Vitamin D Drops for BF babies ESSENTIAL

[cheshiremama89]

So DS is ebf and is 3 weeks old

Neither midwife nor HV told me I should be giving DS vit D drops

I found a free sample in a bounty pack and after reading about them and clear benefits I called my friend who is also a HV.

She states it is absolutely essential and couldn't believe neither MW/HV had said so!

Does else have experience of this xx

I was advised to take vitamins rather than give them to the baby

@angelikacpickles this is what the guidelines are in my area

www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/wp-content/dibm/vitamin%20d.pdf

But it's interesting how high the supplement dose has to be to pass into the milk once the stores are depleted. I will definitely bring this up with my cpt

happy , yes better give them.
cod liver oil should contain vit d3, check the label.

TotHappy - yes starting taking vitamins D and giving it to your DD too. Codliver oil is high in vitamin A so not recommended when pregnant or breastfeeding as it's fat soluble.

Hippy - the recommendations are to give to all pregnant and postpartum women for one year post birth and babies from 4 weeks as it's not possible to check everyone's Vitamin D status. Pregnancy and breastfeeding zap your own stores.

I find midwives are not consistently giving vitamin D info antenatal, although lots of women will be taking pregnacare or similar which is fine.

Women that breastfed for longer periods should continue taking vitamin D until they stop breastfeeding.

Hippy those are guidelines from the breastfeeding network but you'll need to find out what your trust policy is on Vitamin D. Trusts have been sued when children have developed tickets and their vitamin D policy hasn't been followed.

@hmmmchiny Those guidelines are what our best practice standard is based on. I think it's been well established on this thread that guidance varies widely from trust to trust. I'm a student HV from an adult nursing background rather than a midwifery background so this is relatively new to me other than my own experience of my dc. I will be speaking to my cpt tomorrow about whether our guidelines need to change.

The guidance has recently changed. It used to be that if the mother is taking supplements, baby didn't need supplements. But now it's changed that baby is supposed to have supplements as well. Because the guideline have only just changed, the info hasn't been rolled out to all health visitors yet. Well at least that's what I was told anyway

I am an adult nurse too 😊

Always good to do your own research in health visiting I find, so you have a solid rationale. Don't not reply on your CPT as they vary. I actually found MN to be a fountain of knowledge, some people really know their stuff.

Your early advice was wrong though, and isn't what the BFN says either.

10 mg is only half of what you need if you are actually deficient. So if the mum has given birth and is breastfeeding she doesn't just need 10 but at least 25mg (I000iu) a day, especially if she is dark skinned or covered up. If no-one is going to test her blood. That's for her, her health, let alone her baby's. Vit D deficiences will affect the mother's health, her thyroid, her bones, her mental health, her energy her anxiety levels.
I don't think GPs give the right guidance, they assume that 10mg is enough and even that might not be taken, once women show signs of debilitation, the GPs should be recommending at least 1000iu a day (25mg) for the next YEAR. No toxicity is associated with that dose.

Seeing a GP and mentioning depression post partum or tiredness, did anyone ever say - have you taken 25mg of vitamin d or was there just some vague mention of have you had enough vitamins? (oh yes, I have a very healthy diet - which I did in iron and Bs and Cs and Es but not vitamin D which is from the UV sunlight in my life, sadly lacking in Feb)

I asked m.w and she said I didn't have to. Was never said in hospital either when I was expressing for a month. He did ok. ebf ds2 for 6 months and didn't either

Nettle - just out of interest, what is the current thinking about bf babies and iron? Back in the day, I was told that bf babies might not be getting enough and my HV aunt's advice for weaning included scraping the end of a spoon across the top of a nice bit of roast topside, straight from the oven, to get those yummy juices for a little taste. We did start weaning earlier, and the pendulum seems to be swinging back on that, too.

I believe the actual science by actual scientists who are sponsored by vitamin companies says vit D supplements are useless as body can only convert vit D from sunlight..

Two EBF babies here. Never had any extra vitamins. Kids very tall, bright and never sick. And freakishly strong....

