Any veggie mum to bes out there?

[Wiwa]

Discovered I was pregnant today :o) and saw the doctor. She said that it would be worth me trying to eat fish, so I tried a salmon sandwich today and it made me feel really rough. Willing to battle on for baby's sake but would welcome any advice.

Ta!

bessie's post is correct. Beans and Lentils contain a surprising amount.

I haven't read the whole thread (sorry I should be going to bed!).

i'm a strict veggie of 20 years. i broke being veggie (in my eyes anyway) and had fish supplements throughout my pregnancy.

I took ones specially designed for pregnant women (they were called mumomega or something like that).

I am now bringing my son up veggie but with fish.

The way I see it, I can't be sure I'm getting enough omega 3 from my diet, and I wasn't willing to risk it with my child.

Incidentally - "My friend told me that caffiene reduces the amount of iron (& other vits) you absorb from food, & has stopped having a coffee after his lunch because of this" Drinking orange juice (for the vit c) when you eat iron-rich foods helps your body absorb the iron.

sorry bessie I see you already said that

That iron absorption thing is soo important.

Last year, DH and I used to have a cup of tea with our lunch (it was winter, so the cuppa was lovely). Next time we both went to give blood in the spring, we both got rejected for low iron levels. He had never been rejected before (45 donations), and my rejection led to a year-long ban (it was about 10 under the minimum iron count they allow for giving blood)
The only thing that we could think of that had been different about our diets was that cup of tea with lunch every day.
So we stopped doing that - you can have a cup of tea after an hour, but have juice with your lunch.

I've been vegetarian followed by vegan since I was a kid. All my tests have been fine so far (am 19 weeks), and none of the medical staff I've mentioned it to have seemed at all concerned or told me to add anything in.

I am taking a pregnancy multivitamin most days but I'm also getting B12 from yeast extract (generic marmite), and making sure I have enough fresh fruit and veg and wholegrain stuff.

Getting plenty of essential fatty acids (particularly omega 3) from walnuts, rapeseed oil in cooking, hempseed oil (called Good Oil, got it from Waitrose but I think they do it in other supermarkets too) in salad dressings and drizzled in soup before serving. Hempseed oil is meant to be a really good balanced source of omega 3, 6 and 9. Planning to start having smoothies with ground flax seeds (for omega 3) soon as they'll have a double bonus of keeping me regular!

Protein you can get from pretty much everything. I believe pregnant women are meant to get about 55-60g of protein a day, and the stuff is in things you wouldn't even consider, like orange juice, which I discovered just the other day when I was idly looking at the nutrition panel. Okay, there's just a couple of grams in a glass of orange juice but it all adds up, and bread is a good source (about 10% protein). It helps I like nuts as well.

I've kept a food diary for a couple of days and it was really helpful to reassure me I was doing most things right, and a few things I could improve.