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michellet218 · Oct 14, 2008, 11:42 AM

Hello!

I'm a 23 year old female. I recently started taking Flintstones multivitamins with Iron about 2 weeks ago. On the bottle, it says children and adults take 1 tablet daily w/ food. But people I meet keep telling me, and I read blogs & stuff on the internet, that adults take 2 flintstones vitamins instead of 1, because they're bodies are bigger than kids... which is true and understandable. Well, if that's the case, then how come the bottle still tells adults to take just 1 anyway? Other flintstones vitamins tells adults to take 2, but this one tells adults to just take 1. Should I follow the bottle? Is there a reason the bottle tells adults to take 1? Will it be safe for me to take 2? To better understand this, I'll type the amount of DAILY VALUE the vitamins has in it: (12 vitamins)
Vitamin A 50% ---Niacin 67%
Vitamin C 100% ---Vitamin B6 52%
Vitamin D 100% ---Folic Acid 75%
Vitamin E 50% ---Vitamin B12 75%
Thiamin (B1) 70% ---Iron 83%
Riboflavin (B2) 70% ---Sodium 1%

Please let me know if it is safe to take 2 of these or not at age 23, 5 feet. Thanks :)
P.S. I take children Flintstones vitamins because these are the only kind that I can cope with. The adult multivitamins are so big, bulky, and powdery... not to mention VERY NASTY!! I hate adult multivitamins! Yuk! OK that's all... Thank you!

-Michelle T.

DoulaLC · Oct 14, 2008, 04:08 PM

If you have a good diet, you don't really need any vitamins at all. If your diet is fairly decent, but could use improvement (probably where most people fall) one is sufficient if you want to think of it as extra insurance. Taking two wouldn't be likely to be a concern however as most of what is listed are water soluble vitamins which would be very difficult to have too much of. The extra you would get of folic acid would be fine since you are of an age where women should have a good amount in the event of a pregnancy. Women also tend to benefit from the extra iron due to blood loss from periods, especially if your's tend to be heavy and that is one that some women do not get enough of from food sources alone. (too much can be constipating however!) It is now thought that most people would benefit from the additional vitamin D as well.

So, short version, if you want to pay the extra money to take two a day, that is up to you. Do you need to? Unless you had a particular medical concern that required additional amounts then no, not really.

The likely reason for the recommendation of just one tablet with this one is the iron amount. Too much iron, over a period, can cause problems. (more is not always better, even with a good thing!)

Best bet... look at what you eat and drink... improve those areas first, then go with a multivitamin if you feel you need to make up for a less than great diet.

michellet218 · Oct 15, 2008, 05:31 AM

Originally Posted by DoulaLC

If you have a good diet, you don't really need any vitamins at all. If your diet is fairly decent, but could use improvement (probably where most people fall) one is sufficient if you want to think of it as extra insurance. Taking two wouldn't be likely to be a concern however as most of what is listed are water soluable vitamins which would be very difficult to have too much of. The extra you would get of folic acid would be fine since you are of an age where women should have a good amount in the event of a pregnancy. Women also tend to benefit from the extra iron due to blood loss from periods, especially if your's tend to be heavy and that is one that some women do not get enough of from food sources alone. (too much can be constipating however!) It is now thought that most people would benefit from the additional vitamin D as well.

So, short version, if you want to pay the extra money to take two a day, that is up to you. Do you need to? Unless you had a particular medical concern that required additional amounts then no, not really.

The likely reason for the recommendation of just one tablet with this one is the iron amount. Too much iron, over a period of time, can cause problems. (more is not always better, even with a good thing!)

Best bet....look at what you eat and drink...improve those areas first, then go with a multivitamin if you feel you need to make up for a less than great diet.

Hey, thanks for your answer!
Well, my diet right now is not so great. I mean, I was trying to eat right a couple of months ago, but I didn't stick to it. Everyone knows how that is ha ha! It's hard to stick to a diet or a healthy eating plan for a long time. But I DO plan on trying it again, & sticking to it because I really need to get my health in the right stage. I'm not fat, but I eat A lot! And a lot of greasy and unhealthy foods (no candy). But I will get better at it... I just love food so much ha ha! I can't see myself ignoring such delicious stuff!
So if the iron is 83% now, and I take 2 vitamins a day, then I'll be consuming 166% of iron. Is THAT safe if my diet isn't that great? Yes, I agree that if you consume too much iron, or too much good anything, it's not good for you. 166% iron seems like a lot, but is it really?
I don't have any medical concerns that I know of, but I'm always paranoid when it comes to my health. I would like to strenghthen my immune system, and energy and other things, but I don't want to go over board! Thanks a lot ;)

DoulaLC · Oct 15, 2008, 08:45 AM

I'd just stick with the one a day as iron stays in your system and having more than what is recommended is really only necessary if you have an underlying medical condition.

While you probably don't get a great deal from your foods right now, the vitamin would help until you change some of your eating habits. You may want to consider a different vitamin after those are gone... Flintstone Complete actually would provide you with more of most of the nutrients all in just one pill without any concern of overdoing it by taking two. Besides, they will last twice as long and save you some money!