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LOL sorry I hit enter before I completed the post, but thanks Becca your awesome. My Doc here said Flinstones, I argued for a bit and then conceeded, My Doc in Colorado said only Bariatric vitamins, I didn't really know if there was a difference so I appreciate it :D

Personally, I think there is a happy place in-between... Maybe kid ones are not the way to go, but i am not so sure it has to baratric either, not that there is anything wrong with them, just is a simpler route as well. My book from surgeon is downstairs, and I'm all snuggled into pillows on my bed, or I'd go get it... ;) But i know my doc lists some of the baratric AND some regular like Centrum I think it is... But more to come after my NUT visit :)

One more piece of info... I got this back from my NUT via email (I was just over there checking it)... This is about the other vitamins....

Just FYI :)


*********Rebecca -

Celebrate is a good brand. We often try them in classes since they are nice tasting, inexpensive and they provide our center with lots of free samples!

See you Monday!

Erin***************

I told my husband that I was curious, and he mentioned that it could just be because the Doc gets kickbacks, my class took the Bariatric Advantage in Colorado. The Nurse there handed out 5 day samples of different flavors and told us that we needed to purchase some for surgery so I did, but the military Nut here swears that you don't have to have the Bariatric ones.

I guess I could compare labels tomorrow, military is awesome because I don't pay anything for insurance but it can be bad when the Doc's haven't done their research too. So for right now I guess its confusing to me, and my vitamin levels are low. I don't mind paying the extra money for the Bariatric ones if they are better, but I don't want to waste money either if its just a simple multi-vitamin as the Nut here said.

Cute article I liked the part about chewing on Wilma Flinstones are kind of gritty...I guess a good place to start will be the ASMBS...thanks again :D

Yeah, the 'free sample" line thru me a bit... We all know docs can get big $$ from pharmaceutical compaynies, I am sure it is the same with the supplements, etc...

We will keep digging! : ) I'll be darned if I am buying spendy ones if I don't have too... but its a double edged sword, of course we also want whats best for our bodies!

That's my pal Kaitlyn's site... great info, extremely well researched.

This may help people in their research too: http://s3.amazonaws.com/publicASMBS/GuidelinesStatements/Guidelines/bgs_final.pdf (page 7 is of particular note)

Eggface your awesome...:D

That made me smile. Backatcha xo

My NUT said that many regular vitamins do not have all of the nutrients we need. I cannot take the bariatric advantage vitamins, the taste just makes me gag. So on my own I started taking Centrum Chewy VItes (I think that is what they are called). I didn't do my research and they actually do not have all that I need, especially Thiamin (B1) which I tend to run low on. So what I do is I still take the chewy vits but I also take a separate Thiamin B1 pill to make up for it not being in the chewy vit. I also have to take 4,000 units of D3 because at the recommended 2000 units I was still low when my blood was checked and for that I use GNC's chewy D3, they taste like tootsie rolls. I also take Bariatric Advantages Chewy Bite 500 mg of calcium (I take 3 per day). And lastly I take the GNC chewy B12. As you can tell I like my vitamins chewy LOL

One thing I recently learned I was doing wrong. I would take all of my vitamins in the evening. I should have been spreading them out throughout the day. That your body cannot absorb all of the vitamins at one time. So basically I was wasting half of my vitamins. Duh!!

I have been taking Flintstones since surgery but not for much longer. I will be switching as soon as I can get out to grab them

Vitamins are no different than food choices. Know what you need and read labels. I don't think there is a single catch all for wls patients. Not when some vits need be taken sublingual, and some need to be seperated from others to get maximun absorbtion. It is really easy to go to a site or a blog and read how@perfect their supplements are and they do everything you need. The fact is nothing replaces your own research. Just because someone says they have been in your postition does not mean they are not going to try to take advanage of you to make their own buck. WLS may feel like an exclusive club, but it is still filled with Americans and we all have that sense of entitlement and dream of coming up woth the next big money maker. Just because it costs more does not make it instantly better. :)

Thank you everyone!! And special thanks to Shelly!! I love the info you shared!! Totally awesome!!

For those following this saga :) Here is whats straight out of my baratric bible I received from my surgeon in regards to vitamins:

Take the following, for RNY:

Complete multi-vitamin that has 18 mg iron as well as 400 mcg folic acid.

Options listed (not that his is the only choices I have, just to give me an idea) are;

>Centrum Chewables, double does (these are pretty reasonable on amazon, much cheaper than some of the 'baratric' labeled ones...

> Centra-vite adult chewables, double does

> Baratric advantage multi, however these DO NOT have iron which must be supplemented separately (so, imho, why buy them?)

Next is Calcium Citrate with vit D & magnesium

1500 mg day, but only 5/600 mg absorbed at time, like kelly was saying, they must be spread them out over the day but 2 hours apart from mulit vitamin (I believe its the iron they have absorption clash going on...? Correct me if I am wrong!.

Options:

> Baratric advantage
calcium chewy bites 1500 mg = 6 bites
calcium lozengers 1500 = 4 lozengers

> Calcate Lemon creamy bites (baratric advg) 1500 mg = 3 bites

> Opurity Calcium Citrate Plus 1500 mg = 5 tabs

> Twin Tabs Calcium Citrate Wafers 1500 mg = 5 tabs

And we all know about B12 Sublingual 2500 mcg 1 x per week, the conversion here is 1000 mcg = 1 mg. If your purchase reads it in mg vs mcg... :)

I think I have narrowed my choices, at least for now, to the centrum chewable mulit.

Noteworthy here, is if you take a look at the centrum silver (for us over 50 folks) you'll find it has no Iron... so just fyi.

And I am going with the CELEBRATE calcium citrate ones as my NUT also said their products were good and taste good as well. The twin tabs were reasonable in price, but for some reason just didn't ring my bell... of course this was just by looking at the container on amazon! LOL!

I also bought B12 sumblingual at Walgreens yesterday... It is 5000 mcg, so I only have to take half (i believe) and the 2 bottles I bought for 13 bucks should last me for like 6 or 8 months...? Wow, maybe I figured that wrong! Sounds too good to be true! :)

Once I run this all by my NUT on Monday I should be hitting the "BUY" button on amazon :)

Whew!! So sorry if I labored the point and rambled on way to long!
Happy Friday everyone!

Once again... I was type happy! I hope you can decipher thru my typos such as dose, NOT does :) And the many others!

Yes you do have to spread them out through out the day. My WLS program nut gave me a vitamin list that told me what types to take and then when to take them.
I take a multi vit capsule Celebrate brand in AM
2 Celebrate Calcium chews with my AM snack
1 Celebrate mutli vit before after lunch an hour before
2 Celebrate Calcium chews with lunch
2 Celebrate Calcium chews with afternoon snack
1 Celebrate multi vit after dinner
1 Iron+C Celebrate pill at bedtime
I take 1 Sublingual B12 Celebrate brand once a week usually on Sunday mornings.