Do you give your BF baby a vitamin supplement?

I just read THISarticle on Vitamin D deficiency in babies (both breastfed and formula fed). I remember giving vitamins to my twins when they were taking bottles for the first 3 months, but I don't think I ever gave them to Elizabeth (the pedi never recommended them for her). Now I'm thinking I should start giving them to Matthew. What is everyone else doing?

Thanks

 

It was never recommended when I was bf'ing Isabel, but that was 7 yrs. ago. They did recommend it when I had the twins and it was for the Vit D. like you sited. We used the polyvisol drops.

 

I've never given my kids any extra supplement of any vitamin while they were breastfeeding and my pediatrician has never mentioned it. Personally, since we get vitamin D from the sun, I would just take my kids outside more often.

 

Mine recommended it, but we live in a super sunny area & DH takes them for
walks easily 5 days a week, so we haven't.

 

i gave the girls vit D drops for their first 6 months - my doc said that once they started solids they wouldn't need them anymore. :unknw: however, as i've learned more about the issue, i plan on relying on sun exposure for my next baby rather than the vit D drops. my personal feeling is that any time we start messing with the way things are supposed to naturally happen, the more we're likely to discover that the artificial version causes more problems than it solves. science tends to always think it can do better only to discover 50 years down the road that that crop of X cases of Y disease were caused by their "new, improved" version of nature, KWIM?

in fact, formula would be a perfect example of that in action.

 

Our pedi recommends it because we don't get much sun exposure. I normally give them to my kids no problem, but with Blake he pretty much always pukes it right back up so I haven't been giving them to him. I plan to talk to the pedi about this at his appointment next week.

 

ITA! This is why DH & I have resisted doing it. I actually bought the vitamins, but am reluctant to give them for those reasons.

 

I give Kennedy Vitamin D drops and here in Alaska in the summer time the sun shines 22 hours a day HOWEVER, because we are at such a northern latitude the light rays get distorted and we can not effectively absorb the sun the way we need to.
The majority of Americans, not just breastfed babies are VERY deficient in vitamin D. In the south people stay inside because its too hot, in the north people go out but they cant absorb the sun efficiently because of the latitude that they are at.

 

I wonder how sunscreen impacts this issue?

My ped did recommend it for Caleb. And it was recommended for my other bf babies too. But honestly, I hardly ever gave the other two kids them...and I haven't bought them yet for Caleb. Probably won't bother. I don't get too hyper over these things. The way I look at it is that we might be able to test for a lot more deficiencies these days, but our diet is a ton more varied than it was 100 years ago. 150 years ago getting an orange to eat while living in the midwest would've been a big celebration... getting red meat for certain families would've been a big deal too. Maybe they would've had enough vitamin D, but they might have had other issues from not having enough fruits and veggies. Anyway, my thoughts are that we're never going to reach a perfect level with our nutrition... so I don't worry too much about this stuff just do what I can do within reason for my life!

 

I wondered about vit d also. I ended up having a blood draw when my girls were about 4 months so I had my vit D level checked. It was very, very low so I added a vit d and calcium supp to my diet. I'm not sure it made a difference but it didn't hurt them.

 

I sun my baby for 5 minutes every morning. I've heard that vitamin D supplents are not easily absorbed, and often not the "right" kind of vitamin D. (I think you are supposed to give vitamin D3, but most supplements are D2).

 

There is some vitamin D in breastmilk, but the drops are recommended here (latitude about 45 degrees)--not that I remember every day. The drops I use I put on my nipple, and she doesn't mind the taste.

We get out every day for a walk, which helps.

Sunblock blocks UV, UV exposure to skin is what creates vitamin D, but you only need a few minutes a day.

In Canada, (cows) milk is fortified with vitamin D, and I think formula is too.

 

I didn't for my older daughters (ages 5 and 6), but the doctor recommended it for my twins (14 months) this time around so we did. (poly-vi-sol with iron)

shannon

 

I read about this, but I didn't do anything and wasn't particularly worried about it. Like everyone said, sun exposure helps, and that is especially true for people who have darker skin coloring. If you are pale like me, it doesn't take much sun exposure to get what you need, but my children do need more exposure.

 

Vitamin D is ESSENTIAL for calcium absorption and breastfed babies need vit D supplementation this has been studied for years.

People, in general, do not get enough vit D from the sun. It is now being recommended that adults take 2000 iu-5000 iu of Vit D per day, so you can imagine that a baby WOULD need the small amt that is given in a vitamin.

I have and always will give mine the vit because I know that w/o vit D calcium cannot be absorbed properly.

 

I did the polysol vitamins when I remembered with the twins, but I probaby only went through 1 or 2 of the bottles... when they were young. my pedi recommended at 3 mo. or so, but then later when I asked she said she only recommended it when they were young not after 6 mo. or so? maybe that was to do with being able to take them out into the sun more?

I have recently just heard a great lecture on Vitamin D, and it sounds like it is so essential to all of us, and yes, they recommend everyone take supplements for it. I want to get my blood level checked and wish it weren't a blood test for the kids... their bloodwork at 12 mo. was heck to get - poor little screaming babies!

anyway, the lecture I went to said that some people absorb/make vitamin D easier than others. the physician that was giving the lecture said he didn't absorb it at all at first. he actually has to take his supplement with a fat - like a tablespoon of olive oil or something to get it to absorb better. his levels were checked at varying points to discover this. anyway, its very intriguing.

he also said that for the body to produce vitamin D from the sun, you have to get to a pre sunburn.... where your skin turns pink... and yes, you can't wear sunblock b/c that blocks it...

 

My kids take the polyvisol drops because I know their diet isn't always perfect and I want to make sure they're getting enough vitamins. We are at the park playing and walking basically every day year round, so I think they are getting enough sun exposure. If it is really sunny and hot, I will use sunscreen, otherwise, I don't. No sunburns yet.

 

This is the opposite of what I've read. Other sources say that you can just leave your forarms uncovered, without sunblock, for 15 minutes. (for most of the US Canada and Alaska would need more)

 

i think this is a part of the issue - they don't really know because they've never had to really study it before, because it wasn't until recently that we all became obsessed with sunscreen, thereby reducing the amount of vit D we're producing, etc. i'd be curious to know if they feel that vit D deficiency has always been a problem & we're just now becoming aware of it, or if it really only became a problem when they started pushing the use of sunscreen so much. :unknw:

i don't know - i still think i'd rather take my chances that increasing sun exposure will solve the problem rather than pumping myself or my children full of an artificial vitamin that we likely aren't absorbing as needed anyway.