"But my surgeon said to take a couple of Flintstones vitamins and I'll be okay!"

Your doctor may be an excellent surgeon.  Unfortunately, when they go to medical school to learn to be excellent surgeons, they don't learn much about nutrition.  Seriously.

There is no reason to use children's vitamins for six months and then switch over.  You need full nutritional support from the beginning.  I would ask your doctor why he's recommending this.

Kelly

MM,  can you email me that list of vitamins and schedule?  My email aDDRESS is [email protected]   I am thanking you in advance.  Maria

Someone just nailed it, they said "most"...so what happens to the body when you don't get it all?

I just read the post somewhere, where someone admitted to not eating right and vomiting and drinking pop, and she had complications.

When will people learn?!

Sorry, but I have to disagree with MM(and others) that say that children's flintstones are not good enough(for anyone) To say that is a pretty broad blanket statement, considering that every person's body is different and metabolizes vitamins, food, differently. It is a very individual thing. My surgeon, his nurse, and his nutritionist all recommend Children's Flintstones. I started out taking two a day(I use Meijer's brand Animal Shapes Children's Vitamins Complete-Meijer's version of Flintstones) I get full complete labs (and yes, I get copies every time). Due to one of my labs coming back too high, They reduced it to one a day. My labs are great now and I will be 2 yrs out in May. So it is a very individual thing. There are probably a lot of people like me that will do well with Flinstones(or a comparable vitamin) There are probably a lot of people that won't. Best advice is to follow your doctor's (nutritionist's) plan first and foremost( and if your surgeon doesn't give you a plan/or doesn't have a nutritionist on staff, then find one that is knowledgeable about WLS(particularly the surgery you have) and take what advice that you find on these boards with a grain of salt. No offense to anyone, but what may work for MM (or anyone else) may or may not work for you.

So out of curiosity, do you know how many units of BC it takes a child to covert to one unit of ret and how many it takes a normal adult?

And then, knowing that this is decreased significantly, and knowing that ret is a fat-reliable vitamin, where are you getting sufficient A?  Is it palmitate, acitate?  A mixture?

Children's vitamins are formulated with BC because it is the only form of A that cannot be overdosed on.. the kids can turn orange, but it cannot OD.  It's also very good for prenates because BC is not fetatoxic in ANY dose, whereas acetate and palmitate ARE and thus give OBs and pedis the woobies and wibbles in equal measure.

So ask yourself these questions, and then ask yourself  -- HOW important is your vision?

The problem is that most docs can't answer the questions I posted above without looking it up.  Neither can most nuts.  Dieticians will look at you, stare, and drool.

While some of your numbers may be good, not all may be.  You need to check ALL of your numbers and make sure your numbers are alright for all of them.. decreasing your multivite by half and not supplementing other things is VERY dangerous IMHO.

Some people may do OK on Flintstones.  Most will not. 

Did you get a hard copy of your labs?  Did you look at all the numbers yourself?  Or are you just taking your doctor's word that it's fine?  Have you compared last year's labs to this years?  Has anything gone down a bit?

Kelly

I just emailed IU Surgical Weight Management Center at Wishard about the Flintstones.  I'm looking forward to their response.  I can't wait to see their data, backing up their recommendations.

-Cyn

Hey, no worries, nothing has worked for me.

I think I caused permanent damage from early post op, and now even the hard core Bariatric vites have a hard time keeping up.

This is a toughie! I had my pre-op last week and was told to do the Flinstones. But I am an RN of 22 years and I do a lot of reading and researching. I appreciate all the information provided here as Bariatrics is not my area of practice. (I'm an SICU nurse.)

My biggest fear does not involve the acute phase of my surgery. But I have been sleepless and worrying about the medical complications that come later.

That being said, I look at it this way. We can do everything we are told to do, and some of us are still going to have problems. We are human beings with very different make up.

So we must be responsible, arm ourselves with knowledge, and hope for the best.

In these final days as I approach my own surgery, I am making notes, making a shopping list (does not include Flinstones!!) and creating a schedule for eating and supplements. And I thank each of you who share your knowledge and experiences.

OMG!

It seems to me (call me crazy, if you will) that a full-grown, literate adult could read the labels and know that children's vitamins do not even contain the %DV needed for children. 

Pre-surgery, I would have told a Dr. if they were nuts if they told me to take children's vits, much less post-surgery when you need so much more.

I'm sorry, but this just makes me want to beat my head against a wall every time I read about it!

Michele