Pregnant vegetarians - just wondering...

[glossyflower]

Hi guys,
I'm just wondering what other vegetarians are doing.
I'm 7 weeks, and what I call a part time vegetarian. Since I found out I'm pregnant I have gone back to eating meat, guilt free because I think my baby needs varied nutrition. I have since been enjoying roast beef dinners courtesy of my mum :-)
Once I've had the baby and things settle down I will probably end up going to leaving meat out.
Obviously my baby will be eventually having meat and when he/she is old enough they can make their own decisions.

I only ate fish for 19 years and then started eating free range chicken (only twice a month or something).

To be honest I am now mostly vegetarian as the idea of animal protein turns my stomach. Fish fingers are ok tho! I've been eating a lot of dairy and pulses to keep my protein intake up. Hopefully soon I'll fancy my normal diet but at eleven weeks I may still have a few weeks of morning sickness left. I'm currently craving McDonalds Filet o'fish which is uncharacteristic as I'm normally fairly healthy!

I eat vegetarian because I don't like meat. I feel wrong calling myself veggie cos I will eat meat gravy etc so I am not a proper veggie.

When I am pregnant I crave meat. I'm still fussy about it ( bacon sandwiches , sausages and chicken burgers )

No meat here!! Haven't eaten it for 20 years unlikely to start now!

I'm veggie in a loose sense (don't eat meat or fish but do eat parmesan and drink non veggie wines) but have eaten fish two or three times since finding out I was pregnant - now 25 weeks. Usually it has been when I'm eating out and the veggie option is either really unhealthy or pregnancy unfriendly eg containing raw egg, stinky cheese type thing.

I also took Pregnacare plus fish oils in earlier months as I couldnt find a veggie source of certain EFAs (there is one which is algae based apparently but not stocked anywhere!).

I think a lot of veggies use pregnancy as an excuse to tuck into some meat tbh but hey, why not. As far as I'm aware though a balanced vegetarian diet is more than good enough nutritionally for your baby so you don't need to eat meat.

The brilliant thing about being purely veggie at home is not having to worry about undercooked or raw meat contaminating the kitchen/fridge etc.

I probably won't feed my child meat at home for the above reason but won't try to prevent him or her from eating it outside of the home. We as a population generally eat way too much meat these days anyway.

I was completely vege for my pregnancy - and DS was a week early and 10lbs 5oz so it clearly hadn't adversely affected him. He is an avid omnivore though, although he does understand where meat comes from.

I've not eaten meat for 23 years. My attitude before I became pregnant was if the baby needs it then I'll eat it, however, when I spoke to my MW about it she said a drastic change of diet (ie eating meat after so long) is not a good idea during pregnancy. She was possibly worried because I stopped eating meat when I was 7 so my system hasn't developed digesting meat.

I'm also veggie and was worried about it in relation to the pregnancy but MW not remotley bothered and my iron level in last blood test was above average/normal (good) so I was very pleased!

ivanapoo (great name!) I just bought the algae ones in Holland and Barrett as a switch from the fish oils version because the fish oils can give you too much vitamin A, which can cause eye problems. They are expensive in H&B (£9.99 for 30!) so I'll be looking online for a better price!

I'd been vegetarian for 10 years and was fully intending to stay veggie throughout my pregnancy, but started craving meat - specifically chicken - early on.
This was really odd for me, as I'd never wanted chicken previously. In fact the thought of eating meat used to repulse me.

However, I took these cravings to mean that my body was wanting some meat, so now I eat chicken perhaps once a fortnight if I feel I need it. The idea of red meat still turns my stomach, especially the smell of bacon.
I'm very fussy about the meat that I do eat, and make sure it's free-range, organic and from somewhere reputable. The thought of a McDonalds, for example, still makes me nauseuous.

Eating a bit of meat does seem to have given me more energy, and my iron levels are normal, so I think it might be doing me good. I fully intend on giving up again once I've stopped breastfeeding, though.
I believe it's entirely possible to have a healthy vegetarian pregnancy but, for me, there seems to have been something my body was lacking.

Thanks grownyourown I'll have a look. I did try in my local H&B a few months back but they didn't have it then (and the staff were less than helpful...you'd have thought I was asking for powdered unicorn horn)

I turned vegetarian (lacto-ovo, no fish etc) at 16 so was vegetarian throughout both pregnancies, and didn't feel the need for meat, just carried on with my normal diet, with maybe a little more yoghurt, tofu & eggs. Had two healthy 9lb+ babies.

I was very mildly anaemic for the last few weeks of second pregnancy, so took supplements, but that seems to be common for a lot of women, vegetarian or not.

DCs are also being brought up vegetarian (with a little fish) and are huge & healthy - both on roughly 98th centile from when they were babies.

