No folic acid for 28 weeker?

[Gurke]

Hi - this is a quick question. What drugs/ prescriptions were your premies sent home with?

My DS was born at 28 weeks, spent 2 months in NICU/SCBU, was sent home in November. I only just had the chance (and the nerve) to look at his discharge papers properly. It says he was apparently discharged with prescriptions for multivitamins, iron and folic acid. But in fact we were never given the folic acid. Is this unusual? Should I be worried that he hasn't taken any folic acid since coming home?

Thanks, having written this is realise this might sound a bit PFB...

DS was born at 34 weeks, and got sent home with multi-vitamin drops (abidec).

I have no idea about whether your DS not having the folic acid is a cause for worry - i.e. whether it was prescibed because he was deficient in folic acid, whether it's a standard prescription for 28 weekers, or prescribed for another reason - but as your DS was prescribed folic acid, and you were never given it, I think you should follow this up and ask your doctor about it.

29 weeker.
Sent home on abidec, sytron (iron) and sodium chloride (says 'unlicensed' on bottle ). Then the prescribed formula.
No folic acid. And I don't remember any of the babies in the ward (I spent aallll day there) having it either-only been home 5 weeks.
Isn't it for red blood cells? Were/are you not under a paed?

In my unit, our Premies have Sytron, Abidec and Folic acid in hospital, if they are not on Nutriprem 2 formula (has extra good stuff in it!)
If not on Nutriprem 2 at discharge, we give a slightly reduced dose of Abidec, plus Sytron. We stop Folic acid at discharge.

Ah thanks Hedwig, I hope that's the same as at ours then.

Yes Fork, he's still seen by the paed, who never mentioned either Folic Acid or Sodium Phosphate, which is also listed in these discharge papers. Last time we went the paed did tell me off that I had not given the sytron for a while (because it makes DS puke).

Yes Shadow, I should clearly confirm with the hospital. I was just panicking a bit as I read this just now... But then there are quite a few mistakes in the clinical summary of his discharge papers; I hope the drugs section is also just wrong.

Some discharge summaries have two drug lists.
One lists everything given during the stay, the other drugs at discharge.

Oh boy did he get lots of drugs during the stay But no, these four are definitely listed under 'going home with...'

My 32 weeker was discharged with multi vitamins (dalivit) daily, sytron daily ( which we stopped after 5 weeks as it was causing tummy upsets), and folic acid, he was discharged with taking 2ml a week which went up to 10ml when I got my repeat prescription.

35 weekers here - they had syntron, folic acid & a multivitamin up to 6m

Are you b/f or formula feeding? That may make a difference?

My 27+6 twins had to have dalavit and sytron for a year, no folic acid. They were b/f though??

Good luck

27weeker. Discharged on abidec and iron, i don't remember any folic acid. Was breastfeeding 100%.

Ah, that may be an explanation - thanks Mandy & Methe (and everyone else too). My DS is also fully bf.

I panicked about this a few weeks ago, but have since then actually failed to do anything about it, such as phone the GP or paediatrician. We've got a scheduled checkup at the hospital in late July, but I really should find out about it before then...

If you ring NICU I imagine they would be able to find out for you :)

Neither of mine ( I have a 32weeker too) would ever take any meds.. No abidec! No iron! They both spat it right out after about 5 months actual. I wouldn't worry about it too much.. Obviously it's better they have it, but a few days without wont cause a huge issue :)

My 34 weeker was bf and sent home with nothing.