vitamins...when did you start taking them and how did it go?

[chiquitatummy 326]

I purchased a Multivitamin off the recommended Vitamins list provided by my program; I went with Bariatric Advantage Chewable Advanced Multi EA™ (Strawberry). I am having a hard time imagining chewing and getting them down post-surgery because the Vitamin smell they have already yucks me out a bit. When did others start taking their bariatric vitamins and how did it go for you? Did you have more success with chewable, or pill form? Was it trial and error to find a vitamin that worked for you?

[Spitfireash 12]

So I have a question. I've already stocked up on the one a day chewable bariatric Vitamins (which the surgery coordinator told me not to take till they clear me to do so after surgery). I also stocked up on calcium citrate powder and on B12 and Biotin liquid. I know they say not to take the vitamins right off the bat, but if I start taking the biotin and the B12 liquid right after surgery would this be an issue.

**I got the biotin because I do not want to lose my hair and have it thin out. I have very fine and silky hair as it is, if it starts falling out I'll look like a have barely any hair.

[Neensyb 111]

I started taking the chewable Multi Vitamins during my pre op diet as my ferritin was a little low (not too bad, but the dietician suggested I get as healthy as possible to assist with recovery). I seem to be in the minority, but I really like the ones I have. They are BN chews from bnmulti.com and very palatable.

[NovaLuna 709]

I'm 13 months post op so my memory is a bit foggy lol, but I think I was 10 days post op when I started taking my Vitamins. And I started off taking Bariatric Complete berry flavored 3x a day which btw is DISGUSTING (tastes like berry flavored dog food) and then 3 Bariatric Complete calcium citrate chocolate flavored (which taste like a tootsie roll. I'm not fond of tootsie rolls so that was the only bag I bought). Over time my regiment changed with my Vitamin needs and I've been on the same vitamin regiment now for 4 months and my 12 month labs were 100% normal levels in everything. I take 2 Celebrate non-iron multi's a day (grape flavor), 1 Bariatric Complete multi WITH Iron (orange flavored) a day, 2 Celebrate Calcium citrate a day (I have both cherry tart flavor and berries and cream flavor), 1 EZ Melt Vitamin A every OTHER day (strawberry flavored), and 2 coq10 gummies (orange-peach flavored) every day. Sometimes you have to play around and find a vitamin that'll appeal to you because some of them are down right disgusting. I only dislike my iron one, but the orange flavor at least is bearable and is just like an overly strong orange flinstone vitamin taste wise... Anyway, don't stress too much about it, you'll find a vitamin regiment that works for you though it may take some time to find ones you actually like. Just hang in there.

[Crick 144]

My surgeon doesn’t have patients start for a full week after surgery. I definitely did not choose chewable for a couple of reasons. First, it wasn’t the clinic’s first or second choice, and second, I have major issues with taste/texture. Like I cannot take liquid meds at all without puking. The couple of times I had to take a prescription cough Syrup medicine it was a...process, to say the least, that required crackers and holding my nose taking the medicine and then more crackers and Water, and I still gagged. Give me pills any day. So I take Calcium pills 3 x a day, and Vitamin D and a bariatric multivitamin with Iron at bedtime (which supposedly helps with any nausea, which I haven’t had).

That being said, every surgeon/clinic has a suggested regimen and start date, so be sure to check with yours. Good luck!

[Arabesque 6,423]

I started taking my Multi Vitamins in capsule form the day after I came home from surgery so day 5. I was able to swallow them ok being a smaller capsule. I did have trouble with nausea even taking them after eating & vomited a few times. I spread out taking them across the day so I wasn’t swallowing them at the same time. But multi Vitamins always made me nauseous in the past so I wasn’t surprised it was worse after surgery.

I gave them up after 8 months with my surgeon’s knowledge. I was in maintenance at this time. I felt it was better to eat than feel too nauseous to eat or to vomit. It’s been 13 months since I stopped & I get all the vitamins & minerals I need from what I need as my 3 monthly blood tests come back very good. I’m glad because I didn’t want to be dependent upon taking supplements for the rest of my life.

Good luck.

[Dogmom68 135]

On 02/23/2021 at 13:51, Spitfireash said:

So I have a question. I've already stocked up on the one a day chewable bariatric Vitamins (which the surgery coordinator told me not to take till they clear me to do so after surgery). I also stocked up on calcium citrate powder and on B12 and Biotin liquid. I know they say not to take the Vitamins right off the bat, but if I start taking the Biotin and the B12 liquid right after surgery would this be an issue.

**I got the biotin because I do not want to lose my hair and have it thin out. I have very fine and silky hair as it is, if it starts falling out I'll look like a have barely any hair.

Hey, Spitfireash! I felt the same as you about the Hair loss so I did start my vitamins about a week after my surgery. My hair used to be thick but has thinned out as I’ve gotten older. I didn’t want to lose even more hair than I already have. Since starting my vitamins, I am doing fine. No problems. I also read where zinc is good to take to prevent hair loss so I’m taking that along with the biotin, etc..

