I've heard of some Bariatric teams that were on board with vitamin patches (PatchMD) and some that didn't recommend them. Any thoughts, experiences, or opinions welcome!!

I think until some respectable studies start coming out I would avoid them unless my surgeon explicitly told me use them. There seems to be too little evidence on their efficacy at this time.

Love mine! Labs came back just fine after 6 months on them. Lifesavers!!!

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I switched to the patches after wanting to throw up with the chewable bariatric tablets. So, we'll see what my 3 month post op appt shows. July 6. I feel fine though. Don't feel all run down with no energy. I suspect they're working. ?

Edited June 11, 20179 yr by Newme17

I switched to the patches after wanting to throw up with the chewable bariatric tablets. So, we'll see what my 3 month post op appt shows. July 6. I feel fine though. Don't feel all run down with no energy. I suspect they're working. [emoji4]

I imagine that's how I will feel with chewable vitamins too. My surgery is the 5th so I wanted to buy them proactively since I'd have to order online.

Love the patch. My Nut said patches were fine. stared about 3 weeks after surgery because I couldn't stomach all the pills. Labs have been good except for low iron which I've had for years. I'm taking an additional iron tablet with my patch daily

I've heard of some Bariatric teams that were on board with vitamin patches (PatchMD) and some that didn't recommend them. Any thoughts, experiences, or opinions welcome!!

Hi Erin,

My Bariatric Center of Excellence tests the levels of the vitamins and minerals in the patient’s blood levels. They don’t have any issues with the PatchMD Multivitamin Plus.


HW: 225
SW: 214 (5/2/2018)
CW: 208
GW: 145

Can someone recommend one for calcium citrate? The Flintstones chewables and the sublingual B12 are fine, but the calcium citrate chewables are a giant pain in the ass. I'm sick of the taste and it's impossible to use my pill organizer with those taking up so much space.

I’ve been a curious about these because I’m having a hard time getting my vitamins down...


HW 289
SW 262
VSG 5/2/18
Kaiser, Ontario - Dr. Chin

I am using a bariatric COE. My Dr and Nut said no patches. There are many vitamins that just can not be absorbed through the skin. B vitamins are one example.

We were advised to use chewables from an approved list. I was very lucky in that I chose Opurity Sleeve and Bypass optimized multi chewable and Opurity Calcium Citrate chewable. They both taste good and are very inexpensive.

I had no clue just how bad some of the others taste until I started trying some out of my bag of samples given to me by my RD. Some of them truly made me want to hurl.

12 minutes ago, Losingit2018 said:

I am using a bariatric COE. My Dr and Nut said no Patches. There are many Vitamins that just can not be absorbed through the skin. B vitamins are one example.

We were advised to use chewables from an approved list. I was very lucky in that I chose Opurity Sleeve and Bypass optimized multi chewable and Opurity calcium citrate chewable. They both taste good and are very inexpensive.

I had no clue just how bad some of the others taste until I started trying some out of my bag of samples given to me by my RD. Some of them truly made me want to hurl.

Please understand that I’m not trying to dispute your statements. I would like to say that all of the vitamins and minerals used in the PatchMD are clearly being obsorbed given the blood tests that follow.

1 hour ago, baribetty said:

I’ve been a curious about these because I’m having a hard time getting my Vitamins down...


HW 289
SW 262
VSG 5/2/18
Kaiser, Ontario - Dr. Chin

I was advised by my surgical team not to use the patches since they contain calcium carbonate and I need calcium citrate (the FAQs explain why they contain calcium carbonate, but I wasn’t going to press that issue). Since the real issue with the calcium citrate chewables and the Flintstones vitamins and the sublingual B12 tablet is the space they occupy in pill organizers and the fact that I’d need a giant pill organizer to hold all that, plus the fish oil capsule, plus the vitamin D pill, plus the one BP Med I’m still on, plus the Strattera pill, plus the 12 fiber capsules and 8 Sennokot pills I need to take to stay regular, I’m going to try the patches when I travel this weekend to see how I like them. We’ll see how that goes. If I go on them full time, I’ll tell the practice what I did and that I’ll go back to the pills if the patches aren’t doing the trick.

1 hour ago, abefroman329 said:

I was advised by my surgical team not to use the Patches since they contain Calcium carbonate and I need calcium citrate (the FAQs explain why they contain calcium carbonate, but I wasn’t going to press that issue). Since the real issue with the calcium citrate chewables and the Flintstones Vitamins and the sublingual B12 tablet is the space they occupy in pill organizers and the fact that I’d need a giant pill organizer to hold all that, plus the fish oil capsule, plus the Vitamin D pill, plus the one BP Med I’m still on, plus the Strattera pill, plus the 12 Fiber capsules and 8 Sennokot pills I need to take to stay regular, I’m going to try the patches when I travel this weekend to see how I like them. We’ll see how that goes. If I go on them full time, I’ll tell the practice what I did and that I’ll go back to the pills if the patches aren’t doing the trick.

Hi Abe,

i asked about the calcium in the PatchMD Multivitamins Plus. My NUT said that Calcium Carbonate is a fine form of calcium when absorbed through the skin. Calcium Citrate is needed when taking calcium orally.

3 hours ago, Gundy said:

Hi Abe,

i asked about the calcium in the PatchMD Multivitamins Plus. My NUT said that Calcium Carbonate is a fine form of calcium when absorbed through the skin. Calcium Citrate is needed when taking calcium orally.

Yes, that's the information that's available on the website, and that's the fine point I didn't feel like arguing with the surgeon's office.