I've heard mixed messages on how necessary this is - at least where we live in california. Most people I know don't give vitamin d supplements bc it's sunny here. Do you give your LOs vitamin d or other vitamins if they are BF?
-
Our pediatrician recommended starting the drops around 2 months I think....I continued to give it to him until he transitioned to cows milk at 12 months. We are in the Northeast and I bf until he was 16.5 months.
-
I did until 5 or 6 months when I just kind of forgot about it. Everytime I took LO to the doctor, though, they asked about it and seemed a bit surprised that I gave it to her 6/7 days or so... most people must forget
ETA: we live in a fairly warm climate though, so LO was usually outside (at least for a walk) most days from a young age.
-
We did during the winter months in MI. DS was 1-4 months old.
-
Yes we give them. I live in Midwest and we don't get enough sun here at all. Vitamin D has great health benefits.
-
Our pediatrician just recommended we start (dd is 3.5 weeks)
-
Nope!
-
We did! R loved them.
-
When I remembered!
-
We live in Chicago and yes, I gave DD Vitamin D drops.
-
I was just listening to a podcast about this if anyone is interested it is available on iTunes etc, it is called The Boob Group and the episode is called vitamin d and the breastfed baby. They have an expert on talking about who should, how and when supplementing is necessary.
My baby is still baking but we will supplement since I have a hard time keeping my levels high and we live well above the 35th parallel.
-
We did until we switched to formula which was around 4.5/5 months.
-
We did whenever we remembered to!
-
Yes we do and he loves it.
-
I do when I remember. So maybe 50-75% of the time.
-
Nope. I take vitamins and I think that's enough.
-
Yes. I don't rely on the sun for mine, so same with LO. Sometimes we would forget, so we've made it a part of the bedtime routine.
-
@Meltini: vitamin D is one of the only ones that didn't transfer through breastmilk, which is why they recommend supplementing.
-
No, I didn't. We live where it's sunny and we took him for walks, so I felt like that was sufficient. I weaned when he was a year, and he drinks vitamin D-fortified cow's milk now.
-
We have since birth! After starting solids we also do iron.
-
I do. Through my own research, I had seen that a Vitamin D supplement was recommended for breastfed babies, and my LO's pediatrician recommended it as well.
-
Eh. LO is 7 months old and our ped never said anything. I'm not worried about it.
-
We do everyday in winter and less in summer, as in more like 2x a week in summer.
-
Yep, I've had a deficiency in the past so I think it's a good idea to give her some.
-
Sometimes, I give her a d-drop at every bath so about 3 times a week. We did the same with J.
-
I left in the mornings before LO got up, so DH would put it in his bottle of pumped milk in the morning. We kept it up until he was probably 7 months.
-
We still do at 17 months! (we probably forget 1-2 times a week though...)
-
I'm in Austria and we are supposed to give it every day for the first 18 months! I admit I often forget to do it though...
-
D was born in January, and we're in Philadelphia. We did it from 0-6 months. I asked about resuming it over the winter again, but we were told that he should be getting enough from his food and no longer needed the supplement.
-
Our ped mentioned it really early on, but I kept forgetting to buy it, and now I just keep forgetting to give it to her. She probably gets it 1-2 times a week on average (though more like 3-4 times one week, then zero another... oops). We do go for walks a lot, even in the winter, but I do my best to keep her out of the sun anyway, so I wouldn't trust that to be enough.
We also haven't started the multi vitamin with iron-- I was really worried about her getting even more constipate, and now that that is finally better, I'm going to wait and ask the ped this week about her iron levels.
-
my ped recommended it since birth and i believe in Canada it is recommended for life. So i still give it at 17.5 months, though i have gone through periods of several weeks at a time where i just completely forgot about it!
-
Yes, we made it to almost 1 year, and missed maybe 1 a week or so.
-
We did and still do. Her ped told us to continue giving them even though she's mostly on table foods now (almost 17 months and nursing 2-3 times a day). We live in Chicago and had a terrible winter though!
-
@californiadreams: I know, how is it so hard to remember this?! I'm sure we've forgotten for a couple of weeks here and there...but the ped keeps reminding us, so we keep on trying to get it done every day
-
Lived in SoCal where it is sunny 360 days of the year. We did not do any supplementation. He was also a spring baby so lots of sun all the time.
If you are concerned you could get some tests and see if your baby needs them. This was my philosophy and it never got low.
-
@tinyperson: are you still giving it in drop form? i am also finding it really hard to administer. we went through an easy phase where LO would open his mouth wide and let us drop it in and he would even say "mmmm"! Now he has caught on that it has no taste and when i offer it, he shakes his head "no"! LOL. So this week we have tried putting it on our finger and he lets us put it in his mouth, but i don;t know how long that will last....
-
@californiadreams: We've always done the drop on the finger, and she's good with it, so no advice here...
-
@tinyperson: lol, well that gives me it will always work
I stated out when he was a newborn by dropping it on my nipple and eventually that stopped working because it took too long for the drop to fall out.
-
Yep his peds just recommend it when we went in two weeks ago which he was 8 weeks then and I most likely will keep giving them until he starts drinking milk or if we have to go to formula
-
Interesting! Thanks for all the responses. I honestly didn't even know it was a thing until I think I read about it on here at some point. Our ped never mentioned it, but I guess I should ask. She's almost seven months and it's practically summer now though....
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
42 comments