Folic Acid/vitamins

[katzguk]

Does anyone know where you can purchase cheap vitamins/folic acid suitable for trying to concieve/maybe pregnant. The regular ones contain vit A which your supposed to aviod when pregnant. and the mum to be ect in boots are soo expensive in comparison.

Folic Acid 99p in Tesco, last time I checked, not sure about vits though.

thanks

You only have to avoid excess doses of vit A (very high indeed) a regular A-Z formula with no more than the RDA is fine, but they don't contain enough folic acid so you need those as well. Betacarotene is the form of vitamin that you cannot overdose on at all.

katzguk????????????????????????????????????

I have the Pregnacare tablets - not cheap though. But have lots of vitamins and folic acid, but no vit A.

hmmmmmmm

lets just say its a posibility...not trying just happened!!

Aloha - I thought Betacarotene was the bit of Vitamin A that increased the risk of lung cancer in smokers? That is what they said on a programme last week (IIRC). This was in people taking doses way over the RDA.

Sorry if this is incorrect, but I know that BetaC was found to be responsible for something in large doses.

It's a tenuous link - and only relevant to smokers. What I actually meant is that there is NO link whatsoever between betacarotene (the vegetable source of Vit A) and birth defects. To be honest, the link between Retinol (the animal source of vit A) and birth defects is pretty shaky. Of course none of us likes to take risks, but really it seems you would have to eat an awful lot of liver or take daily mega-doses to do any damage at all. The evidence is extremely scanty and contradictory and a bugger to find!! Look for Betacarotene rather than retinol and don't worry about levels at the RDA. We do need vitamin A when pregnant, just as we do at other times. If you only take one supplement when pregnant, make it folic acid, but there is evidence that folic acid is more effective when taken in conjunction with other B vits, including B12.