I'm not sure Thyme...my last baby was 16 years ago. my anecdotal knowledge is that the baby's iron stores are used up after 6months which is why weaning onto ironrich foods is important? I know someone whose child was weaned onto a hypoallergic formula milk and breastfed and told to avoid any turkey or eggs (as allergic to dairy so they were being conservative at the hospital) and ended up seriously ill with bronchial infections; turned out that most formula has iron in it, and his didn't and without the iron enriched weaning foods his iron stores were nil by 7 months. They were incredibly angry with hospital dieticians for not pointing this out in the advance and not noticing the connection between his infections and the low iron formula/lack of turkey eggs. {this is not to say that a vegan baby is necessarily iron low, just that you have to know what you are doing weaning wise)

most baby cereals are enriched with iron presumably, but a baby that is breastfed after 6months without anything added (I mean food wise, not formula) till I year old is going to lack some iron surely??? I am not a nutritionist and stand to be corrected by anyone who is!

the child in question had to be given a prescription hypoallergenic formula because the mum was back at work and couldn't produce volume he required by just expressing, although she did continue to breastfeed. Perhaps if he had been on baby cereal and just breastmilk his iron supply would have been better even without the turkey and eggs. This lady was in my NCT group and it was 16 years ago.

DD is 12 weeks old & EBF, I didn't know anything about giving her vitamin D drops until HV casually mentioned at about 6/8 weeks "and you're giving her vitamin D?" Ummmm noooo nobody has mentioned it to me. I give her drops now but to be honest I'm pretty sure she spits most of it out. I still take vitamins, & we go out for a walk every day so I'm probably not going to buy another bottle once this one has run out

Science moves forward over time. Scientists and doctors did not know how important Vitamin D was 30 years ago. Now they do. And every day are finding out more. Vitamin D is not just for bone health (you need adequate Vitamin D to utilize Calcium). You need Vitamin D for Serotonin uptake (ie keep you happy), for regulating sleep cycles, for digestion/satiety (preventing obesity), neuron function, and a whole load of other things. Pretty much everyone (particularly if you are dark skinned and/or cover your body and/or live in a Northern country) should supplement with Vitamin D unless you spend a lot of time in the sun unclothed. And if you are older, you lose the ability to synthesize the Vitamin D from the sun, so will need extra supplementation as well. I live in Los Angeles and am light skinned and spend a lot of time gardening without sun protection and still have to supplement with 2000iu a day.

LegWarmers and Grobags it's wonderful that your dc's are healthy without needing supplementation, but that's not the case for the vast majority of people. Suggesting that because your kids are fine, therefore everyone else's should be too, sounds a little like my exMIL who has smoked all her life and doesn't have lung cancer so is sure that smoking doesn't give you cancer.

Nettleskins I thought that bf babies are supposed to be given iron supplementation.

Sorry Nettleskeins....

I breastfed three children over an eight year period and no-one ever mentioned this to me, despite me having a huge amount of contact with midwives, HVs and BF specialists as all three had feeding problems due to tongue tie.

But no-one seems to know! I see HV weekly weighing DC3 who is 4 months, and not once has supplementation been mentioned. As it wasn't with the other two either. I have only ever heard of it on here.

I think there is an issue with health England or whoever decides this stuff disseminating the info. I’m a midwife, I’ve never been told by my nhs hospital to start telling women this. Ive never been told what the recommendations are or that there are any. No idea if I’m meant to be telling women or if the health visitors are.

Sunshine doesn't contain vitamin D. Our bodies process it when sun shines on our skin at a certain strength/length of time. We all cover up in winter and the sun's rays are at an extreme angle so we don't get much potency of sunlight.

sofia - that's interesting about less efficient synthesis of Vit D from sunlight as you get older, and its effect on serotonin levels. I am on a low dose of paroxetine for the duration now. I'm not depressed but I have developed anxiety - with nothing, in my view, to be anxious about. I just woke up every morning with a start as if I'd just run over a cat. That awful lurch in your stomach. Paroxetine sorts that out.

I had a theory about older bodies not producing enough serotonin and my GP agreed. It was his idea for me to take in indefinitely. It's helpful to know that there's some science behind it to back me up! I've also started taking Vit D this winter. It's been so dark and gloomy with no incentive to leave the house.

My father (Bruce Ames) is a well known scientist who works on nutrition and has published several papers on Vitamin D and at 89 is still going to work 6 days a week, so I have this drummed into me all the time. But for those of you who don't have the parental units disseminating information on an hourly basis, the Vitamin D Council is a great place to look.