Vitamin D? and other vitamins..?

[creamoftomato]

DS is 6 months old and someone mentioned to me that he should be having vitamins - he isn't having any at the moment. He has been EBF until we started weaning a couple of weeks ago (mostly baby led because he doesn't like spoons except featuring yoghurt) so he's not eating a lot yet and still BF on demand.

On vitamin D, could I take the supplement instead...? (Mostly asking because I've got some in the house!)

The level of vitamin d in breast milk remains low even when the mother is sufficient so the baby needs supplementation. Also try to include vitamin d rich foods in his diet such as oily fish, eggs etc

from 6 months to 5 years its advised to supplement vitamin A, C and D (especially D)

Breastfed babies benefit from Vitamin D supplements especially - there's not sufficient Vitamin D obtained by our predominantly indoor lifestyles in Northern Europe and the fact we wrap up and cover when we do go outside. Plenty of research on this.

Evolutionarily-speaking, humans got the vitamin d they needed from their diet and from being outside.

He won't get sufficient from your breastmilk even if you supplement yourself.

To clartify- breastfed babies over 6 mths, that is.
The supps are already added to formula so formula fed babies over 6 mths who are getting 500 mls of formula a day don't need any more.

Is this really true re vitamin D? Surely if we are indigenous to the UK we have adapted to produce it from the sun we get? I read somewhere that this current advice is due to people who have come her from sunnier climes needing it more as they are less effective at absorbing it from our meagre amount of sun.
Genuinely interested particularly as my bf 11 month old refuses to swallow any of them!

"Is this really true re vitamin D? "

Yes - you can read the research with a quick Google. It is based on studies done on UK infants and toddlers, not all from black/asian backgrounds.

"Surely if we are indigenous to the UK we have adapted to produce it from the sun we get? "

Not yet - how quickly do you think evolution 'works'??? It will take a few more thousand years to catch up with the fact we spend far more of our lives indoors than we did at one time.

"I read somewhere that this current advice is due to people who have come her from sunnier climes needing it more as they are less effective at absorbing it from our meagre amount of sun."

It's certainly very important for black/brown/olive skins, but also for white skins. Mainly because of modern lifestyle changes.

"Genuinely interested particularly as my bf 11 month old refuses to swallow any of them!"

Mix it with his/her food - just stir them into something you know your baby will eat.

...also bear in mind genes are funny things. I look pure Celtic but am 1/4 Portugese and 1/4 Indian ... so you may have genes from a sunnier place and not realise! It does affect my skin: world's only auburn haired girl who doesn't burn in the sun but goes brown!!

These are the drops provided by the NHS for bf babies over 6 months. Your pharmacist will have them.

www.healthystart.nhs.uk/for-health-professionals/vitamins/

My local pharmacy doesn't - they looked completely clueless when I asked them about vitamins for the baby and then just pointed me to the shelf of multivitamins.

Talk to your HV. Did you speak to the pharmacist or a sales person?

The sales person checked with the pharmacist, who said to talk to the health visitor... who told me to ask at the pharmacy!
I just bought some Abidec in the end.

The healthy start NHS vitamins are only available direct from family centres/medical centres in some areas. This link lets you search for where near you they are available from:

www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/Healthy-start-vitamins/LocationSearch/348

Our HV posted a survey on FaceBook to see who had had success buying them and then she chased up the ones who weren't offering them.

Are there any that don't contain iron? Iron interferes with some other medication DD is on so we've stopped giving vitamins ... Would like to restart but haven't seen any suitable.

I dont think abidec has iron. What age is your dd? Bassetts do chewy ones suitable from age 3 that dont have iron

Abidec looks like it doesn't have iron according to the blurb on their website.

most of the vitamins aimed at children dont seem to contain iron

Almost 1. Maybe I don't mean iron. This is what comes from MNing during bedtime feeds! I'll check ...

That's interesting embarrassed. None near me. I think you can get the healthy start vitamins in some boots? Our health visitor told us that in some Asdas you can get vitamin d drops for about £2

We were using well baby drops. I'll try find some vit d only ones I think.

You can get baby d drops from boots. You can put the drop on your nipple then baby doesn't notice they are having it, really easy. Only contains vitamin d.

The NHS ones have no iron.

The WellBaby has iron in it.