baby vitamins

[shinyshoes]

Where do I get them? I remember them being free with my first 11 years ago .

I didnt give them to my middle one but the baby is 23 weeks old and is very underweight. she is on the 2nd centile line and she is looking bony. My sister even commented on her yesturday saying she can see her bones and she dosent have fat she has skin.

she has dropped from 4 x 8oz bottles to
2x 8oz and 2 x 5-6oz. of formula

I have decided to give her food, Hipp Banana porridge at first. This started yesturday. I am only doing it at teatime and its such a small amount more to get her used to the texture of food.

I want to give her vitamins, do people still do this? is it now frowned upon? Where do I get them ?

TA Muchly

you can get liquid vitamins from the supermarket and chemist e.g. abidec. They are with the other vitamin/mineral supplements.

I got mine from Boots, you can get the liquid stuff, easier to squirt!! I have the Boots own, only a few pounds, and suitable from 4 months.

Formula powder has all the vitamins already in it. Its only if you are bf after 6m you need to give supplements. I would ask the doctor about her weight. Babies weight gain often slows down a bit when they're weaned, milk is more calorific.

i dont know if you should be giving vitamins but they are now available through surestart, free if you are on benefits and relatively cheap if not....there was a thread on it a while ago

If you're not on benefits you can still get them on prescription, which is of course free for children. I waved the NHS weaning leaflet at my GP the other day as we are over 6m and bf, the leaflet recommends them. I was just being tight-fisted!

Have you tried feeding her more frequently? 4 bottles a day isn't very many considering her age, so I'm assuming she's sleeping through? I think I'd be tempted to wake her once or maybe even twice to see if I could get more milk into her that way, rather than just giving vitamins.

I have tried this approach DaisySteiner, she seems to shut off for any kind of feed at 6.00pm, when she wasnt going through the night (waking at 3.00am for a feed) we would wake her around 9.00pm.

This didnt work, she'd scream the place down wouldnt feed, and we'd put her to bed.

she does now go through the night.

But we can't force what she won't take. she's very persistent. 6.00pm will be her last feed thats it.

it seems to be.

7.00am first bottle

2nd 10.00am
3rd 2.00pm
4th 5.30-6.00pm

what we've decided to do now is feed her Hipp banana cereal around 4.00pm, in between the 2 early evening feeds.

BUT she isnt as enthusiastic about her last feed of the day now only taking around 5 oz

thanks for the advice all.

I will ask HV about vitamins and getting them on the NHS. she's so underweight its worrying

If you're worried then maybe you should ask to be referred to a pedeatrician? It's probably normal for her, but if you're anxious then better to get it checked out IMO.

Do I understand correctly that your baby is having 26oz of milk? if so then she dioesn't need vitamin drops - vitamin drops are for babies who have less than 500ml of milk (think this is about 20oz). You say that she in underweight - has a GP or HV told you this? The centile lines, as I understand it, are the acceptable ranges of healthy. So even the 1st centile is not necessarily underweight and can be healthy. If she is putting on weight at the ptoper rate, that's more important than what centile she is on.

Anyway, vitamin drops are £1.70 here and you can buy them from any baby clinic.