Pre-natal vits - which ones and how long for?

[UnrequitedSkink]

Just found out I'm pregant (second baby but DS is 6 so it all feels like the first time again!)

Is it just me or do the Pregnacare vits seem exorbitantly expensive? Are boots own brand just as good? And have you taken them all the way through your pregnancy or just at the beginning??

[mumabee]

Hello from a first time poster on this forum and Congratulations on your news!

I am 8+4 pregnant(with my first) and am taking Pregnacare with Omega 3. They are exorbitant (got them on offer at Superdrug) and was taking a MultiVit, folic acid and odourless garlic whilst trying to conceive. I was determined not to get sucked in and to stick to my own cocktail but caved at 6 weeks when I read the pregnancy book and discovered that the tiny organs, brain, eyes and ears were forming . I will take the Pregnacare until the fourth month and then go back to my own cocktail.

When I went to the GP when I first discovered I was pregnant, the GP said that he only recommends folic acid and that eating a healthy diet should be more than sufficient.

[VanillaIce]

I agree with the advice given by mumabee's GP. Taking vitamins tablets during pregnancy is not essential, just advisable if your diet is seriously lacking in nutrition. Your baby takes everything it needs from you (assuming you have a moderately healthy system) and you get what's left over. So you may like to take vitamins supplements to ensure you yourself stay feeling good but there's no proven evidence of them having any effect whatsoever on baby. Certainly don't go thinking that taking Pregnacare etc will make your baby the smartest kid in the class or the longest jumper on sports day. However, it may make you feel reassured and that goes a long way.

[Icanneverthinkofagoodname]

Just a point - I noticed pregnacare has no calcium in it so I am taking that as a supplement as well as I hate milk and cant quite manage 3 big tubs of yoghurt a day. I am also taking flaxseed oil for omega 3. It works out much cheaper than buying the pregnacare with omega 3. Also with omega 3 it is very important to make sure that it has been cold pressed and store it in fridge or dark cool place or it wont actually do you much good. Holland and Barret do a good one. It is hard to get enough omega 3 & 6 in your diet (2 portions of oily fish a week or 2 tablespoons of seeds a day) and your baby's brain is made up of 60% of these fatty acids so its obviously important.
I take cranberry as well to try and avoid urine infections which can be common in pregancy and which I am prone to usually anyway.
Sorry if that is all too much information, I am perhaps a little obsessed with nutrition.