Hello! My surgery is April 17th. It's been almost 8 months since I started this journey! Do any of you have trouble swallowing their vitamins? I'm guessing they are pretty big (haven't got my order yet). Since we can only sip, do you have issues with taking them? Thank you!

the only ones I had trouble with at first were those giant calcium tablets. I got some chews instead - problem solved! Once I was a year or so out I went back to tablets, but usually got the "petite" ones (I could definitely take the regular calcium tablets by then, but I preferred the "petite" ones)

We were told no capsules and no tablets, sublingual or chewable only, at least for the first year, according to my team. I would strongly urge you to talk to your team and find out what their recommendations are, or what their "rules" are for taking vitamins and minerals. Try to work with your nutritionist first, and your physician so you are doing everything right. Good luck on your journey!

I had no problem with normal sized capsules and tablets, but like @catwoman7, I started with and still use chewable calcium supplements. I don't really recommend chewable vitamins personally, as the ones with iron just taste really bad.

I only had an issue for the first couple of days because of swelling so was a little painful. And they were giving me oral pain meds in hospital the night after the surgery After the first couple if days the swelling reduced & I was able to swallow all my tablets easily just one at a time with a little break until my next sip. They were all capsules and not those big horse sized dry ones. So look around for capsules or caplets. Some things like vitamin D you can get in a mouth spray.

Check with your surgeon though as you can see some have different requirements as to what you a take (swallow) or not.

I was swallowing my normal pills the next day in the hospital but I was also drinking pretty good. And when I got home I could take my tablets just fine. If you are worried, though, order some bariatric advantage chewables. They taste decent and you can get them with and without iron. I actually took them the first month just cause they are a little lower iron than my SADI specific vitamin and I wasn’t eating as much to stomach the iron. It won’t hurt to have a couple of options on hand. Even if you have auto ship (which if you don’t have that you should look into it once you know what works for you because you save money and it’s one less thing for you to remember) you can skip a shipment anytime if you end up with too many vitamins. Also the bariatric advantage calcium chews are a good alternative to tablets and they are quite tasty (like candy). I still take them because I like them. They are a bit pricey but for the first month you don’t have to worry about swallowing issues and them being individually wrapped and not needing a drink is pretty convenient. I just keep a handful in my pocketbook and they are always with me when my alarm goes off. For the multi vitamin I use the procare health They are quite complete and reasonably priced. On their site you can do authorship and save some money. My labs have alway been great. Even now while I’m in the middle of chemo and have diarrhea everyday. That is one thing to keep in mind though. What works for me may not work for you. Whatever you do decide to go with take it with you when you go over your labs. You doctor may want to see how much of a specific vitamin is in there. They all have the same stuff for the most part but they have more or less of the different vitamins. If you end up being low in something you can always add that one vitamin but if you high you may need to switch to a different multi that has less a little less of that vitamin. I did the Pro care health multi with 45 mg I believe of iron after my sleeve and post revision I do their multi for the SADI which has higher ADEK and IRON that we need after DS or SADI. Ooh and it’s not a bad idea to eventually have one multi without iron on hand for days where you need to fast like lab days or if you aren’t feeling well and can’t eat enough to take it. I mean for twice a year you can just skip it but I’m doing a lot of labs and stuff right now that require me to miss it so I ordered an iron free and I feel better than I’m not missing all the other stuff at least. Also be sure to tell you Dr you take a BARIATRIC multi because some labs can be thrown off with the higher levels of vitamins. And if something is way off just google that and vitamins and see if that could be the issue to mention to your dr. I think it was biotin and cortisol that was my most recent one that was thrown off.

On 4/6/2025 at 6:37 PM, SheilaJS said:

Hello! My surgery is April 17th. It's been almost 8 months since I started this journey! Do any of you have trouble swallowing their Vitamins? I'm guessing they are pretty big (haven't got my order yet). Since we can only sip, do you have issues with taking them? Thank you!

I take a medication that I've been taking for years and it's small enough that I was allowed to swallow that one whole at first. The medication the gave me for post-op care and nutrition were given to me in liquid form or I was to use the pill grinder that they sent me home with. The multivitamin they gave me was evil though. The only times I've thrown up post-op was those damn vitamins. They were huge liquid capsules that I was told I need to break open and swallow the fluid inside *shudders from the memories* until I was able to eat solid foods. After the first two times I threw up taking them, I called my surgical team and they told me it was ok to wait until I could swallow them. I tried again at 4 weeks and swallowed it whole and it was fine unless I swallow it on an empty stomach, which is tricky because all the pills at first felt like a meal in and of themselves.

Once you have your surgery, your surgical team will be able to be more specific about what they recommend FOR YOU as everyone's mileage may vary. I was given three different recommendations in case, one wasn't available when I went to refill or what have you.

Some meds can also be crushed. But you will want to ask a dr or pharmacist. They sell pill crushers at many stores. I imagine a vitamin would be absolutely horrible crushed though. I would definitely splurge for the chewable before I tried that.

I would recommend chewable or liquid bariatric multivitamins for the first few months. I had surgery over 4 years ago and I still do the chewable multivitamin.