Dr.'s Vitamin Recommendations

Here are the vitamin guidelines that my Dr. recommends:
* General Multi-Vitamin, taken once daily
* SourceCF fat-soluable vitamin soft-gels, taken 3 times daily
* Calcium 500mg, taken 3 times dailey
* Iron, B12, and potassium only if needed per blood tests

My concerns:
* I thought DSers shouldn't be taking wet vitamins (i.e., SourceCF soft-gels)?
* Iron, B12, and potassium are not initially required; but I thought they are almost always necessary?

Anybody have a link to a good vitamin recommendation regemin?  I didn't see one on dsfacts.com.

Source:
Diet%20Guidebook%20for%20DS.pdf 

Vitamin and mineral supplements
You will need to take extra vitamins and minerals for the rest of  your life. You can buy the vitamins listed here at your local drug store (over the counter). If you have trouble finding them, or if your body cannot handle them, please call the triage nurse at 612-626-4117.

Multi-vitamin with minerals
Choose one:
• Children’s chewable
• Adult chewable
• Adult pill Take the adult dose listed on the label.  
At first you will need to take these in liquid, chewable or crushed form. You will be able to take whole pills after just a few weeks.

Calcium
You must take a calcium supplement. We suggest 500 to 600 mg three times a day (see schedule on next page). Calcium citrate (such as Citracal) is best.

Fat-soluble vitamin (SourceCF chewables)
These contain vitamins that are easy for your body to absorb. You need to take 3 tablets per day (1 with each meal). You may ask your pharmacy to order this, or you can order it yourself. To order SourceCF chewables, call 888-419-8357 or go to www.sourcecf.com.

Other
Some people also need extra iron, vitamin B12 or potassium. We will test your blood often to make sure you are getting enough nutrients. If you need extra supplements, we will let you know.

Sample Schedule:
Breakfast: multi-vitamin with minerals and fat-soluble vitamin
Lunch: fat-soluble vitamin and calcium citrate
Dinner: fat-soluble vitamin and calcium citrate
Bedtime: calcium citrate

 Many surgeons aren't agressive enough with supplement recommendations for DSers.  You need water soluble vitamins, because you'll be malabsorbing fat, thus flushing away the vitamins....literally.

Man, you are looking for trouble if you follow that schedule. This is why the DS has such a bad reputation among ignorant doctors. This is what I follow (what most people here follow.) Tweak as needed per your labs.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true& srcid=0B046vLsRDC9rODFhZmY3MWEtNDQ1ZC00ZmRjLWIyOGQtYjk4N2I0O ThiOTk1&hl=en&authkey=CNHY--cM&pli=1

Yeah, it is leading you down the road to malnutrition. You need WAY more than that and your ADEKs should be taken seperately because not only should you take only dry versions, but you need them in vastly different doses than is included in those "all in one" pills.

You need to check out Vitalady's recommendations. Look at my docs link in my siggy, or someone here will post another link (there are like 5 floating around, lol).

In a nutshell your doses should be out of the ballpark:

General Multi-Vitamin, 2x a day
Calcium Citrate, 2 pills 3x a day (total of 6 - 300 mg elemental each)
Vitamin A, 100,000 (should be 4 pills of 25,000 each split up doses)
Vitamin D3 1x a day (50,000 IU)
Vitamin E 1x a day (400 IU)
Vitamin K1 1x day (1,000 mcg)

Add also extra copper, zinc, B complex, iron, magnesium

Sure, specifics on what and what level will be determined down the road with labs, but don't TANK your labs first just to find out! Start off strong.

So a bit of digging deaper, I found that the Dr. recommends the SourceCF chewables, not the soft-gels.  These are made for cystic fibrosis patients, and contain the following concentrations per tablet, though it still doesn't come close to what vitalady recommends, but 30 pills a day seems like a lot.

9000 IU Vitamin A  (as 40% Palmitate & 60% Beta Carotene)
800 IU Vitamin C (as Sodium Ascorbate & Zinc Ascorbate)
100 mg Vitamin D (as Cholecalciferol)
200 IU Vitamin E (as d-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate)
600 mcg Vitamin K (as Phytonadione )
1.5 mg Thiamin (as Vitamin B1 as Thiamine Mononitrate)
10 mg Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) 1.7 mg 100 % Niacin (as Niacinamide)
1.9 mg Vitamin B6 (as Pyridoxine HCl)
200 mcg Folic Acid
6 mcg Vitamin B12 (as Cyanocobalamin)
100 mcg Biotin
12 mg Pantothenic Acid (as Calcium Pantothenate)
10 mg Zinc (as Zinc Ascorbate & Zinc Oxide)

30 pills a day seems like a lot? Did you sign up for the DS? Because that is what you signed up for...for life.

However, if you mean taking 30 ADEKs, yeah, that's stupid. 4 As, 1 D, 1 E, 1 K with vitalady's - that's 7 per day. And most of these vites are TEENY. I mean, ity bity so you can take them all in one swallow no problem, even on the tiniest stomach.

"30 pills a day seems like a lot? Did you sign up for the DS? Because that is what you signed up for...for life."

Coming from someone who is extremely dedicated about taking their vitamins, I knew before going into the DS that I would have to take a lot of vitamins every day and I would never change that! I love my DS and knew what I was getting into... but...

Let's be honest, yes, 30+ vitamins a day is a lot of vitamins to take every day!  It's not surprising when people get a little over whelmed by it.  Hell, at 2 years out there are some days that I, myself, get over whelemed by it.  Then I just remind myself that I would rather be taking 30+ vitamins every day than 1-3 medications a day! 

Again, for clarification, he is recommending the chewables (which presumably are water-soluble), though his schedule lists them as fat-soluble?

This seems confusing to me.