Vitamin issues...advice please.

Hey everyone,

I am 3 weeks post-op and my vitamins hurt my pouch. I am taking Bariatric Advantage multi vitamins and it doesn't matter if I take it at the beginning of a meal and follow with food, in the middle of the meal so there is some food in my pouch and then I follow it with more food, or if I take it at the end of my meal so my pouch is full of food. After I take it my pouch gets all queasy, my mouth starts to water like I need to vomit. It takes at least 15-20 minutes for it to pass and this week at least 3 times I've actually vomited.   I couldn't calm it down enough to let it pass. I've had issues taking vitamins for as long as I can remember, even before surgery was even a thought.  The only vitamin I have ever been able to handle without issues is Woman's one a day gummies. I emailed my NUT and told her about my issues and she suggested trying to split my vitamin up, like bite half off for one meal, eat the other half for another meal...nope that doesn't work, now I just queasy at twice as many meals as I did before. She said that if the one a day was all I could take, to take it but that it's lacking the iron that wls patients need. I looked in the bottle of my BA multi vitamins and I don't see iron on it either (unless it's called something else). I already take iron supplements at night (no issues with those) so would taking the one a days during the day and the iron at night be ok to get my iron in? Did any of y'all have issues with taking vitamins? What did you use that was better? I know the gummies have their own set of cons and I don't want any deficiencies, I just don't know what to do.

Hi, I'm not sure if this will help, but I couldn't tolerate my vitamins at first, so my NUT suggested I crush the vitamins into some plain greek yogurt.  It worked for me.  Perhaps it will dilute the vitamins enough so they don't cause irritation.

good luck,

Carol

Are or have you tried chewables?  They seem to have less reactions.  Initially, I'd still with a bariatric formula multi.  Multi's should not contain iron, because iron can cause some of the vitamin components not to be absorbed, and some of the vitamins can cause the iron not to be absorbed.

You don't have to use a multi-vitamin with iron but, if you don't, you do want to take iron separately, as you do. I do that on purpose because I find it more convenient.

Also, it's not true that you can't take iron with other things. That's calcium. Calcium can't be taken with iron because it inhibits the absorption of iron and it interferes with other things and other meds as well.

I take either Centrum Silver or Celebrate capsules, neither of which have iron. I take them with my calcium mostly but sometimes with my iron. Then I take my iron separately from my calcium. So vitamins 4x a day. Calcium 3x and iron 1x. and I mix the other stuff in so it's spread out.

There are a lot of vitamins out there you can try. They don't have to be bariatric either. Just make sure they have most of what we need and, if they aren't bariatric, take 2x the adult dose. Try the chewable if the pills don't work. Or capsules. Or liquid. But liquid and gummies both tend to have less of the minerals in them. 

If, in the end, you can only keep down the gummies, then just make sure to supplement some of the stuff they don't have (like selenium and potassium and iron) separately.

I'd try blending them in the food or shakes.

what about liquid vitamins?