"Since I found out I'm pregnant I have gone back to eating meat, guilt free because I think my baby needs varied nutrition."

your baby can get varied nutrition on a vegetarian diet.
the only thing you need to be careful of is iron, and there are over-the-counter iron supplements you can take for that (spatone or floradix eg)

i didn't do supplements during pregnancy, and was borderline with hb levels when i gave birth.
i had a PPH and went down to 5.6.
I've just given blood this weekend with an iron sample that dropped quicker than any I've ever done before, so it wasn't all that bad (8months after birth)

ivanapoo maybe you can ask them to order them in for you for the duration? Its obviously on their product list.

For me, I've been vegetation, then pescatarian since age 14, but started eating occasional chicken and steak since TTC so that I didn't have to take too many iron supplements and risk more constipation! :)

Hi. Been veggie for 25 years and currently 33weeks PG. I've occasionally craved meat but not had any as I have a varied diet. I did introduce oily fish twice a week for brain development and that seems five. Slightly low iron levels but on supplements now. TBH if I started eating meat again I'd probably be sick!!!! God knows what it would do to my insides

I've been vegetarian for 13 years. I've stayed a veggie through both pregnancies. I have a varied diet anyway and there are plenty of foods which give the nutrients needed without needing to resort to meat.

I have anaemia, but that's more linked to my coeliac's disease rather than just my vegetarian diet.

The baby will take what it needs from you, women with anorexia or meat eaters with not much of a varied diet still have healthy babies, so why not a vegetarian?

I did ask my GP what they suggest to vegetarian women when pregnant with my first child, she just said that in general vegetarians have better, more varied diets so she generally wouldn't advise starting to eat meat anyway.

I'm not sure that women with anorexia do have completely healthy babies - talking from experience!!!

I am veggie and have been since I was 8 - so 20 years! The thought of meat makes me feel sick! Having said that, my cousin who was also a veggie, decided to eat meat during pregnancy and it turned out to be her favourite thing of the nine months!

I'm a pescatarian and it never occurred to me to start eating meat when I got pregnant.

The smell of bacon was the worst thing for making me feel sick.

I have been craving lots of cheese and dairy products though, so perhaps we do need more protein or perhaps I am just using pregnancy as an excuse to pig out

I was a vegetarian throughout 2 healthy pregnancies. The midwife said I had the best iron levels she had seen in a long time!

I'm a vegetarian - although only because I don't like meat or fish. Which means not a proper vegie but in my experience more proper than most.

I did wonder if I'd crave meat but after 23 Years without eating it it'd just make me sick. So perhaps no surprise that actually the smell of meat and fish just makes me feel really sick. And the same goes for eggs a thousand times over.

My iron levels are super! But then I love green veg, eat a portion o pulses with every meal I can and am taking pregnacare for additional supplementary goodness. Not a huge surprise really.

One exception to vegetarianism I've had since 13 is tuna which I ate because my mother was worried about iron intake. Oddly I've gone off it since I became pregnant but I'm trying to eat it at least once a week for the fishy brain development goodness.

What I have craved is peanut butter. Go figure!

I was a veggie for 15 yrs before my pregnancy with ds and had no intention of not continuing this whilst pregnant. But I craved meat really bad from really early on so went back to eating it. I've also carried on whilst breastfeeding ds who is now 14 months and still feeding!
Whether pregnancy is an excuse or not , I don't know, but I just decided to go with what my body was telling me to do.
I think if you eat a varied and proper veggie diet, it's fine, but I didn't really. I didn't like many veg and lived on quorn sausages! In my case, I think going back to meat was definately the healthiest and most sensible option for me and ds.

I've been a veggie from 18 to 31, then started to eat fish for the past 4 years. Bizarrely, I've gone right off fish and am pretty much back to eating the sort of food I ate as a student cos it's all I fancy at 7 weeks, due to morning sickness! I thought I would be mega healthy and have lots of fresh fish and vegetables, but right now I'm just carbing out on bread and potatoes with cheese - like I did at Uni when I wasn't sure how to cook decent veggie meals. It's a bit strange. Not had any meat cravings, but keep fancying beef flavoured crisps! Does that count?

Another long time veggie here too - currently 8 and a half weeks pregnant, I don't intend to make any changes to my diet.
I am taking pregnacare (the veg friendly one, not the one with fish oils) to supplement my diet - and I'm trying to increase the amount of protein I'm eating too.
The way I see it is that vast populations manage to have healthy pregnancies/babies whilst on a vegetarian diet, so why shouldn't I?

i've been veggie for about 15 years, i was veggie throughout my first pregnancy and this one. i was so worried that i would have cravings for meat but i never have. i have never given my DS meat or meat products and this next child will be veggie (for as long as i can manage). i personally believe it's the best choice for me and my family, but it's an individual thing...