Folic Acid. What's to much?!

[melliebobs]

Right. I'm taking a folic acid tablet each morning (ttc #1). But i also take a multi vitamin every day, cos i work with ill people n sick to death of picking up coughs n colds every other week. Anyway i was looking at the back of the packet and the folic acid has 200% of your RDA and the multi vit has 100% of my RDA of folic acid also. So is 300% too much?!

Could you take a pregnancy multivitamin that would meet both needs? You've got to be really careful about vitamin A - too much is dangerous during pregnancy, that's why prenatal multivitamins don't have any in. That probably isn't too much folic acid though - people at high risk of having a baby with spina bifida take far higher doses than you. hth.

300% is quite a lot. Think too much is not good.

NHS website "The Department of Health recommends that women should take a daily supplement of 0.4mg of folic acid while they are trying to conceive, and should continue taking this dose for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, when the baby's spine is developing."

Does your multivit have Vit A? Not good to have too much of that either if you are pregnant.

multi vit just has 100% of my RDA of vit A

I am prescribed 5mg of folic acid due to a hereditary condition my husband has. It's equivalent to about 12 normal tablets I think. I think you'll be fine!

Should add that I have had 3 Dc and have always double checked the dose is ok with doc/midwife/consultant repeatedly.

I think if you are tcc that is too much vitamin A, there is none at all in prenatal vitamins.

Hi all - have just seen this thread. I'm TTC#1, and taking a whopping dose of folic acid, due to a family history of spina bifida: 5 miligrams (5000 micrograms) a day. On top of that, I'm also taking Pregnacare Conception pills, which also contain the "normal" conception dosage of 400 micrograms a day. I've been taking these since late January 2011, and my GP said it would be OK to take such a large dose. Over the past 3 weeks, I've started to get heartburn, which I've never ever had before. It's getting worse and worse, and I'm now getting it after every meal. I haven't changed anything else in my diet (other than drinking less!), so I think it must be due to the folic acid. I was wondering if anyone else has had these symptoms from large doses of folic acid? And do you know if heartburn is actually harmful? I'd rather suffer with heartburn than jeopardise the health of a potential baby...but it's getting rather horrid and painful!

As others have said, many women are encouraged to take quite high doses of folic acid so don't think you need to worry there. However, you DO need to be very careful with vitamin A. For this reason, it is worthwhile taking a vitamin supplement designed for pregnancy - the supermarkets do very good value versions of these and you can rest assured knowing that you're getting a good amount of folic acid as well as everything else, without anything added in for you to worry about!

thanks for your thoughts/advice. I'll drop the multi vit n stick to the folic acid. I was only on the multi vit n e way cos DH was nagging me to take it cos he was fed up of me being ill all the time!

Molly - I had the same dose and didn't get heartburn with DD or DS2 but did with DS1. I had awful morning sickness and fleetingly thought the Folic Acid was to blame but the MS didn't stop when the Folic Acid did.

Folic acid is water soluble so any extra is excreted as urine, IMHO if you are older then it can't hurt to take a little more to avoid spinal issues