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If breast milk is so awesome...
Then why did the pediatricians at the hospital give me baby vitamins (something they only do for exclusively breastfed babies)? Seriously this stuff smells like sheep dip and is bright fucking Sin City yellow to boot.
This is new to me. My older children never came home with this stuff. What say you OS? Is this a necessary evil or kind of silly (or somewhere between)? I thought Finn would be getting everything he needs from me. Color me confused (and bright fucking yellow).
This is new to me. My older children never came home with this stuff. What say you OS? Is this a necessary evil or kind of silly (or somewhere between)? I thought Finn would be getting everything he needs from me. Color me confused (and bright fucking yellow).
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mamawho on
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That drives me nuts, probably because I'm somewhat suspicious by nature anyway, and I spend so much time at the doctor's office. Just frickin' tell me already!
Daria said:I had a summer baby and our doctor made a point of asking if he got outside everyday, when we said yes, that was the end of it. I realized later that he was probably sorting out the Vitamin D stuff. Those pediatricians are kind of sneaky sometimes about the questions they ask. He had a student with him last time and explained that one of the "games" he played with the Kid was testing for development issues. Makes sense, but I was a little slow to figure it out.
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Permalink Reply by MamaButterfly on -
Both of mine were exclusively breastfed and I never gave them vitamins.
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Permalink Reply by Jersey on -
All 3 of my kids were breastfed, and they all got the vitamins. It's for the Vitamin D due to lack of sunlight, because I remember it being much more important that my son who was born in January take them, and with my other 2 (born March and August), they were kind of like, if you can get them to take them great, if not don't worry about it. It's definitely a winter months/northern climate thing.
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Permalink Reply by MamatothaMax on -
The stuff is generic Poly-Vi-Sol so I don't think it's big Pharma and Finn was born at a Navy hospital.
They told me to start giving it to him right away. He's a champ eater and checks out health wise.
Perhaps he can make do with time in the sun. This stuff stinks to high heaven, he gets just a little anywhere other than in his mouth and it out stinks the sweet baby smell for the rest of the day.
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Permalink Reply by wookie on -
I'm going on memory here, but vitamin D is pretty important to your immune system, I think. I had it reccomended for the first couple of months of my spring baby's life, and my youngest was born in late july but was also jaundiced and although jaundice is treated with light, I don't think jaundice is vit d related.
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Permalink Reply by SweetJudyB on -
Our preemie only got breastmilk, and he did come home on poly-vi-sol and iron- fairly typical from what I understood. He stayed on the iron for a little bit, and now all he gets is VitD (and fish oil, but that's just me).
http://www.breastfeeding.org/newsletter/v2i1/page2.html
If babe is healthy, hold off and talk to your pediatrician about it.
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Permalink Reply by MamaButterfly on
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I got this article from Kellymom.com. If you want to read the whole article, here's the URL: http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/vitamins.html
Vitamin and mineral supplements are not necessary for the average healthy, full-term breastfed baby during the first year. Breastmilk is all that your baby needs for at least the first six months of life. Studies have shown that vitamins, fluoride, iron, water, juice, formula and solid foods are rarely beneficial to healthy breastfed babies during the first six months, and some can even be harmful. There are certain cases where a vitamin supplement may be needed for a breastfed baby during the first year, but these cases are the exception, not the rule (see below for specifics).
The American Academy of Pediatrics (Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk) states:
No supplements (water, glucose water, formula, and so forth) should be given to breastfeeding newborns unless a medical indication exists... Exclusive breastfeeding is ideal nutrition and sufficient to support optimal growth and development for approximately the first 6 months after birth.
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Permalink Reply by MamaButterfly on
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And here's the one specifically for vitamin D. Hope this helps! URL: http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/vitamin-d.html
Is your baby at risk for vitamin D deficiency?
First of all, babies rarely need vitamin D supplements. The babies who do need these supplements need them due to a lack of sufficient sunlight. Factors that put your breastfed baby at risk for vitamin D deficiency (rickets) are:
Baby has very little exposure to sunlight. For example: if you live in a far northern latitude, if you live in an urban area where tall buildings and pollution block sunlight, if baby is always completely covered and kept out of the sun, if baby is always inside during the day, or if you always apply high-SPF sunscreen.
