Are Vitamin Supplements needed for a 10mo BF baby?

[jenny260906]

I took my 10 and a half month old son to be weighed yesterday at our health centre and i had a chat with the HV about his feeding. He is on 3 meals a day and is also BF first thing in the morning, late afternoon and at bedtime. Unfortunatley i'm going back to work in 3 weeks so need to droip the afternoon feed. Today he took formula from his cup (I dont want to express)....

But the HV said that he should be having vitamin supplements .... is this right? no one has ever mentioned this to me before. He does not drink a lot of mik really - about 10minute feed in the morning and the same at bedtime, then about 150ml of formula in the afternoon. (also has cows milk on his cereal in the morning)

so are vitamin supplements required??

NO as long as hi smeals are wll balanced-HV is off her rocker!

No, def not required. My dd is still bf at 18 months, and has never had a vit sup in her life (and she didn't start eating solids well until about 11 months). IIRC I acutally asked dd's paed about this (seen because she's milk intolerant) and he said that they don't use/recommend them any more.

I have just been looking at a few websites and this is what a lot state...

"Should I give my baby vitamin drops?

Vitamin supplements containing vitamins A and D are recommended from 6 months for babies receiving breast milk as their main milk drink. Babies fed an infant milk or follow-on milk do not need vitamin supplements if they take more than 500ml/day, but if their intake is less than this they will need to have vitamin drops too. "

AND....

"Ask your health visitor if you are unsure about your child's diet and she will be able to give you advice about vitamin supplements. The general advice is that breast-fed babies should have vitamin drops from 6 months old and bottle-fed babies from 12 months old when you can start using cow's milk instead of formula milk."

..... is this all crap or do babies need the extra vitamins?

it's all crap.

Personally I think it's crap but here in the US more doctors are recommending giving vitamin A, C, and D drops from birth (especially in winter) to primarily bfed babies and then flouride from 6 months.

There is quite a lot of stuff on this in the mumsnet archives - put in Vitamin D when you search.

It will explain that whether breastfed babies 'need'' vitamins is far from certain, but modern lifestyles mean some babies may not get outside often enough for them to make their own Vitamin D. This is not an issue for formula fed babies because Vitamin D supps are added to formula. It's also not an issue for breastfed babies who have a variety of solids, and obviously not for the ones who do get outside - a short time outside on most days is enough.

Your HV should have explained all this to you, but maybe she doesn't know it herself!!

Oh, I got told this, I reckon its a load of crap. I don't reckon anyone really needs vitamins, unless you live on chips!

Should add that up to six months, the view in the UK is that bf babies do not normally need any supplements - the recommendation only applies to those over 6 mths.

Taking a baby outside most days - which actually most of us do anyway, just as part of everyday routine - will do everything that supps do, and more.

as a chatty aside - i do find it amazing how many hvs seem to think breast-milk is an inferior version of formula, that somehow needs correcting, or topping up, with all the goodies in formula.

My surgery is generally very supportive of breast-feeding but I recently took my bf DS for his one year checkup and was told that because he'd never had any formula he probably needed iron supplements. Insisted on having him checked and his iron was fine.

Surely if breastmilk was that rubbish we'd never have made it past caveman stage?

ok thanks tiktok and everyone else!

this is the first time the HV has mentioned supplements so i was a bit annoyed that no one has mentioned it previously.

Think i will just carry on as normal, without the supplements as we go for a walk every day so DS gets plenty of sun/daylight.

I will probably ask the nurse/doctor about it again at his 12month vaccine.

thanks again!