Nutrition is difficult when you’re not working with a complete gut. My son, L, has short bowel syndrome as a result of a congenital condition called gastroschisis; his intestinal motility has regulated quite a bit, and that has helped tremendously with his calorie absorption and hydration, which is why we have been able to wean him off of TPN and remove his g-tube over the last year and a half — but vitamins are a different story. He has always had difficulty maintaining his vitamin levels, even when he was getting a vitamin cocktail straight to his veins every night, and without TPN his vitamin deficiencies remain our biggest everyday struggle.

L particularly struggles with absorption of water-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K). Our gastroenterologist has actually called him “her most difficult kid” when it comes to vitamin D. Apparently in a typical gut, certain vitamins and nutrients are best absorbed by certain sections of the small intestine; since L’s small bowel didn’t form properly we don’t actually know exactly which sections he has, but since he only has about 20 percent of what he should have and almost all of that has been surgically repaired at this point, L probably just doesn’t have the sections that are best at absorbing these vitamins.

We’ve tried a range of supplement options, ranging from Flintstone chewables (which his labs laughed at) to double doses twice daily of pediatric AquaDEKs, which is a bright orange liquid multivitamin containing the water soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K (let’s pause to appreciate the clever name they came up with for that one!). AquaDEKS is actually designed for kids with cystic fibrosis, who also typically struggle with malabsorption.

The normal range for vitamin D is 20-100. AquaDEKs helped maintain L’s levels when he was receiving TPN, but after stopping TPN and having his central line removed L had never been out of the high teens. GI and our nutritionist did some research and decided to do a trial run of patch vitamins from PatchMD, which they had not tried before with any of their pediatric patients. Since L’s absorption issues lie in his gut, the hope was that patch vitamins, which absorb directly into the bloodstream through the skin, would allow us to bypass that difficulty altogether.

Here’s how it went for L, who was 4 years old at the time:

Effectiveness: We did see a bump up in his numbers within the very first month — although, as is often the case, this test run wasn’t isolated to a single variable. He had successfully learned to swallow pills just the month before, so the initial boost may have actually been a result of the prior month of swallowing his 50K iu vitamin D pills (we had previously been poking holes in them and trying to squeeze their innards into his g-tube, and hoping he got most of it).

With the help of both the Vitamin D3 patch and the adult multivitamin patch, L maintained vitamin D levels in the low 20s and then mid-20s through the summer, putting us in the normal range for the first time ever! I initially thought PatchMD was a huge success for us.

However, this number began to trend down month after month and dipped down near 20 again as the weather turned cold and L was getting less sunshine. Because L had miraculously started swallowing pills like a pro just before his 4th birthday, we ultimately discontinued patch vitamins and went back to an oral multivitamin (we’re currently using DEKAs, which is essentially the capsule version of AquaDEKSs), along with an oral iron supplement and the 50K iu vitamin D — and his vitamin D levels have skyrocketed, hitting 36 and then 45!

So it seems that, for us, patch vitamins are more effective than liquid vitamin supplements, but nothing beats the regular old pill.

Ease of use: So simple. Slap the patches on his back at bedtime and they’ve run their course by morning. We rarely had them come off before morning, and a few times we forgot to remove them and they stayed on all day, even through sweaty outdoor play and weekly “splash day” at preschool. And they are easily removed — L is still a bit traumatized by having tape on his skin after all the sterile dressing changes he’s been through, but it didn’t take long for him to get comfortable with us pulling these off of him.

Pricing: Around $20/month per type of patch before discounts – and they always have coupon codes for 30% or 40% off (the amount varies depending on whether you’re willing to subscribe to a recurring order – which I eventually did, and it was easy to cancel, but you do have to cancel several days before your order is set to ship). We didn’t even try to run it through insurance since these are OTC. Vitamins aren’t cheap, but these were at least a lot more cost-effective than quadruple daily doses of pediatric Aquadeks, which were running us around $30 every two weeks.

Shipping times: Excellent. At its most impressive, I received a shipment notice a whopping 14 minutes after I placed my order! That was probably an anomaly, but the patches always shipped within 36 hours of placing my order, and we received them within 4-5 days at the most — even the time I placed an order at the beginning of a holiday weekend.

Customer service: Meh. I didn’t have a lot of need to interact with customer service, because everything went smoothly with all my orders. The only time I did reach out to them was during a special promotion that wasn’t properly applying to my order — and I didn’t receive a reply.

VERDICT: Proceed with caution.

PatchMD vitamins are very convenient and they did seem to work better for us than some of the liquid supplements we’d tried. If nothing else is working — or if you’re just looking for a hangover cure or a boost for your complexion, both of which the company offers — full steam ahead, it’s worth a try. But if you have any kind of chronic deficiency you’ll want to keep a close watch with regular bloodwork. (Although, if you have any kind of chronic deficiency and don’t monitor it with regular labs, you might want to seek out a new doctor.)

Disclaimers: I did not receive any products or perks in exchange for this review; I simply wanted to offer up our experience, since I didn’t find any reviews from short gut parents when we started patch vitamins. And, I am not a medical professional. I’m a mom. For medical advice, talk to your physician or provider.

Have you tried patch vitamins? What supplements have worked for you? We’re still struggling with iron levels, so I’d love to hear your suggestions!

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