Vitamin D.Taking suplements.Am I harming my baby?

[mica23]

Hi, got bad vitamin D deficiancy and been taking suplements but am not sure is it vise..(or is it lacking a certain vitamin bad!!)Midwife no help at all and not seeing GP for another week.HELP!!

Hi Mica - have you been treated for your deficiency with a high dose injection or 5 day supplements to bring you back to the normal levels? If not, your doctor needs to prescribe you a high dose supplement or the injection ASAP. After that you will need to keep your levels up with additional Vit D supplements.

After 4 recurrent miscarriages over 2 years, I was diagnosed with a Vit D deficiency...I got pregnant again and was treated for the deficiency at around 5 weeks of pregnancy with a high dose 5 day supplement. I gave birth to my baby boy in January this year.

I cannot stress enough how important Vitamin D is for your body.

...Just realised it's an old thread! I hope she got treated for the deficiency!

Thanks Joannita and hello to Milky fellow recurrenter (former of course!). I actually have a full pack of Boots own if anyone wants them! I moved on to Holland and Barratt as they are a completely different shape to the Boots and the Boots ones were indistinguishable from some of the other meds I am taking.

Couldn't find any in Boots or Superdrug, went to Holland and Barratt and got a jar of 100 x 400iu tabs for £3.95 and they are bogo half price.

Now, how many to take?!

Co-incidentally the jar says they promote healthy cell division, which can only be a good thing for pregnant ladies!

www.webmd.com/baby/news/20100504/high-doses-of-vitamin-d-may-cut-pregnancy-risk

good article here

What's happened to all the vit D??? Cleaned out by MN readers?? I've never seen this happen! Lol. How about the supermarket? The major supermarkets should stock them too. Advice for taking vitamins from a pharmacist or GP please- you can phone both and leave messages for them to ring you back. IME, you're most likely to be able to get a pharmacist to advise you straightaway as they don't have to see patients in a surgery.

Can I join in to add another Scottish voice? There have been quite a few articles in the Scotsman recently - which have confused me massively. There appears to be no answer yet. Over the last few years, they have been saying take more and more Vitamin D, but now they have backtracked a bit and suggested we can overdose. It's amazing how little they know, and how important it could be for us to get it right.

I've only just found out I'm pregnant, but my take on all this is to take pregnacare (which has 10miu of Vit D, which appears to be definitely safe) and plan on spending as much time out in the sun, and eating vitamin D rich foods throughout (if this one sticks).

Here are the links to the articles (there are lots more but these ones are quite interesting):
www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/ban-on-vitamin-sales-to-pregnant-women-1-2121677

www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/more-vitamin-d-is-not-necessarily-better-1-2053591

www.scotsman.com/news/take-vitamin-d-daily-mothers-to-be-told-1-1497422

Sorry - also meant to add - for those people who have been taking larger doses of Vitamin D, there isn't any evidence that it harms the baby - they just haven't done the trials in Scotland yet to say it doesn't harm the baby - which means NOTHING, at least that's my interpretation.

I was looking at my 2005 printed pg book yesterday & it says you can overdose on vit A (not a surprise) and vit D

I realise it is 7yrs since it was printed & therefore longer since it was written, showing how quickly things move on BUT I would strongly recommend not supplementing your diet with anything more than the mum & bump type vitamins. Please don't just take a normal multivit as suggested upthread - vit A builds up in your system & will harm your foetus. If you suspect you may be vit D deficient, please see your GP/MW for a prescribed course of vit D & check you can take it with the over-the-counter stuff. It won't be wasting anyone's time but taking 2 or 3 times the recommended amount could possibly cause harm.

There's certainly lots of conflicting advice out there that's for sure!

For every 3 links I read saying studies have been carried out in the US/canada?european countries showing it is safe to take upto 6000iu of Vitamin D there is another (usually UK I have to say) saying that it's not not safe, just unproven. I think it's just a case of the UK being so far behind in this case and the fact that until they've carried out their own studies they legally cannot say go ahead.

Vitamin A is an entirely different thing though, universally proven to be overdoseable on and damaging to the foetus.

if anyone is concerned yy to speaking to your MW/GP.

Chunky if you take a look at the article referenced earlier (www.webmd.com/baby/news/20100504/high-doses-of-vitamin-d-may-cut-pregnancy-risk) it acknowledges that previously it was thought that Vit D could cause toxicity just like Vit A, but that their study has now shown that this is untrue, even in massive doses.

certainly in 2005 it was still believed that Vit D could cause problems.

what i'm doing is taking the middle road... taking my bump vitamins and topping up with a low-dose Vit D tablet on top of that. so it's not a HUGE amount extra.

obviously always best to talk to the dr first though.

I have been prescriped vitamin D from my dr as my level ranges between 3 and 7. I am taking pregnatvit stage 2 (15 weeks pregnant) HOWEVER my pharmacy are refusing to let me have my normal vitamin D suppliment as well as the pregnavit. Do I just go to another pharmacy that is not in the same town and ask for vitamin D drops ?

I can't take pregnancy vitamins, so take folic acid with vitamin D. Vitamin D is recommended in pregnancy, not sure why your mw is unclear on it!

Hello - first time user and still learning how to post

I found out I am 6 weeks pregnant just 2 days ago. I wasn't planning yo get pregnant and have not taken any care for it. I won't be seeing me for another 2 weeks. I need to take folic, calcium and a very high dose of vitamin D as recommended by NICE guidelines.

Can anyone recommend brands or names of these to buy over the counter? What is the best folic acid and best vitamin D to take?

Much appreciated

If you need a high dose likely you will me a prescription. I'd call GP and ask to be seen. If they can't give you an appointment request a call back then you can talk to a GP and explain your situation.

multivitamins available specifically for pregnancy (which would include vit D, folic acid and calcium) are pregnacare available in most pharmacies. Supermarket own brands of pregnacare are also fine. These are all quite expensive. Good luck and congratulations!

Just buy Boots own folic acid & vit d combined, or buy a specific antenatal multivitamin which will have everything in it.