Vitamin Question

Good morning!

My husband was talking to Kristine (dietician) in Windsor the day before his surgery and she mentioned he could start a chewable multi vitamin right after surgery. Apparently, they used to tell patients to wait but are now going to change protocol due to many people with early defiencies.

Anyway there is a Shoppers down the road here and I may go for a walk later and pick some up. I just don't know which brand to get as I used flintstones and Spectrum (life brand) and I believe I heard someone mention spectrum might have been discontinued. I now use Multibionta but if is a horsepill and just won't do lol

I'd appreciate to know which vitamins you suggest (again keep in mind, I'm looking for those available at Shoppers).

Thanks everyone!
Dawn

Hi Dawn

I get my centrum pre-natal at Shoppers - not chewable but palatable when crushed and downed with a little water....I am quite used to them

My husband takes the Jamieson Vita-Vim chewables - ( he is not a wls vet just takes them for health)...and he quite likes them

I also get the Jamieson chewable D in chocolate flavor...quite good

I use Life Brand Calcium - liquid in blueberry flavor...its also palatable

Hope John is doing well....

Barb

I take centrum chewable (2) as long as they have 25 mg (at least) of iron total

Also I take citrical petite (which aren't that petite) they aren't chewable but they are and tasteless. Save him from liquid calcium!

Spectrum still makes a 50+ chewable, it just doesn't have as much iron.  He may have to take an iron supplement in addition.  Only 4mg as opposed to 18mg I believe. 

Hi Dawn
Your right I had surgery in Sept and they still made you wait the 2 months to go on vitamin's, not sure why.  My Doctor was concerned so she ran blood work at 1 1/2 months and we were both quite surprised that my levels were all normal.  Makes more sense to me however to change that protocol.
What I'm wondering however is why they told you a chewable.  In Guelph from day after surgery they have you swallow pills and they don't cut them in half nothing.  They have never been proponents of chew-ables or liquid meds from my understanding.

I used the Jamieson chewable multi-vitamin and it came in a "wildberry" flavour.

He may want to add vitamin D as well. I get the "Webber Naturals" brand. On the bottle it says 25mcg (1000 UI). I just had my bloodwork done and in taking one tablet of vitD per day, my level is in the normal range.

Is he taking calcium citrate yet? Wellesse has the liquid, he should probably take that too. I took 2tbsp per day (1tbsp at lunch and 1tbsp at dinner). When I went back to work, I started taking the pill form. I get them from walmart (315mg per capsule, 2x per day)
Magnesium is another good thing to take (helps with constipation; I learned that after my issue in the summer)

I know everyone is different. He may have to adjust his intake depending on his labwork.

Hope this helps

For what's available at Shoppers in a chewable, your best best is somethign like the Centrum 50+ as it has more trace minerals in it than the standard chewable. He will need separate iron supplementation though.

In general, I highly recommend the Bariatric Advantage ADEK chewable multi-vits. After much research, I've decided it is completely useless to try to get any iron from a multivit because as little as 40mg of calcium has been found in studies to interfere with iron absorption, so if your multivit has any calcium, you simply don't absorb most of the iron. That's why most speciality bariatric multivits either don't have iron, or calcium or either and recommend seperate supplementation for both iron and calcium. The BA ADEKs have dry formulations of key vitamins and higher levels of B vitamins.

Dawn, to be clear - she said they were meeting to discuss making that change, not that such a change had actually been made already. She did recommend picking something up though anyway.

Hi

I bought my vitamins at Shoppers. I bought the Jamieson chewable multi-vitamin vita-vim (wildberry). They are pretty good and I haven't had any trouble with them since my surgery (Dec 7). I also bought Life Calcium chews with 400IU Vitamin D (fruit flavour). I  bought the Jamieson B12 strips 1000mcg (fresh mint). I also bought senokot (laxative) and ground up the pills. I just couldn't stomach the colace. It worked very well.

Tamara

The Life brand calcium chews are calcium carbonate, you need calcium citrate.