flintstone vitamins

  You rock!  ( Hey I like your new pic...you look hip and cute!)

Yep that would be me!!! I WAS stupid. Though would like to clarify one thing. ALL MY FAULT!!! My surgeon is great. He actually saved my life when I was dieing and the doc's had no clue what was wrong with me. He gave me all the info but I slacked off. He is against the flinstones and the right kind of calcium very knowlegable (and can probably spell that right). He is still very involved with me care. My kids are funny LOL really they are good kids they have had to go through a lot..but they are kids!! What I am seeing in a lot of these post are people that are only are year or so out. Yeah they have "great" bloodwork and all that. They are doing great. I could go on and on..BUT..they just dont get it. You guys can take all that is suggested by Andrea and others with a grain of salt. She isnt shoving the vitamins down your throats. But as I and others, being further out, are LIVING with the consequences of inproper supplementation. It is only with the intentions of helping, passing on info. You are so quick to defend your doctors and your choices and so be it that is your choice. But if only ONE person takes her advice and is saved from the hell that can happen then it is worth it.

Tanya, when did you have surgery? And how long after you stop taking your vits did you start to notice symptoms? You don't mind me asking do you? Hugs

No, I do not mind you asking. I want to help anyone that I can and if I have to tell of my stupidity then it is worth it. I had my surgery May 2003. I was really good for the first couple of years. I would say that probably somewhere close to year 3 was when I started slacking. I believe (and that is subject to my wild memory of it all) that at about the middle of year 3 I started plummeting. I went to a doc (NOT my surgeon) and had my blood checked and a B def. was detected. He had me come in for a few shots and that was it. I dont remember much after that. I knew something was wrong and should of went to my surgeon. I know that I was getting out of the hospital in may 2007 I think I went in somewhere in Feb, last I remeber was the end of Jan 2007. But dates are subject to my off mind at the time, crap as the paramedics were on the way I was telling my sister that I had taken the kids to a carnival at the neighbors house..LOL. But those dates are close to correct. SO- to sum it up a little..RNY 5-2003, symptoms were progressing about the end of 2006, hospitalized somewhere in 2-2007 and released 5-2007.

I would like to add though that I have been very good about my vitamins since that hospitalization. Even so I am starting to show symptoms again. It sucks. But at least now I know what the symptoms are and can try to nip it. Unfortuanatly, I think I am loosing the battle.

All you people taking two Flinestones.... you do realize that the adult dose is two pills, right? And you are supposed to take 2x the adult dose... so you should be taking 4 of them, not 2. (2 of them 2 x a day)

Also, if you had a surgery with malabsorption, you need to take more than a multi and calcium. You should take iron and B12 at a minimum for RnY, plus extra of anything your multi is low. DSers also usually take an ADEK.

My surgeon also lists Flinestones as one of the suggested vitamins along with some bariatric ones and Centrum ones and a few others. But I don't agree with Andrea that he's an idiot. The recommendations from his office fall right in line with those in the article Andrea posts all the time about bariatric nutrition. The difference is in philosophy.

His philosophy is that the most important thing is to pick a vitamin you will actually take. There is no sense in picking the "perfect" vitamin if you won't take it or can't afford to buy it.

As an example, I've had a horrible time getting my dh to take *any* vitamin. We've been through them all. The only one she'll take is Flinestone's Gummies. Those are *not* the world's best vitamin. They are not a "complete" vitamin and I don't recommend them. But they are better than no vitamin at all which is what was happening before we found these. It's a compromise.

The important thing is to read the labels. Your multi should have at least 400mg of foliate in the adult dose (and you should take 2x the adult dose). If you are still menstruating, it should have iron. It should have a reasonable amount of different micronutrients including selenium and zinc. Some multis have hardly anything in them -- and this includes some ADULT formulations. Don't think that if it says Adult you are okay, but if it says Childrens you aren't. Some children's vitamins are better than some adults.

READ THE LABELS.

And, while you are reading the labels, get the dosage right! Many vitamins/supplements are more than one pill per "serving". I have some calcium that is labeled as being 1000 mg. So I figured it was 1000 mg per pill. I finally read the label more carefully and found it was FOUR PILLS per "serving". So I was taking 250 mg of calcium when I thought I was taking 1000 mg!

I didn't take them, but in my book it says if you cannot handle the adult at first, take twice the dosage of the children's...so that would be 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening whereas adult is 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening.

Eventually though, you should switch to adult - children's vitamins are meant for children :)

Okay, so bottom line....What vitimins should we take daily?

I have Centrum but they are gross.  I take tropical oasis for my calcium.  I take Zinc and D.  Then they told me to take B1 weekly and sublingual B12.

I am just learning and have no problem questioning my nut/docs.  I just find very different info in different places.

Whow i didn't mean to start a blog war about flintstone vitamins. all i asked was how many you need to take to compare to the bariatric brand. if you read the flintstomes label they don't have the same as the bariatric,but vitamin A,C,E,and etc are the same no matter what the brand so why not just take more