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Advice please

After some advice for my 16 year old daughter. She has always been clumsy but over the past few months is getting more so as well as forgetful, extremely tired and eye sight problems to name a few b12 deficiency symptoms. She is vegetarian but eats eggs and dairy and she has been taking 1000 iu tablets 3 tines a day in the hope this may help. I think she should have done blood tests to check for possible causes but if she is checked for B12 will it show as high? Should she stop taking the tablets for a while and then go to gp? I have b12 deficiency but have not been informed it’s P.A. although I believe I have it. Thanks in advance.

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marsupial

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Seth123454 years ago

Supposedly you need to get off the tablets for months (4?) before a b12 blood serum test will report results accurately.

You can also get her methylmalonic acid tested but I believe this will also read incorrectly since supplementation has started.

marsupial• in reply toSeth123454 years ago

Ohh blimey , 4 months of nothing during her 1st year of A levels!! Probably best to do it now though than wait till she’s worse. It might not even be B12 (I hope) . Thank you for your advise😊

Seth12345• in reply tomarsupial4 years ago

You can get the advice of others. Are you in the uk? If so, you might really need to be careful of getting a test result of a normal b12 level. I know the NHS is notorious for relying heavily on this test result for future treatments.

fbirder4 years ago

Two scenarios for if she has low B12 -

1. It's because of her diet. Although eggs and dairy do contain B12 it's not a lot. You would need to eat a 2-egg omelette, washed down with a glass of milk every single day.

2. It's an absorption problem.

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You could stop the oral supplements for four months, then have a blood test. If it's low B12 then the test should show you that it is. However, it won't tell you if its low because of scenario 1 or 2. Then you won't know if she can cope with just pills.

You could have a blood test now. If it's low then you know that it's an absorption problem. If it shows that her B12 is high then you know it was dietary and she just keeps taking the pills.

marsupial• in reply tofbirder4 years ago

Thanks, she has told me she will probably start eating meat again as she feels so bad, she’s been veggie for about 3 years now so feel bad for her.

Bonjourtristesse4 years ago

I was vegetarian for around 20 years from about the age of 15. At around 16 I was tested for glandular fever because I was constantly exhausted. I stopped being vegetarian around 10 years ago although I suspect I do not eat as much meat/fish as an omnivore otherwise would. I have digestion problems which I'm not sure whether is owing to poor diet (I had an eating disorder) or being a long term vegetarian.

There is a facebook group called Recovering Vegans and Vegetarians for people considering or transitioning back to eating meat. The majority did so for health reasons.

marsupial• in reply toBonjourtristesse4 years ago

Thank you, I will get her to have a look. She has suffered since a small child with digestive issues but gp always just gave stool softners!

Nackapan• in reply tomarsupial4 years ago

Probably why she avoiddc meat as harder to digest.

If she does want to change her diet i would start with fish and chicken breast . It is easier to digest. Hopd the reason for her digestive problems are found. Mh daughter when younger was clumsy ect.

Shes now an adult and finally diagnosed with hypomobility (Ehlos danlos) HEDs . She was also severely b12 deficient . There are huge differences in severity.

Worth a thought if at the doctors to rule out .

Only my thoughts

marsupial• in reply toNackapan4 years ago

Thanks for your thoughts, my 15 year daughter is Hyper mobile and has vitiligo but seems ok in other respects so I do wonder if it is the vegetarian lifestyle of my other one that is making her symptoms worse, I’ll try Chicken first as she never ate fish before.