DS Vitamin questions.... SO many different answers!

I went to my last consult before my surgery today and had a class we had to attend for information pre-op and post...... LOTS of good stuff but i have a question for you!!!  They had a Bariatric Advantage guy there to talk to us about all our vitamins that we will need post surgery and it's a LOT less then all the other patients on here are taking ( I think) Here is what i ordered for a 90 day supply....

1 - Bariatric Advantage Multi-Formula Chewable (180 Count)
1 - Bariatric Advantage Sublingual B-12 - Black Cherry (90 Count)
1 - Bariatric Advantage 18mg Chewable Iron - Strawberry (90 Count)
1 - Bariatric Advantage 500mg Calcium Citrate Lozenges w/ Vitamin D - (270 count)

Does this seem right to everyone?? My doctor is one of the best in the Dallas area and I trust him but i'm not sure why everyone else is using so much more!

IDEAS???

 

The BA guy was obviously there to sell his product, which is fine.  You will have labs done periodically post op, and according to your results, your supplements may or may not need to be tweaked.  I am not a vet- only 3 months post op, so I haven't had any labs done yet.  It seems a lot of the vets who post on here are very lab-aware, and have probably been through many vitamin adjustments.

What you ordered seems appropriate to me, to get you started.

My labs started sinking on even more than this. I switched to Vitalady's plan at 9 months post-op with my surgeon's approval and had perfect labs at 1 year and still have awesome labs now as I've tweaked them over time with my labs. What you have there might be fine for a few months but trust your labs, track them on a spreadsheet, and adjust your vitamins against your labs, We'll help you. All you have to do is ask.

--gina

Yeap, missing your dry a, d, e, k (individually NOT as one pill)

Costco multi is fine...no reason to pay extra for the "Bariatric" name on the label. Example, the 180 count Multi is NOT for DS'er's...it's labeled for the RNY and VSG. And you will pay almost $40.00 for 180 pills. We buy the Cost****irkland) multi....pay about $10 for 500 of them. Even taking three a day, I have over a 3 month supply.

The chewable iron is the wrong kind.

At almost $50 for a bottle of calcium...and needing to take 4 every day...

Costco carries Calcium Citrate that is less than $20.00

OR just order the DS starter pack from Vitalady and get all the CORRECT types of vitamins. Once you have had POST-surgery labs, then tweak according to your labs.

Sounds like you got HAD by a slick sales pitch.

Or stick with that plan but set aside plenty of money for the resulting nutritional deficiency issues down the road like blindness (lack of A), or the iron infusions from your iron tanking, etc.

 

well i'm definitely going to talk to my doctor because he's the one that suggests the chewable iron and all the other vitamins I bought today. :( For sure I am going to use the costco brands after this!  I will also ask him about the dry a, d, e, k..... those were not mentioned to us at all. Vitalady 90 day package is twice the cost and I guess this explains why.  Thank you for your help!

 

Surgeons are CUTTERS not nutritionists. And the NUTS tend to have RNY on the brain...stick around and follow what the vets have discovered DO work....

BTW, I don't even bother explaining what I take to my surgeon's office...and when they tell me what I "need", I just smile and nod and then come back to the vets.

Dr. Barker does not have a good rep for after-care. Or, really much of a rep as a good DS surgeon.

Hey there!

The B.A. iron has Ferronyl® carbonyl iron, which I thought was the correct form that we need (??). I got three months' worth in the chewable form, and then ordered from Vitalady for later.

I got the High ADEK multivitamin from B.A. which does have instructions for DSers on the label. I will continue with this brand until I get my first labs.

The B-12 and the Calcium Citrate you can buy from other sources. I got the caramel chews from B.A. for the first three months, but after that supply runs out, I'm using Costco.

I also bought Zinc and Biotin.

I haven't had my surgery yet and will obviously need to adjust once I get my first set of labs done. Dr. K told me that I would only need the multi-vitamin and calcium, but I got the rest based on what I've been reading on these boards.

Good luck! :)

My husband and I TRIED the BA High ADEK multi...total waste of money as both of us had our D end up in the toilet. Supplementing those separately is better for 99% of us. There is the odd person that the high adek multi will work but pay attention to your labs and go by those. And get copies of your labs, track trends and do NOT take your doctor's word that it's NORMAL. You could be at the bottom end of normal and still be normal. A 35 of D is normal...but we need to be up around 80-100.

hi there. you won't find many fans of ba vitiamins here. sooooo, i go out on a limb when i tell you that i have been on the ba chewables for over 4 years. yup. that's right.
you don't need extra aedk since the chewables are known for having higher amounts in it already.
as for needing more b12, well, my labs for b12 are really high. infact, the pa in my surgeon's office came right out and said "i'm guessing that you take bariatric advantage vitamins." this was before she read my chart.
my labs are wonderful and have been for years. very little tweaking needed.
go figure, eh?