My Nut handed out some samples of various chewable Vitamins (Bariatric Advantage, Celebrate) and I am finding them to be awful, chalky and make me feel a little queasy - and I am still pre-op! I have been using the liquid Vitamin from costco - reViva. The thing I like about the liquid is i can swallow it and get it out of my mouth quickly. I just found out they have a liquid Calcium citrate too!

Alot of my favorite chewable calciums are calcuim carbonate so i have been apparently taking the wrong calcuim all these years. I love the gummy vitamins from Costco too, but I think that the reViva is a more complete vitamin.

Anyway, I am going to brave the liquid calcium since costco has a good return policy.

They have twin packs for a decent price right now:

sublingual B-12 discs because Costco had a coupon special. I found out that they are higher dose then the 1,000 mg recommended by my nut. She didn't seem overly concerned about it, but i wonder if I should return them and get something else. I have been using liquid ones but find that i don't keep it under my tongue long enough, think I will do better with a disc or lozenge.

Now i just need to find a chewable Iron pill and I guess I am set.

I agree with you on the taste of some of the chewable Vitamins. I ended up with the Gummies - either Costco's (I take two to help the fact its not the most complete) or One a Day gummies for WalMart. The only Iron chewable I found I like is Bariatric Advantage chewable lemon lime flavored. It is really pleasant. I get a good sublingual B12 from WalMart.

Can't stand the liquid multi's - have tried a couple. It certainly is a matter of personal taste.

I use a Centrum chewable. It's not great tasting, but it is tolerable. I usually chew it up with my Tums (for calcium) and that's okay for me. I do a sub-lingual B12 from Walmart like SK does.

Also, if you have them nearby, Walgreens and CVS have their Vitamins B1G1 quite often. You might check those stores. At least if you hate the Vitamin, it's half price, and their return policies are very good.

I buy @ walmart multi-vites from Vita Fusion they are DELISH- and the Citracal Calcium chews are the bombdigity- (way better than viactive).

Well, I was shocked to find that they want me taking serious calcium - calcium citrate, not carbonate three times a day! Tums and the other ones won't cut it.

I will check out the Citracal Calcium chews as those do look like the good stuff.

I took the liquid ReViva for about a week - then one day, it just came back up. It is the only time I've thrown up since I left the hospital. I asked my surgeon's nurse if I should try it again and she said "only if you feel like throwing up again." I didn't even take it on an empty stomach. But definitely try it. The taste wasn't awful, but for some reason my new stomach couldn't tolerate it.

Luckily, I sort of like the taste of the Celebrate orange multi-Vitamins. And I LOVE the Bariatric Advantage calcium chews.

I too love those Bariatric Advantage calcium chews (the caramel and the chocolate) - I am still pre-op but I save two for after dinner, they are now a desert The chewable iron from Bariatric Advantage is good too - I will have to try the lemon-lime, I get the passionfruit flavor and it is very good. I will have to check out the chewies and liquids at Costco, as I look at all of the supplements I have to take a day, liquid and gummy will probably be very good after surgery.

My NUT recommended Chewable Cal-Snack by Country Life. They have a vanilla / orange flavor. They are a bit chalky too but not as much. They contain both carbonate and citrate as well as magnesium and vitamine D - which is what I believe helps aborption.

Sorting through all this has been super challenging for me. It really helps to find out what others are taking and how they handle certain things. I started with the liquid vitamines because I could not tolerate the chewables (made me very nauseous) but after a few months, my taste changed and I could not stand the liquid but could tolerate the chewables!!! Geez! We go through so many changes in the healing process I guess. I think we need to go with the flow and just be prepared to re-discover ourselves! ... in soooo many ways! :-)

Okay, I am now 3 weeks post op and my liquid MV and Calcium have been working out fine. I am using celebrate chewable Iron with C and then the sublingual B12. When the liquids are gone, i want to replace with lower carb/lower calorie choices. The liquid calcium is especially high calorie.

I find this to be a bit challenging as I have always used lower quality Vitamins - calcium carbonate whereas now i need the high quality stuff. By the time you add it up, it is alot of money ordering from Bariatric Advantage or Celebrate, but i don't want brittle bones and I can't take pills yet so I am thinking of trying the celebrate calcium plus 500 chews next. That is fairly low carb/low calorie and hopefully tastes decent.

I tried the Celebrate calcium (I think I have tried all chewable calcium citrates) and they're pretty chalky to me. I am using the Reviva calcium liquid because it also has magnesium in it for 1 dose and Bariatric Advantage caramel chews for the rest ( 250 mg/chew, so 4 a day). If you put your order on autoship it comes automatically once a month (or whatever you specify) and shipping is free. I factored the carbs/calories into my low-carb plan and for a while all my carbs came from supplements. Now that I'm at goal, i consider them "constant" calories, like my coffee with half and half, that I'm going to have every day. I don't even log them anymore, I just know that 150 calories a day is due to supplements and my morning coffee. If your B12 is 2500 mcg you are just urinating the excess away. I take mine twice a week and my levels are terrific.

My doctor gave me a whole bunch of samples and I found that I liked the bariatric FUSION brand. I bought chewable Iron tables in mixed berry flavor and the MV in orange cream flavor. Both are very good. I did try the liquid MV from Costco and I didn't throw up, but found I couldn't stomach the idea of drinking it (even added to food). You might want to see if your dr. has any samples to try? Hope this helps and good luck!

Vitafusion prenatal Vitamins (they taste GREAT) and have all I need (4 per day)

Target brand (Vitafusion) Chewable Calcium (taste GREAT) (4 per day)

B-12 bilingual (1 per day)

Acid reducer (2 per day)

Biotin (1 per day)

I feel like Im always buying vitamins!!!!!!!

I am still pre-op but decided to start taking everything now (like I should have been all along!)

I take Vitafusion daily sour gummies - two a day

Viactiv Calcium plus D chews in Caramel they are yummy - I take three because I am on depo, normal dosage is two

Biotin - 10,000mcg daily

I also do a B12 gel cap

The only form of calcium that is highly absorbable is calcium citrite. The gummies and typical chewables you find in the store are NOT the right form of calcium so your body can't use most of it. I used to do those chocolate chews and much to my dissapointment found out that I wasn't getting what i needed, but this is expecially important post surgery. Take it for what it is worth, but this is what nutritionalists have told me and when i googled it to find out what was needed post bariatric surgery, it was confirmed.

BTW, i am doing good with my vitamns now - everything is better now that I am 6 weeks out! :purplebananna:

I had talked to my doc about the absorption and he said it does absorb a little less than citrate so to take more than the box suggests.

Thanks for the info though!