Do you give your DC's vitamins?

[CJ2010]

My DD is 2 years old and not a great eater. Should I give her a multivitamin? Do any of you give your DC's vitamins? If so, which one should I get? TIA

tootired - well I did wonder as in my last pregnancy midwives were a bit hit and miss generally but I did press her on this as this thread was fresh in my mind and MW was adamant that no vitamin D supplement is required in most cases.

Folic acid in first 3 months is a given - should have said vitamins/supplements save for folic acid in my previous post.

The sad thing is, lots of NHs staff are unaware of the guidelines or the reasons for them. The advice you have been given is very poor, and your midwife needs training in this. She is not alone. Even in 2007 when this review of the scientific evidence was published the advice for all pregnant women to take a supplement had been in place for some time. I had a pregnancy in 2007 and another in 2009 and it was not mentioned to me either time. I was heartened that this time the midwife covered it at my booking in appointment . Indeed, the report says:

"there is concern that it [the recommendation for pregnant women to take vit D supplement] is overlooked or not implemented by health professionals and the general public."

The Department of Health stated in 1998 that the majority of pregnant and lactating women will need supplementation.

Kanga, thanks for the link. I have just read this report and it does not say that all pregnant and breastfeeding women must take vitamin D or else but that they should consider taking a vitamin D supplement. It also says a lot about there needing to be further investigation into lack of vitamin D as there is not enough evidence. And it mentions there are many socio-econiomic factors which come into play and so certain sections of society are more at risk from vitamin D deficiency than others. It could therefore be argued that my midwife was not wrong/irresponsible in not recommending ALL pregnant women take vitamin D supplements as the report can be interpreted in many ways.

I am not disputing the importance of vitamin D but think there are so many conflicting studies and stances from various health agencies. Indeed the report mentions how NICE's antenatal guidelines were not to routinely suggest vitamin D supplements to all pregnant women and yet other agencies are the complete opposite.

In addition I think its worth noting that forumula milk is fortified with vitamin D hence the reference to breastfed babies only rather than all babies needing vitamin D supplements.

It certainly makes it very confusing for mums to be and parents trying to do the best for their children.

I think the midwife gave very irresponsible advice because she linked vitamin D deficiency to diet, whilst making no comment about the fact that you can only get up to 10% of your vitamin D that way and will probably be getting less than that during pregnancy because of most midwives passing on the advice not to eat too much oily fish while pregnant because of the levels of mercury in it. She also made no comment on the fact that studiously avoiding the sun or wearing SPF face creams might limit your body's ability to make vitamin D itself. And a lot of pregnant women are also advised not to spend too much time in the sun because sunshine during pregnancy can cause chloasma, which a lot of women find embarrassing.

In other words, she shouldn't have reassured you that you are probably OK if she actually knows nothing whatsoever about your own diet or attitude to sunshine and is just assuming that you will be OK because you look like a sensible, fair skinned, middle class woman who doesn't have to wear a burka. She should have given you the facts and then left you to decide on the basis of an educated opinion.

Hi rabbitstew, should have elaborated on "I did press her on this" as never mentioned she linked diet to deficiency, sun etc - I was just talking about the report kanga had linked. Midwife did quiz me about my diet, lifestyle and any medical issues. In other words she did give me the facts, in her opinion advised that it wasn't necessary and left it to me to ultimately decide.

So your summary: "I asked the midwife about it and she said not to bother and that the guidelines are only aimed at those with poor diets/medical conditions but that they have to aim the information at ALL pregnant and breastfeeding women." was not an accurate summary of what the midwife said, then! Because there's no mention in there of sunshine, or what constitutes a poor diet in terms of vitamin D.

Yes rabbitstew, my midwife did say that but I did not quote the entire conversation we had in a 20 minute appointment for fear of turning it into an essay. In summary she did say that to me after discussing in length diets and sunshine which I elaborated on in my follow up post for fear that people would think she did not talk about these things and therefore be irresponsible.

I am not getting into a battle of defending my midwife, just trying to point out that the whole area is very grey and even the health agencies/officials do not agree. My midwife is not the only one taking this stance either as I have discussed this a lot in RL with various pregnant women I know.

I have never given vits because I felt they were a waste if your child was on a balanced diet.

But now I give Vit D supplements because I have seen the literature and recommendations. My children are dark skinned at higher risk of deficency.

I have recently had a blood test after turning up aneamic when I went to give blood. Guess what? I am low in Vit D and calcium and am now taking supplements.

Recommendations
All UK Health Departments recommend:
? All pregnant and breastfeeding women should take a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D, to ensure the mother?s requirements for vitamin D are met and to build adequate fetal stores for early infancy.
? All infants and young children aged 6 months to 5 years should take a daily supplement containing vitamin D in the form of vitamin drops, to help them meet the requirement set for this age group of 7-8.5 micrograms of vitamin D per day. However, those infants who are fed infant formula will not need vitamin drops until they are receiving less than 500ml of infant formula a day, as these products are fortified with vitamin D. Breastfed infants may need to receive drops containing vitamin D from one month of age if their mother has not taken vitamin D supplements throughout pregnancy.
? People aged 65 years and over and people who are not exposed to much sun should also take a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D.
Are

I use Asda's kids multivitamin but it's only when he has been a bit sniffly, I was told that our water wasn't great round here by the HV - but they wanted me to buy a pack that were overpriced and smelled disgusting so I asked at a pharmacy and that's what they recommended

Funny you should ask - I just started my 2.8yr DS who is a very fussy eater on multivitamins and iron as my 14mo DD (who has an AMAZING appetite and diet full of Vit D and iron) has just been diagnosed with iron deficiency anaemia and rickets. I always thought that a good diet and lots of sun would be sufficient and I feel just awful about how wrong I got it

I give mine multivitamins basically because I felt guilt-tripped into it by a HV on a Baby Friendly course. I take one too. I am fairly sure that most of it just pees away but it includes Vitamin D so that's covered.

I've been banging on about the need for vitamin D for years ever since I saw a very thought provoking article in New Scientist about the links with cancer prevention.
But I didn't supplement the DCs because a) they get a lot of oily fish b) I take a robust approach to sunshine c) all the available supplements had vits A C E in for which there is no evidence of benefit - au contraire.

However with the latest batch of research I've decided to go for a specific supplement - I think Boots are advertising a child-friendly D + calcium though I haven't found any in stock yet.