Breastfeeding-should I be taking vits & should I be giving them to my son?

[JoBaz]

My Hv says I need to give my DS vit drops as he is breastfed, is this true?
I have a good diet & he certainly does- I cook most of his food, I give him liver, salmon etc... so should I need to give him anything else??
I feel very tired all the time, but thats cos hes a poor sleeper I think? Or do U think the feeding is draining me? (hes 10mths)...

Bollocks
HV talking crap
Sounds like a great diet

well thats what I thought, but was just reading back about vit D & that he may not be getting enough?
why do they make us worry like this- I have breastfed & will continue to do so to do the best for my son & now they are saying he will be deficient in certain vits because of how I am feeding him?

try co sleeping with him even if just part the night.

unicef has a leaflet that shows how to safely. thats what got me out of that drained feeling.

vit d is harder for darker skins to absorb from the sun so kids with mediterraenean (sorry for sp) skin or darker might want to take vit d or you can give 6 month 'super doses' of it.
I never took vit pills while bf but this time round I think I might. I read that calcium can get low and one sign is lots of plaque on teeth and after ds1 and ds2 I had that so maybe I should have checked my calcium levels

10 mins of sunshine is all he needs to make his own vit d.

he wont sleep in my bed with me- tried, but he dosent like it- likes his own space in his cot... i am having periods, am having one now & so thats why I feel so drained too- I got my periods back at 6weeks after having him!

what are the signs of being Vit D deficient? as some days he may not get exposed to the sun?

plaque on teeth is caused bt poor brushing.calcium leaching from teeth is an early sign of tooth decay. see sentence 1 from what would cause the leaching to occur.

your periods shouldn't be draining you. i would think that getting up a lot to look after your son is more draining. taking multivits may help but don't bother buying expensive ones as regular brands / generic brands will be just as effective.

oops plaque on teeth is caused by bacteria poor brushing make it build up on teeth. (i had a sleeping baby in my hand.)

when I has my DS I lost alot of blood, so they put me on iron pills.. after 2-3weeks they said that was it & I could stop, but never tested my blood since- I just wonder if feeding is taking all the energy out of me? I think U are right though- I just think its maybe the 10 mths of rubbish sleep- hence the rambling I am doing on here! x

please don't worry too much about your blood levels. if will put your mind to rest, go see your gp and have it tested. i know what a rubbish sleeper my dd was at ten months and i also worked fulltime and breastfeeding at home and expressing at work. (she didn't do any lumps in food till 13 months)

over the winter i got a lot of colds and took multivits for about a month and it sorted me. try to eat healthy and rest - easier said than done i know. Have a look at the safe cosleeping leaflet . It takes some getting used to for you and your baby. When your ds realises how nice it is to snuggle up next to you, he'll change his mind. Sometimes when they are that age and teething they are v. squirmy anyway and worse when overtired. it is all about learning for the two of you.

Learning to do this was a sanity saver for me which is why i am so keen on it.

hello again
well, the plaque thing/tooth brushing thing is what my dentist told me but after both pregnancies, almost immediately afterwards, I got lines of plaque across front teeth having never had problems before and having had no fillings previously etc. I believed it was from not brushing properly at the time, cos that's what everyone says, but looking back, it was a daft idea cos it was so sudden and it's not like I actually was doing anything different.

so, one day I read this book about osteoporosis and it said one sign of calcium deficiency was sudden plaque on teeth and I thought - that sounds familiar.
having said that, I've just googled it and it seems to be the opposite,a sign of too much calcium! so who knows what was going on there with calcium levels!
but, just in case anyone has those plaque signs, don't just get fobbed off with stories of poor toothbrushing! check it out.

any helpful links then morocco?

ha ha!! about a million of not very interesting at all articles with one relevant passage in them. I've just been off round the internet reading all kinds of interesting things.
I just googled 'calcium level plaque on teeth' then 'diet calculus on teeth' etc. It's really not very interesting unless you like that kind of thing .
Just read one article about link to diet in general that was quite interestinghere

JoBaz- I have a 2.3 year old still bf. I did alot of research on the net when he was 6 months old because a family friend who is a doctor told me that I should give DS iron + vits after 6 months. I wasn't convinced as he is not an expert on bf, so did my own research !

The medical advice is to give baby vit. D supplements after 6 months but only if you are darker skinned (say Asian or Black) and living in a Northern Hem. country, say Scandanvia or Canada OR IF you have very little exposure to sunlight here in the UK.

Darker skinned mothers and babes need more sun on their skins than fair skinned ones in order to get enough vit. D.

So, as far as vit. D goes, no need for either of you to take it if you are fair skinned and allow yourself and baby adequate exposure to sunlight.

For the baby the min. amount of DIRECT sunlight (behind a window is no good it has to be direct) according to WHO/UNICEF for a bf baby is 20 mins. PER WEEK if arms/legs are exposed and 1 hour if it is just the head and face. Most UK babies who go to the park/garden a few times a week will get sufficient sun light in this way. I can give refs. for this if you like, I saw it on kellymom.com.

As far as other vits and iron are concerned, these can be obtained through diet. I started giving DS meat twice a day (tiny bits of course) when he was 7 months old. At over 2 years old he loves meat and fish and has some at each meal. That has covered the iron and protein nicely. Also broccoli and spinach are full of iron if you just steam them. Vits. A & C are easily obtained also thro' good diet of fruit and veg.

So my conclusion after reading everything I could was not to give supplements as I home cook like yourself and DS has a very healthy diet.

Do you think you may be iron deficient yourself as you feel so tired ? It is a possibility, but you can get a blood test done to make sure and take supps. yourself if necessary. I still take multi. vits and calcium/magnesium/zinc because I still bf.

Keep doing what you are doing, ignore HV, I don't think your baby needs supps. you are doing really well !

Forgot to mention - the La Leche League website has lots of excellent info. on diet and bf babies and basically says no need for supps. if you and baby have good exposure to sun and healthy diet !

the link has nothing to do with the dental concerns of bf babies or toddlers so therefore useless to the topic in hand. the eating (and lack of brushing) habits of teens is another kettle of fish.

would prefer if you could post the references you found helpful on plaque being a result of calcium deficiency. Don't worry, I've read loads of boring things in my time.

if you can't post any helpful links i thing we should keep this discussion off JoBaz's thread.

think not thing