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If you’re a new parent, you know that there are about a million things to keep track of. It’s hard enough to remember to take your own vitamins, let alone keep track of everything your little one needs.
So, it’s not surprising that sometimes parents forget to give their baby vitamin D drops.
If you forget to give your baby vitamin D drops, don’t worry. It won’t do your baby any harm if you miss a dose. In this post, I’ll help you understand why it’s okay and give you a couple of tips on how to not forget your little one’s vitamin drops again.
Why Are Vitamin D Drops Prescribed For Babies?
The major role of vitamin D is making sure your baby absorbs Calcium and Phosphorus. This in return ensures good bone density and healthy teeth.
The best way to ensure that a baby gets the required vitamin D is by giving a prescribed dose of drops, once a day every day, starting within the first two months after birth until the baby is twelve months old.
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Breast milk does not contain vitamin D in a sufficient concentration, otherwise this would be the best source of nutrition for a newborn.
And it’s practically not possible to compensate for the lack of it in breast milk by exposing your baby to sunlight either, for a few reasons.
An infant’s delicate skin might not withstand direct sunlight well, and the possibility of developing skin cancer due to sun exposure must not be underestimated. Many regions of the world don’t get sunlight throughout the year equally.
A formula-fed baby will get enough vitamin D if they drink 32oz a day. If not, they’d still need to be supplemented.
What Happens If You Forget To Give Baby Vitamin D Drops?
Vitamin D does not dissolve in water. It dissolves in fat. So, it tends to stay in the body for a considerable time.
In that sense, missing a single day on your infant’s vitamin D supplement regime wouldn’t cause a any significant deficiency, as the baby should have enough from the previous drops, and the breast milk or formula combined.
What Should You Do If You Miss A Dose?
The only thing you have to do if you forget to give your baby the vitamin D drops one day is simply resume giving as usual from the next day on.
Don’t give the baby more than the prescribed amount to compensate for the missed dose; just take the next dose as usual, and try not to miss any more doses again.
Tips For NOT Forgetting Vitamin D Drops Again
Important as it is to give your infant a vitamin D supplement daily, forgetting to do so once in a while will cause no harm.
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But that’s no reason not to take measures to prevent it from happening again. Here are some suggestions to help you remember to give it to your baby:
Be Regular And Turn It Into A Habit.
Try to give your baby the drop around the same time every day. You can do it before or after something you do as part of your daily routine.
Dedicate a spot for giving it to your baby and stick to it. Make that spot a convenient one, like near your baby’s cot or where you nurse. Keep the bottle of drops handy in the same place and place it so that it catches your eye easily.
Giving the drop will become a routine habit after a few days.
Use Reminders
If sticking to a routine is hard, you can try setting up an alarm or a reminder on your smartphone.
Or maybe even Post-it® notes on or near things you use often, like the bathroom mirror or the refrigerator.
Keep A Good Stock Of Drops
Keep more than one bottle of the supplement around. Take the volume of the supplement in the bottle, the volume of a single dose, and the expiry date of the supplement to determine how many bottles to buy at once.
Setting up a reminder in sync with the time your stock will run out will be a good idea too.
Amazon also have an option to buy products on a subscription. This can be really handy as it means that your supplies arrive without you needing to think about re-ordering. It saves money as discounts are offered by products bought on a subscription. You don’t have to worry about flexibility, either. If you need a particular item earlier or delay it for a couple of months, that’s fine, too.
Both parents can help
Parenting is a shared responsibility. You both can take turns giving the supplement to your baby and remind each other to do so.
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Checklists!
We find it really useful to have checklists on the side of our fridge in the kitchen. You can downloaded pre-designed, printable checklists for a huge array of reminders from Etsy.
Final Thoughts
It’s important to supplement your newborn with vitamin D from the first two months until twelve months of age, daily. But forgetting to give your baby a dose will be no reason for you to worry.
Just continue with it without doubling up the dose to make up for the missed one. Try some of the tips we talked about to make sure you won’t forget again, and be the proud parents of a healthy baby!