Prenatal Multivitamin

Hi, I am 7 years out. I take 2 prenatal vitamins a day. One in the morning and one in the evening along with my calcium and vitamin D-3. Is the prenatal a good vitamin to take? I also heard someone that had Gastric by pass surgery say their Dr. told them not to take the multivitamin with the calcium. I have always done this for the seven years that I had the RNY surgery. Have I been doing this wrong all this time?

Thank you in advance for all your information in this matter!

Rosemary

Prenatal is a good vitamin to take. You shouldn't take your Calcium/D3 with other medications. Space them up. Some other medications will block the absorption of the calcium.

I'm coming up on 1 year out, so my information might be considered updated compared to someone 7 yrs out (or even 3 or 4 for that matter). I've been told to take the calcium separate from everything else because it interferes with the absorption of iron, either found in iron supplements (which I'm not on) or that found in the multi-vitamins. I just take a calcium in the morning, my multi vitamin and D at lunch, Bcomplex and a D at supper, and the 2nd calcium at bedtime.

We're all going to have different needs and ways of taking them, but that's what has made my clinic happy with my bloodwork.

Hopefully I've got that right, but maybe a vet can chime in?

Take a look at the info on the back of the prenatal bottle. If a double dose gets you to 200% RDA on most things, you should be good.

If your multivitamin has iron in it (many prenatals do), you do need to space it out from your calcium. Iron and calcium don't play nice together, so you need to wait at least two hours between taking the pills.

I purchase multi-vitamins without iron (look for ones targeted to people over 50), then I take calcium with the multi, and iron separately 2-4 hrs later. I think this is the best approach since all the multis I've seen contain calcium.

Thank you for the response. You are correct. I need to space out the prenatal because it has iron in it I just checked. I started separating it tonight.

Thanks again! You all are amazing. Glad I can still count on you all.

Rosemary

At 7 years out, your labs should be telling you if what you are taking is adequate, or if you need something more. Are you having complete labs done every year? Really complete? And a bone density scan every 2 years?