I'm a little confused about this. My surgeon requires that we take vitamins after surgery for life with the sleeve. I thought that there wasn't a malabsorption issue with the sleeve only the gastric bypass. Does everyone's surgeon require this?? Weigh in post sleevers!!

I may be wrong, but I think the issue is that we don't eat enough volume to absorb all we need from food.

I think it's less about malabsorption and more that you just can't eat enough to get all the nutrients in regularly (at least at first).

My center is REALLY picky about what Vitamins you take. They insist that you take Centrum chewables or Bariatric Advantage or something specific like that and they said a definite NO to things like Flintstone's chewables. Well, I've been taking Flintstone's since I went back on solids and my last labs showed everything was normal except for my Vitamin D, which was low even before surgery! So, I've since added a Calcium + D supplement just to make them happy. I think the calcium is Caltrate?? It's the one that has calcium citrate as opposed to calcium carbonate, which supposedly doesn't absorb as well.

I've never been a fan of Multivitamins because I think they are just expensive urine. But, after this surgery I'm taking mine religiously because I'd rather have expensive urine than run the risk of missing some vital nutrient. That's my 2-cents anyway!

Good luck!!!

I may be wrong, but I think the issue is that we don't eat enough volume to absorb all we need from food.

Yep.... that's it.

We are expected to and advised to by our surgeon, but it's only mandatory for the RNY patients. I was told the same as the rest...we eat such a small amount of food that it's hard to get all the vitamins we need. The vitamins are insurance.

Thanks guys!

I take a flintstones with iron chewable daily. My labs have all been great except low vitamin D and I take a prescription vitamin D once a week. Its a small capsule. My surgeon wanted me to take their bariatric advantage and calcium citrate, and Iron too but I found that the calcium citrate caused me to have a kidney stone (I am prone to have these) and so I stopped taking anything other than the flintstones and the vit. D. I am 9 months out and my labs are great!

I don't eat very much processed foods getting a lot of my nutrition from natural sources which, they say, have more nutritional content. I am hoping that this will help me not be a slave to the Vitamin regimen, but as many non-sleevers take daily supplements, I suppose I can too. I believe the one thing that separates us, though, is the B12 issue. B12 is one of those Vitamins that is absorbed through the stomach and with 85% of it gone, I know that I will need to be a slave to that one. I am going to ask my PCP for shots at my physical next month.

I will monitor my blood test results and go from there.

MIne is strict on vitamins as well. B12, an extra Calcium chewable, Vit D, and Iron. They also mentioned the vitamin waters, so I plan to ask this week, If i am doing the vitamin waters does this take the place of the supplements?

Yeah, it has to do with the decreased volume of food. It's just hard to get everything we need when we are only eating such small amounts.

I take one mulit-vit a day (chewable Centrum for adults), calcium, Iron, and D-3. I only take the iron and D-3 because my levels tend to be low - and they were low before surgery too. So I actually don't take any more Vitamins than I did before surgery.