Vitamins???

Hey ladies..Just wanted to know what kind of prenatal vitamins ans supplements you are taking? I am 35 weeks and SEVERLY anemic, Im guessing due to the WLS I had....Baby is great hough, already iver 7 punds by unltrasound, so Im guessig she is fine...I am taking my regular prenantl and iron tablets, but still Im anmeic....Any tips?

vitalady.com sells something called Tender Iron that is chewable and highly absorbable.  Full dosage is 6 tablets a day (I think), but you can work your way up slowly to that dose to limit stomach irritation. 

Also, make sure you are taking your iron separate from your multivitamin, as things like calcium can lessen the absorption of iron.  It's best to take it first thing in the morning with Vitamin C at the same time, because Vitamin C aids iron absorption.

There isn't enough calcium in a multivite to inhibit the absorption of iron.  The threshold is 300mg of calcium before iron absorption is compromised.

I thought that stat was for calcium carbonate, but that calcium citrate effects absorption at a much lower level.  Maybe I'm remembering wrong, though, because it's been a while since I was looking into it. 

Either way, I think it's still a good idea to take it in the morning with some Vitamin C, just to ensure best possible absorption, but that's just me.

I've yet to see a readily-available multivite made with citrate rather than carbonate, simply due to the size -- the citrate molecule is quite a bit larger than the carbonate molecule, thus why citracal are freaking horsepills for the little you get out of them.

But given the acidic nature of citrate versus the alkali nature of the carbonate, the iron absorbancy is inhibited at a higher level than carbnate as iron *loves* an acidic environment to absorb.

I'm not disagreeing with you -- it's much easier to say "seperate calcium from iron for max absorbancy" because people won't really get the 300mg calcium rule, and let's face it, too many people are too ...  cluttered in their heads to remember all of the rules of vitamins along with their checking account balance, ATM PIN, grocery shopping list, passwords for email, vaccination schedules, and what they want to have the hubby do for them on the weekend.  Not everyone is a walking encyclopedia and good with figures like that.  Easier to just make things much easier for the mass populace to remember.

Seriously, because my list for my husband is like as long as my arm. ;)  I had no idea why carbonate would effect iron differently than citrate, I just thought that I had remembered reading something about that at some point.  It's interesting to read about what the difference is exactly.  And I guess I mistakenly assumed someone who had RNY would be on RNY specific multivitamins (like Bariatric Advantage), which I know isn't always the case.  Heck, some are still taking Flintstones for pete's sake!! 

Thanks for the info!