Calcium Citrate

I've been having a hard time finding anything  but Calcium Carbonate in the chewable form.  I stocked up on some calcium citrate powdered capsules, but am not sure whether I should try to take them only one week out.   (Citrate is also not soluble in water, so taking them apart won't work)

I also have some citrate tablets that are probably too big to take. Should I just keep plucking down the 10.00 per month for the chewables or is there another alterntive? Thanks in advance. Guy

My NUT didn't make a big deal about calcium supplementation until several weeks post-op; I'm sure if I'd raised this a week post-op, she'd have said "don't worry, and don't bother until you're on full foods."  Which is not to say that I took her advice! Calcium citrate is (somewhat more) soluble in water than carbonate, and if you open the caps it should be suitable for sprinkling on top of applesauce or yogurt or prepared SF pudding. I crushed the calcium citrate caplets using a pill-crusher and then sprinkled the resulting powder on something soft, as mentioned above. Don't forget Vitamin D supplementation as well.  I take 2000 IU of Vitamin D3 daily. I still like the Citrical Creamy Bites, but they can be expensive.

I couldn't get the citrate to dissolve in straigh****er, which is how I was trying to injest them.  You would think, as a former chemist, I would have the insight to look up the solubility index of citrates vs carbonates, but I don't feel like digging for the CRC book. Anyway, I'll try it your way and mask it in some pureed food. Thanks for the advice. Guy

I see you are just a week post - op. Congradulations and I hope all is going well for you. I started out in the soft food stage with the Centrum Silver chewable multivitamins and did not take any Calcium Citrate tablets or iron fulminate until I was in the full solid food stage. For me the pills were not hard to take if I took them one at a time at least ten minutes between pills but not just before meals.  I was also eating the EAS Advant Edge protien bars for snacks which provided plenty of vitamin supliments in each bar.  At six months out I changed from the chewable multi vitamins to the Centrum Silver tablets and kept the others plus vitamine C with the iron and sublingual B12. Hope this helps. Rich

http://www.citracal.com/Product/Creamy-Bites.aspx Try the citracal creamy bites, I really like these. Hugs Kristen

I just used the pills and got a pill splitter.  Just ask for one at a drug store.  They're cheap and you can make horse pills as small as you want.

If you go to the Vitamin Shoppe (even online) they have chewable Calcium Citrate.  I buy them every month.  If you don't see them on the shelf, just ask them to special order them for you.  Cost is around $9. Rob

My doctor's office gave me some free samples of Calcium Citrate losenges and chewable iron when I went for my last pre-op consultation. I have been strugling trying to get down a couple of Citracal Petites per day and when I read this post it reminded me that I had those samples. So I looked around until I found them and took them yesterday and they are much more pleasant than what I was doing. They are chewable and taste pretty good. They gave me one mint flavor, one wild cherry flavor and one chocolate flavor. I ordered a 3 month supply of the cherry and chocolate just while ago. The mint starts out alright but tastes a little chalky after you' get it chewed up. These products are from an online outfit located at  http://www.bariatricadvantage.com/catalog . I don't know that it's the best out there, but it'll do for me.