Silly question - can you have too much calcium?

[buttonmoon78]

Currently 28wks and I've got dreadful acid reflux.

Up until a few days ago I was coping with Rennies and the like and lots of milk. It's gone up to a whole other level though and I now am on Peptac which makes me heave when I take it! And when I do it doesn't really stop the reflux, just makes it less acidic so I still get a mouthful of vomit tasting stomach acid, it just doesn't hurt anymore. Which is nice!

So to stave off the dreadful moment when I have to take some I'm still drinking loads of milk - maybe 2-3 pints a day.

Just checking that there's no chance of me doing any damage to baby or me by 'over-consuming' milk?

I'm sure you're all going to say 'stop being silly' but quite frankly, if you can't indulge in silly fancies when pg, when can you?

Hi
I drink quite alot of milk and eat quite a lot of dairy as well and looked into this myself a while ago. Apparently you CAN have too much calcium, although you have to have ALOT, and a couple of pints a day is fine. The normal recommended amount ranges from 1000 - 1500 a day. You should never exceed 2,500mg a day. A normal 8 oz glass of milk has around 300mg.

I think the side effects of too much are constipation or kidney problems, like gallstones. Give your gp a call or your mw a call if you are worried though.

Try getting some liquid Gaviscon and mixing acouple of teaspoons with the milk- really helped me (not the aniseed flavour though! Yuck!).

Your body can cope pretty well with regulating calcium levels and what it doesn't need will usually just not get absorbed. So many advantages- obviously the skeleton you are growing inside you, preventing osteoporosis in your own body, and there are quite a few studies suggesting high calcium intake in pregnancy reduces risk of hypertension and preclampsia.

Obviously do speak to your doctor if you are worried, but 2-3 pints doesnt sound like too much to me, I've been on about 2 most of this pregnancy.