infant vitamin supplements

At our 2 month checkup, the pediatrician recommended that we start giving
her a multivitamin. Actually, she recommended vitamin D supplementation b/c
we live in Maine, don't go outdoors right now unless completely bundled, and
Madi is quite fair skinned. She also said that she recommends giving the
infant vitamins with iron (sort of, "if you're going to give her vitamins
anyway, might as well add iron", not that she really needs iron)
I agree that Vitamin D supplements are appropriate given our circumstances,
but am pretty neutral about the need for everything else. However, I could
only find two types of infant vitamin drops...Poly-Vi-Sol with iron, or
Tri-Vi-Sol, so I got the Poly-Vi-Sol.
Madi hates the taste, it stained her clothes when she spit it back out and
she seemed crankier the few days I gave it to her. Plus, her poo smelled
terrible! So, I stopped and things have returned to normal.
I'm just wondering if the Tri-Vi-Sol is likely to do the same thing (don't
want to spend another $10 on a wasted product, ya know?). I do think it's
important to get her the vitamin D, so I'm wondering about buying just
Vitamin D drops over the internet. http://www.sunlightvitamins.com/

Anyone use this or similar product? Anyone have a bad experience with
Poly-Vi-Sol but no problems with Tri-Vi-Sol? Will Tri-Vi-Sol stain clothing
too and taste bad?

Thanks!
Amy----having baby withdrawal because this is her first day in daycare!

I would just supplement with vitamin D. Here we also have D-vi-Sol,
perhaps another store might carry it where you are?? More is not
always better, and if you are breastfeeding I don't see the need of
iron or anything else at this point!

KR

Madi is quite fair skinned.

I _think_ this is a good thing in terms of vitamin D absorption, I
understand that black children are actually most at risk from not getting
enough vitamin D when further north as there skin is so effective at
blocking out the harmful bits of sunlight because they originate from more
equatorial regions.

Personally I don't supplement with vitamin D, it's not even recommended in
babies under 6 months in the UK, though I think it is for breastfed babies
from 6 months to a year, but I choose not to follow that advice either. All
of the UK is further north than even Maine, so we get shorter days and less
sun, it's a little warmer I think, but not enough for us to start exposing
skin, our babies are still bundled up.

As far as I recall, we don't have any greater incidence of rickets in the
white population than the US, my reading on the matter isn't current, but I
found out enough with number 1 to know I wasn't going that route either for
the vit D, or the iron and haven't heard or read anything since that makes
me change my mind.

Anne

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
...
Madi is quite fair skinned.

I _think_ this is a good thing in terms of vitamin D absorption, I
understand that black children are actually most at risk from not getting
enough vitamin D when further north as there skin is so effective at
blocking out the harmful bits of sunlight because they originate from more
equatorial regions.


D'oh! You're right of course! Must have had a brain block there because I
got it quite backward.

Personally I don't supplement with vitamin D, it's not even recommended in
babies under 6 months in the UK, though I think it is for breastfed babies
from 6 months to a year, but I choose not to follow that advice either.
All of the UK is further north than even Maine, so we get shorter days and
less sun, it's a little warmer I think, but not enough for us to start
exposing skin, our babies are still bundled up.

As far as I recall, we don't have any greater incidence of rickets in the
white population than the US, my reading on the matter isn't current, but
I found out enough with number 1 to know I wasn't going that route either
for the vit D, or the iron and haven't heard or read anything since that
makes me change my mind.

Anne


Thanks, I'm thinking that I might just skip the whole thing too. I'm
usually one of those people who do all sorts of preventive things (OK,
except exercise and eat right!)...I buy insurance for everything, plan for
the worst, etc. I think this might be one case where there are more cons
than pros and the risk is so very small.

Thanks again for reassuring me I wasn't neglecting my baby by skipping the
vitamins!

Amy

"V." wrote in message
...
At our 2 month checkup, the pediatrician recommended that we start giving
her a multivitamin. Actually, she recommended vitamin D supplementation
b/c we live in Maine, don't go outdoors right now unless completely
bundled, and Madi is quite fair skinned. She also said that she
recommends giving the infant vitamins with iron (sort of, "if you're going
to give her vitamins anyway, might as well add iron", not that she really
needs iron)

If vitamin D is considered necessary for your climate - though it's more an
issue with dark skinned children, not fair skinned ones - then supplement.
She doesn't need anything else though, it's all in the breastmilk & your Dr.
is very out-of-date. Iron supplementation without a definite need is not a
good idea. It can cause constipation, and surplus iron is available in the
gut to pathogens, whereas the readily absorbed iron in breastmilk is not.
I've just started my 19 month old on Floradix once a day, but that's because
she's become extremely food fussy and will go for days eating nothing but a
bowl of porridge in the morning. If she was still eating like she used to at
10 months old, I wouldn't be supplementing.


--
Amy
Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02,
& Ana born screaming 30/06/04
http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/
My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/

My son loved the Tri-Vi-Sol (and, incidentally, it always cured him of
the hiccups) but it did stain if dribbled. We just switched to the
Poly-Vi-Sol with Iron as we stopped breastfeeding and he hates it. The
iron, I think, is what gives it an awful taste.
Tri-vi-sol has been around forever -- my mother used it with both me
and my sister back in the 70s -- and Vitamins A and D are so important
to little ones, I wouldn't skip it.


Mum of Two wrote:
"V." wrote in message
...
At our 2 month checkup, the pediatrician recommended that we start giving
her a multivitamin. Actually, she recommended vitamin D supplementation
b/c we live in Maine, don't go outdoors right now unless completely
bundled, and Madi is quite fair skinned. She also said that she
recommends giving the infant vitamins with iron (sort of, "if you're going
to give her vitamins anyway, might as well add iron", not that she really
needs iron)

If vitamin D is considered necessary for your climate - though it's more an
issue with dark skinned children, not fair skinned ones - then supplement.
She doesn't need anything else though, it's all in the breastmilk & your Dr.
is very out-of-date. Iron supplementation without a definite need is not a
good idea. It can cause constipation, and surplus iron is available in the
gut to pathogens, whereas the readily absorbed iron in breastmilk is not.
I've just started my 19 month old on Floradix once a day, but that's because
she's become extremely food fussy and will go for days eating nothing but a
bowl of porridge in the morning. If she was still eating like she used to at
10 months old, I wouldn't be supplementing.


--
Amy
Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02,
& Ana born screaming 30/06/04
http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/
My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/