??vitamins for EBF baby

[nilatti]

At my son's 2-month check up, his doctor offered to prescribe a liquid multivitamin for him. This doc always says things like, "As long as breastfeeding is working for you, it really is the best thing for him," so I was really surprised to hear him explaining that formula is fortified with all these vitamins, and sometimes breastfed babies aren't getting as much...

Just for context, the baby is 75th percentile for weight, 95th for height, and seems to be hitting milestones on time. He's not malnourished. Also, I'm taking a multivitamin and I'm sort of obsessed with eating well. 

The dr seemed surprised when I declined the Rx...it just sounded crazy to me. I've never heard of such a thing before. Am I just under informed?

[daisymommy]

Formula is filled with all sorts of things because they are trying to match it as closely as possible to breastmilk (a goal they will never achieve of course!).

The only thing I have read that can be recommended, is sometimes it is a good idea to give a EBF infant 400 IU of Vitamin D3.  But if you have your baby with exposed skin in the sun for 15 minutes a day, and you take 2000-4000 Vitamin D yourself, baby should be getting plenty.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2084036/

[kiwiva]

I think they are currently recommending supplementing breastfed babies with vitamin D. The rest of it shouldn't be necessary. I believe the thinking about D is that so many moms are deficient in D so the babies start out deficient in it and then they don't get any sun exposure. So you may want to check your vitamin D level and if it is low, look into supplementing just that. I believe that D can be increased in breast milk by supplementing yourself.

His argument is interesting, of course formula is fortified with all those vitamins, it's a big man-made concoction. 

Kellymom has some info on it here http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/vitamin-d.html

[RaeDyCo]

I like this article at Dr.Sears. 

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/2/T020800.asp

  More important than the amounts of nutrients in the milk is the amount that is available for the infant to use, a nutrient principle called bioavailability. The bioavailability of a nutrient is influenced by many factors, including its chemical form and the presence of other substances.

[ewe+lamb]

I remember when our dd was a tiny a baby - being given this huge prescription for various vitamins, iron etc, I never checked it in, my feeling was that if I didn't need to take them and that I was eating a healthy diet then my babies didn't need them either.  I really just don't see the point - it seems like an expense that can be better spent elsewhere other than directing cash back into drug companies all the time.  Anyway that's my tuppence worth.  I'd go with your instincts on this one!!

[P.J.]

I'm happy to see this thread.

Our pediatrician, who's a homeopath and does not prescribe extra things unless they're really necessary, prescribed Vitamin D drops for our baby from birth. They were also given to us at the hospital. I so often forget to give them to him, so I was meaning to ask the doctor at our next visit how necessary it really is. We live in northern central Europe and it's that time of year where we can go weeks without seeing the sun. I feel like I should start remembering to give DS his vitamin D drops from now on. Thanks for the reminder.

[nilatti]

Interesting...when I see the doctor again, I'll ask if it was just vitamin D or a whole bunch of other things, and about getting my vitamin D levels tested.