how do you know it's right?

Here's my take -

My surgeon was Dr. Robin Blackstone. She is the current President of the ASMBS. I respect her, her staff and her knowledge and experience IMMENSELY. However, there are things that are part of her program that I know are not great suggestions. Flintstones multis are one of them. As is collagen protein being okay. I use her program knowledge/suggestions in tandem with my own research on RNY as well as the knowledge and experience of the others on here. I think that is the best way for anyone to make their experience in this journey the most balanced and informed it can be.

I am so puzzled by the fact that the president of the ASMBS would recommend a vitamin that clearly goes against their guidelines - the guidelines that say to avoid children's vitamins that are incomplete and to select a multi that has selenium.

I agree with what you say here.  That just puzzles me.  I'd love to know why she thinks Flintstones are OK.  My guess is that she hasn't read the label carefully and is fooled by the word "complete" on the bottle, but I'd love to know for sure.

 I'd love to know as well. I migjt have to ask at my next visit. I asked about the collagen protein before, so I'll see what she (or her partner surgeon, sometimes I see him) says about it.

I'd love it if you'd share the answer with me.  I'm very curious as to whether it's a matter of her not knowing what's in Flintstones (and what's NOT in them) or if she actually has some medical reason why she thinks it's good if we don't take selenium or vitamin K and all that stuff that's missing from Flintstones. 

If she says selenium deficiency is rare, I'd also like to know how she knows it's rare in RNY patients.  Like, does she test all  her patients that take Flintstones and have they all had good selenium levels despite taking a vitamin without it?  I just question if it's really rare to be deficient because most surgeons don't seem to test for it unless you specifically ask them to.  I'm not saying it's a common deficiency, but as far as I know, we don't really know if it's common or not.  So if she actually knows it's rare from her experience, I'd love to know that.  I know I probably just sound argumentative but I don't mean to be.  I really am just curious.

I am even more curious as to why she would say the collagen protein is OK?!?

Lora

 In my one week pre-op class, one of the protein sources they said we could use te first week post-op was Bariatric Advantage Protein Elixir. When the bottle was passed around, I saw it was collagen protein and zero amino acids. I raised my hand and asked why this was okay as it had collagen protein. I was told that they had recently attended a bariatric conference where the absorption of collagen protein was discussed and they were looking into it further. That was four months ago. As fat as I know, the Elixir is still on the list of week one proteins. I'll have to ask about that as well on my next visit to see what they decided!

I'm glad to hear they were going to look into it.  I love it when docs take things patients say seriously and don't just assume since we did not go to medical school, we don't know anything.