[RTL1234 99]

I also tried the Bariatric Advantage and just cannot stomach chewing Vitamins. I am the same with any chewable medicine (or liquid). Gross! My clinic doesn’t want you to do capsules until 3 months or later (9 weeks) so I switched to Patches. They are awesome. I put them on at night. I haven’t had any issues with them. I do still choke down the B12 dissolving Vitamin. Biotin and multivitamin patch, is what I wear.

[catwoman7 10,844]

19 hours ago, Spitfireash said:

**I got the Biotin because I do not want to lose my hair and have it thin out. I have very fine and silky hair as it is, if it starts falling out I'll look like a have barely any hair.

I hope it works for you - but reviews on it are pretty mixed. Some people say it did nothing for them (just so you know...). Luckily, for many of us, we don't really lose enough that other people will notice. You'll notice, of course, but massive Hair loss is fortunately not all that common.

[catwoman7 10,844]

20 hours ago, Nicossa said:

I purchased a Multivitamin off the recommended Vitamins list provided by my program; I went with Bariatric Advantage Chewable Advanced Multi EA™ (Strawberry). I am having a hard time imagining chewing and getting them down post-surgery because the Vitamin smell they have already yucks me out a bit. When did others start taking their bariatric Vitamins and how did it go for you? Did you have more success with chewable, or pill form? Was it trial and error to find a Vitamin that worked for you?

I never took bariatric-specific vitamins, but the advantages are that for a lot of them, you only have to take one a day, and also, you'll meet all of your requirements. I just took Centrum from the get-go (or the generic equivalent from Walgreens or CVS). You have to take two of those a day to meet the requirements (or at least the requirements for your multi - many of us also have to take extra Iron, Calcium, and B12). I started with the chewables and then switched to regular tablets when I was a few months out.

[S@ssen@ch 745]

It's been a little while for me (almost 3 years), but I specifically recall my surgeon/bariatric coordinator telling me not to worry about Vitamins for the first couple of weeks. After that, I went through about 2 months of trial and error with vitamins. I was less concerned with them tasting good than I was with how they made me feel because it seemed like every time I took them, I felt TERRIBLE/SICK. After trying several forms and varying the time of day, I settled on a Gummy Vitamin WITH a meal. Caution: some doctors forbid these. It was the ONLY thing I could take that didn't make me nauseated, so it was a matter of getting my vitamins or skipping.

After about 6 months, I converted back to a standard "horse pill" tablet and haven't had any trouble since.

[ms.sss 14,618]

Hi! The Vitamins were a bit of a challenge at first for me. I think alot of (but not all) people have this experience?) My prescribed Vitamin regimen was as follows:

• 1x multi tablet (regular size),
• 3x Calcium tablets (horse pill size!)
• 3x vitamin D tablets (teeny tiny)
• 1x B12 chew-able (regular size)
• 1x Iron tablet (regular size)
• 1x Vitamin A tablet (teeny tiny)

The teeny tiny tabs were easy to get down, no issues

The regular size tabs were a bit of a challenge. I tried using a pill cutter to make them smaller, but the resulting powder make me gag. Same when I tried crushing them. The horse pill calcium tab was the worst.

Actually, I take that back...the chew-able B12 one was the worst. It was like a grape-flavoured chewable Flintstone vitamin and was disgusting to me.

Further, the multi and the Iron made me nauseous almost immediately after taking them.

I was rarely successful in getting all what i was supposed to the first 1-4 weeks.

By month 3-4, after some trial and error, I finally got a regimen down that I was able to sustain:

• Dropped the iron (my labs showed I didn't need it, plus it was making me sick)
• Changed the multi to a low iron one (see above)
• Switched to B12 drops, but then my labs showed I didn't need it so that eventually dropped.
• Started taking my calcium horse pills with a spoonful of yogurt and that made it much better...but then I discovered calcium chews and loved them. They were chocolate flavoured and had the consistency of one of those square caramels. Yum.
• Vitamin A was dropped as didn't need those either.
• Vitamin D was no change, I had no issues with them from the beginning.

I'm 2+ years post op now, and....not advocating this in any way...I pretty much stopped taking all my supplements about a year ago. No real reason other than laziness/boredom. I had satisfactory labs in all my followups up to that point, and had 2 more after that that continued to show I am A-ok. Even my bone density check last November was better than the baseline one I took 2 years ago (which sorta surprised me given all the weight loss as well as my age).

Edited February 24, 2021 by ms.sss

[dal101 62]

I take gummie Centrum Multivitamins , calcium citrate hard tablets and Iron tablets. I can only stomach the gummies the rest make me sick. So that results in me being inconsistent with taking them

I think I am gonna go with Patches, I have enough pills to take as it is.

[mweiss1998 79]

I got BariMelts off Amazon and started taking them 14 days PO as per my doctors instructions. I haven't had any issues.

[chiquitatummy 326]

thanks for the replies and sharing of your experiences everyone. I got confirmation from my Dr. today that I should wait 1-2 weeks to start my Vitamins. We'll see how I do with the chewables. It really helps to hear how others handled vitamins, so thank you!