Vitamin supplements while bfing

[philbee]

The HV said I should be taking a supplement while bfing to keep my vitamin D up. Does anyone know if I can just take a regular multivitamin, or if I need to take pregnacare or similar? I think it's to do with having vitamin A while pg, but don't know whether I should still avoid while bfing. I asked the HV and she didn't know.

A multi-vitamin with Vit D in it is fine. No need for anything special.

I've got the pregnacare breastfeeding vitamins in front of me and they say 10 micrograms of vit D3 is recommended by the Dept of Health for breastfeeding mothers.

They don't contain vitamin A, not sure why not.

IIRC vitamin A is fat soluble and can build up causing difficlty for your liver. On the other hand if you took too much vit C you'd get diarrhoea. If you're stressed you can take high levels of the B vitamins without problems.

Vit D is a hormone produced in response to sunlight on your skin. We also get some from eating oily fish. Apparently most people in northern countries are deficient during the winter, especially if you have darker skin

i took the left over pregnacare ones I had. but I stopped as they were making DS have green jelly-like poos several times a day....

I just take the free ones that my hv provides. I think they're the same as pregnacare but the NHS version .

Tesco does their own brand of pregnancy/breastfeeding multivitamin. As far as I can see, same as Pregnacare only vastly cheaper.