Both mother and baby have darker skin and thus require more sun exposure to generate an adequate amount of vitamin D. Again, this is a "not enough sunlight" issue - the darker your skin pigmentation, the greater the amount of sun exposure needed. There is not much information available on how much more sunlight is needed if you have medium or darker toned skin. See the section below regarding amount of sunlight needed.
Mother is deficient in vitamin D - this is rare in western countries. The amount of vitamin D in breastmilk depends upon mom's vitamin D status. If baby gets enough sunlight, mom's deficiency is unlikely to be a problem for baby. However, if baby is not producing enough vitamin D from sunlight exposure, then breastmilk will need to meet a larger percentage of baby's vitamin D needs. If mom has minimal exposure to sunlight (see above examples) and is not consuming enough foods or supplements containing vitamin D, then she may be vitamin D deficient. More below on supplementing mom with vitamin D.
Vitamin D supplementation is often recommended particularly in Canada and other northern latitudes, since these areas don't receive much sunlight during certain parts of the year. If you live in the far north and don't receive much sunlight, you might consider a vitamin D supplement. However, Dr. Jack Newman, a Canadian pediatrician and breastfeeding expert, indicates that Vitamin D supplements are rarely needed - even in Canada.
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Permalink Reply by bap2 on
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The dates from MamaButterfly's links are either a 1991 study up through Newman's 2005 summary of the 1991 study. The beauty of science is that we can adjust when new data comes out. Which it has.
As of October 2008 LLL has jumped on the bandwagon of Vitamin D. The link is here. However, it does state that the baby gets Vitamin D from the mother, but only if the mother has adequate amounts.
If I recall MTTM is virtually translucent compared to our Hispanic family, so maybe she can get everything she needs from the sun...lucky:). I chose to have my levels done and lo and behold they were WAY below what they needed to be. So I got these.
We'll only know the truth if my son grows up to be a serial killer. if he does...it must have been the drops.
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Permalink Reply by MamatothaMax on
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I think I'll request a count at my follow up appointment. Hopefully being teh pale will benefit us in the D department.
bap2 said:The dates from MamaButterfly's links are either a 1991 study up through Newman's 2005 summary of the 1991 study. The beauty of science is that we can adjust when new data comes out. Which it has.
As of October 2008 LLL has jumped on the bandwagon of Vitamin D. The link is here. However, it does state that the baby gets Vitamin D from the mother, but only if the mother has adequate amounts.
If I recall MTTM is virtually translucent compared to our Hispanic family, so maybe she can get everything she needs from the sun...lucky:). I chose to have my levels done and lo and behold they were WAY below what they needed to be. So I got these.
We'll only know the truth if my son grows up to be a serial killer. if he does...it must have been the drops.
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Permalink Reply by Boring User Name on -
Another excellent comment, Bap2. Thanks!
And since my pediatrician didn't recommend them (and I was too overwhelmed with info to research this at the time), my son can be the test serial killer case for no Vitamin D :-) I do wish he had told me if he thought we didn't need it (but the kid and I were outside every day of his first six months). I so love second-guessing things a year later...
bap2 said:The dates from MamaButterfly's links are either a 1991 study up through Newman's 2005 summary of the 1991 study. The beauty of science is that we can adjust when new data comes out. Which it has.
As of October 2008 LLL has jumped on the bandwagon of Vitamin D. The link is here. However, it does state that the baby gets Vitamin D from the mother, but only if the mother has adequate amounts.
If I recall MTTM is virtually translucent compared to our Hispanic family, so maybe she can get everything she needs from the sun...lucky:). I chose to have my levels done and lo and behold they were WAY below what they needed to be. So I got these.
We'll only know the truth if my son grows up to be a serial killer. if he does...it must have been the drops.
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Permalink Reply by rommie on -
Mini-moose gets Tri-Vi-Sol most mornings, unless I forget. I hestitated at first because I was afraid that our pediatrician was just overmedicalizing things again, but I found the links other people mentioned and went ahead and started. Weirdly, the doc never mentioned them when we were talking to him; it was just written in the little "what's happening with your kid" generic update we get at every visit.
Totally off-topic: CONGRATULATIONS! I couldn't get the comment button on your blog post to work, and I can't send PMs from this computer, so I never got to tell you. That's one beautiful baby! I'm so happy for you!
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