Vitamin D + Iron drops?

tisunge602

At our four month appointment, our pedi told us she would like LO to be taking Vitamin D + Iron drops. She said the iron especially is a newer AAP recommendation because some babies were ending up anemic by 9 months old. She told me it was optional but if I didn't do it, they would have to draw blood at 9 months to make sure he wasn't anemic. 

I went to Target today to buy the drops (Enfamil makes them) and tried giving LO his first dose. He instantly started crying. I tasted the drops and they are pretty disgusting! I am going to mix some into a bottle of pumped breastmilk this afternoon and try giving it that way. This will be a pain if I have to give him a bottle every day, though. He is fine at taking a bottle, but I normally EBF him and my body doesn't pump very much (usually only 1-2 oz at a time). 

Anyone else going through this? Any ideas? 

jocie2581

Our boys hated the multivitamin drops as newborns. We found mixing it with bm in a bottle was the best option. So I bf all feedings, except one. For one I pump and mix in their polyvisol.

tisunge602

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm thinking I'll have to do. I just fed him a bottle with the drops and he chugged that down just fine. I'm wondering if he'll take it as a partial feeding... like, mix it with just an ounce or two of breastmilk and BF him the rest of that feeding. That may solve my pumping issue a bit.... hopefully an ounce will dilute it enough that he'll take it.

jocie2581

A partial pumping should work just fine.

And I meant to add that in the past week we experimented with going back to drops and they now take the drops much better. There is some slight gagging or coughing. But it seems like we could move back to ebf.

justmepreggo2020

I hate enfamil vitamin d and only used it once before switching to baby d drops. They're awesome and you only needs single drop for the day!!! No added colors or weird taste!! I put one drop on my nipple/pacifier/finger

tisunge602

@justMaike Do those contain iron? That's what our pedi especially recommended.

justmepreggo2020

tisunge602 said:

@justMaike Do those contain iron? That's what our pedi especially recommended.

I'm not sure..but it's also the first time I'm hearing about the iron..have to talk to our pedi about this soon.

justmepreggo2020

This is what's printed on the bottle don't think there's iron in there.

justmepreggo2020

Sing2phins said:

Huh.  Our pedi specifically said NOT to give the multi-vitamin because D is usually the only thing BF babies are deficient in (because it doesn't pass well through breast milk) and there's no need to give extra vitamins for no reason.

ETA: So, we just give the Enfamil D-Vi-Sol that's only Viatmin D.

That's what I thought.
Also our pedi asks every time if I still EBF and that's why she probably never mentioned any other vitamins besides the vitamin D.

CarrieB.

Baby oatmeal has iron in it too.

juliane2004

We were told to give those too. He was a premie. We mix it with about 1/2 oz of formula in one of those paci-medicine-giver things.

tisunge602

Sing2phins said:

Huh.  Our pedi specifically said NOT to give the multi-vitamin because D is usually the only thing BF babies are deficient in (because it doesn't pass well through breast milk) and there's no need to give extra vitamins for no reason.

ETA: So, we just give the Enfamil D-Vi-Sol that's only Vitamin D.

So annoying that different pedis recommend different things. My pedi never had me give vit. D drops even though I know a lot of others do. But she has mentioned the iron at his last two appointments so I figured I might as well. If I have a lot of trouble with them I won't worry about it though. Getting blood drawn at his 9 month appointment doesn't seem like too big a deal if that's all they're going to do. 

Does anyone know how much of my iron would pass through my breast milk? I'm still taking prenatals because I thought that would keep the nutrients up in my milk.

tisunge602

I decided to go looking for the AAP recommendations myself and found this:

https://aapnews.aappublications.org/content/early/2010/10/05/aapnews.20101005-1.full?rss=1

So apparently it is recommended that EBF infants begin taking iron supplements at 4 months of age until more than half their diet is solid foods because breastmilk does not contain very much iron. The reason they recommend it at 4 months is because babies have enough leftover iron from in utero to last them the first few months of life. 

Littlemama01

tisunge602 said:

Sing2phins said:

Huh.  Our pedi specifically said NOT to give the multi-vitamin because D is usually the only thing BF babies are deficient in (because it doesn't pass well through breast milk) and there's no need to give extra vitamins for no reason.

ETA: So, we just give the Enfamil D-Vi-Sol that's only Vitamin D.

So annoying that different pedis recommend different things. My pedi never had me give vit. D drops even though I know a lot of others do. But she has mentioned the iron at his last two appointments so I figured I might as well. If I have a lot of trouble with them I won't worry about it though. Getting blood drawn at his 9 month appointment doesn't seem like too big a deal if that's all they're going to do. 

Does anyone know how much of my iron would pass through my breast milk? I'm still taking prenatals because I thought that would keep the nutrients up in my milk.

I think you answered your own question but no- iron won't pass through breastmilk. They will need to get iron through foods like iron fortified infant cereals, beans, meats etc. someone else mentioned they weren't told to give d drops, it's dependent on where you live whether you need to give vitamin d or not and how much. In my northern latitude we do not naturally get any vitamin d so I need to give 1000mg/ day in winter and 400 mg/day in summer..but someone southern might only need 400mg every few days..so that will vary.

Ninjamama86

My pedi prescribed them but in terribly unfaithful about giving them... she's had them probably twice since I got them 2 months ago. Idk, we go outside for walks to her out vitamin D and the chances of her being anemic aren't that high. Idk, I swear they're coming up with a pill for everything. I eat pretty healthy, LO lives off boobie juice and when she starts eating will eat relatively healthy. If we actually have diagnosed problems later then we'll take medicine, but until then we're just going to pass.

Ninjamama86

Sing2phins said:

Vitamins aren't medicine. And LO shouldn't be out in the sun enough that she's getting enough Vitamin D through sun exposure.

She doesn't need than much sunlight, and it's just personal preference.

https://kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/vitamin-d/

Littlemama01

Well actually @Ninjamama86‌ is not personal preference where I am from, it is required because even if I sat LO in a sunbeam for 17 minutes he will not synthesize ANY vitamin d. Neither would I. No one here does. Without vitamin d and iron infants can get very sick, not just anemia. Actual malnutrition.

You do not state where you are from, but the fact that your doctor 'prescribed' it makes me think it's recommend where you live too.

Your 'boobie juice' does not pass iron or enough vitamin d to completely satisfy your baby's needs or your dr wouldn't be recommending them.

What is 'personal preference' is your choice to ignore that recommendation.

Ninjamama86

@Littlemama01‌ I live in Southern California and we have light skin. It's standard practice to prescribe the drops for mothers than exclusively breast feed (since formula is always fortified with vitaminD), more of a CYA for the pediatrician.

And yes, it is my personal preference to ignore her recommendation at this time.

J&JJ2011

We're doing the vitamin d, but that's it.  Our little guy loves them!