Vitamin Confusion!

I'm researching vitamins to take after the surgery is done. I can get the Centrum Chewable from my locale Walmart. I have checked out most of the chewable Calcium Citrate's and most of them are Carbonate! I know Citrate is absorbed better. What brands of Calcium does everyone take? Also what chewable Iron are you taking to? Money is tight want a vitamin budget. I could do PatchMD and get all my vitamins for 80.00 a month. I'm confused please help!

There's no need to do chewables beyond the first few weeks, if at all. You'll absolutely be possible to swallow regular pills, though you may have to break the larger pills up at first. I took pills from day 1, though I had to take one pill (or half of one) at a time with a tiny sip of water; it took a good five minutes to get all of them down.

Calcium: Citracal is good stuff, and the drugstore brand works just as well. If you have a hard time with larger pills, they make "petites" that are easier to swallow.

Iron: I use Nature Made iron, the pills are tiny! Per my hematologist, I take four pills a day (I'm a bit deficient right now): two in the morning, and two at night.

Multi: Centrum, or the drugstore version, works just fine. I take two pills a day-- one in the morning, and one at bedtime-- to get the recommended 200% RDA of all the vitamins.

Keep an eye out for BOGO free sales at the drugstore, they seem to happen a lot at Walgreen's. When they go on sale, I'll buy a few months' stock and sta**** away.

Our team recommended Flinstones Chewables - double the dose - take morning and evening for vitamins. They weren't horrible. I was able to switch after a month or so to my regular vitamin from Costco, but had to take a break from it about six weeks ago - I was having trouble keeping it down - it was making me vomit.

I don't do a calcium supplement and my team is OK with that - my dexa scan was good and my numbers on my bloodwork are really good. I do eat a lot of dairy. I used some of the CVS chewable calciums for a month or so after surgery.

Whatever calcium you take, just be aware of "serving size". Sometimes the smaller the pill, the more pills you have to take to make sure you get the required dosage. The reason I say this is someone in another reply mentioned Citracal Petites. I take Citracal but the regular ones, not the petites because the serving size of the petites required too many pills. I can't make any recommendations because I had the DS and my vitamin requirements may be completely different than your requirements (not knowing what type of surgery you are having).

Great point!

I never took chewables...not even at the beginning. Doc had me swallowing 12 giant horse pills on day 4. It was slow...just one at a time for a while, but within a couple of months I could do several at once.

PatchMD didn't work for me as well as I'd hoped. I used them for six months, and bloodwork proved them not as effective.

Centrum is fine for a multi, be it pill or chewable, and you'll be hard pressed to find something of similar quality at a better price. Designer bariatric vitamins aren't worth their elevated prices.

Citrical has a citrate petite size, but it does mean that you take more of them to reach your desired goal. I can barely stand the aftertaste burp for the iron, so I shudder to what a chewable might taste like. That would be the first item I would try in pill form to avoid that experience.

I bought bariatric chewable vitamins before I had surgery to be prepared but once I had GB surgery they made me sick (i.e. nausea & vomiting). The reason was because they contained sugar alcohols, which my body no longer tolerates post-WLS. That was an expensive mistake. So my recommendation is to not stock up on vitamins before surgery and afterwards to take time to figure out which ones work best for you before buying in bulk to save money. Note that I no longer buy bariatric-labeled vitamins as I think they're more of a marketing ploy (and extra cost) and don't lead to better results.

What Julie said above is spot on. Avoid gummies and any children's vitamins, such as Flintstones. They are missing many key elements.

Thanks everyone! Great advice and greatly appreciated! I'm on SSD and money is tight! All the vitamins for Bariatric surgery are highly expensive. Centrum chewable seem quite reasonable. I won't stock up until after surgery, until then l will continue to research to get the best deals. Thanks again!

My husband and I (both RNY 2003) take GNC Calcium Citrate 1000MG http://www.gnc.com/calcium/097312.html?product_id=097312&fla gtype=nonbrand&vendor=none&channel=ppc&adpos=1o1&creative=18 9757865677&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpMLOB RC9ARIsAPiGeZC6bsxmjUhGKv4WYt2iBaI3jeca0ODNQT0vSo834m5YkFLYo 69hu5UaAsU6EALw_wcB