin, but its not necessary. as i said i was told to give poly-vi-sol THE ONE WITHOUT IRON. at 6 months. it tastes horrible. youre supposed to mix it in their gerber food or something.

[Trialanderror]

Weird...I was told, when breastfed, NO supplements except vitamin D (which I was NOT told about). And not giving my son vitamin D had left his teeth and bones  quite brittle for a few years! But then again, I had rickets as a kid, so probably there was not enough coming from me to begin with.  Be extra extra cautious with fluoride drops in infancy, though. Read lots about it. Check if your local drinking water is fluoridated. Too much of it can cause fluoriosis in permanent teeth.