vertical ridges in fingernails

[tomkitty]

Never had this problems before but recall reading somewhere that it's due to a vitamin or mineral deficiency. Anyone know? I am 30 wks pg so I suspect the little one is sucking all of some vitamin out of my system, as they do.

[gothicmama]

Bump - think you are right but can not remeber what it is - may be iron or calcium

[throckenholt]

I never had it before I was pregnant but do now - I have ds1 (3 in July) and 16 month old twins.

I would be interested to know if there is anything you can do to get rid of them.

[Sari]

I've had this for years - they seem to become more pronounced, recede, then return etc. At the moment I've got them on my little finger nails only, despite fairly balanced diet and taking a multi-vitamin every day. I've never managed to connect them to anything but I do remember being told they were due to a deficiency in something. Not very helpful, am I ...

Encouragingly, I've had two healthy babies (now nearly 4 and nearly 2)and am very healthy myself so don't imagine there is anything too serious going on.

[gloworm]

usually sign of calcium deficency. a good supplement will help.
during pregnancy (and during breastfeeding) the baby is using all your body stores of calcium, if you do not have enough in your daily diet the baby wil start taking the calcium from your bones (this is over-simplfying a bit but dont have much time!).
a good pregnancy multivitamin will help too.

(BTY do you suffer from restless legs? another sign of calcium deficency)

[LargeGlassofRed]

That's interesting my twins have just turned 2 and still feeding although only once a day now, do get restless legs in the eve usually when very tired.

[H007]

In a previous life I was a nail technician and vertical ridges in nails can indicate a lack of Vitamins A, B, iron or protein in your diet or that you are struggleling to absorb the aforementioned.

[ShatnersBassoon]

You're all wrong. I was stopped in my local shopping precinct by a lady trying to flog a fancy nail file a couple of months ago, and was told the ridges on my nails were caused by stress. My stress is manifesting itself in my nails instead of my state of mind, which must be why I don't ever feel stressed

It's a deficiency of some sort, but I've been told it could be of any number of vitamins or minerals. Just try to balance things up in your diet, and don't worry about it. Pregnancy does weird things to nails and hair.