Folic acids and vitamins! - Need advice please!!

[Cally123]

Hi ladies, so my midwife vaguely touched upon taking vitamins etc for baby's growth but she never really went into much detail.
I am being tortured with terrible morning sickness literally non-stop. So my partner went to the chemist and bought me various things to try take the ease off and he came back with a pregnancy vitamin that has ginger in (supposed to help with MS) and it also has folic acid and all the other necessary ones, so midwife said these would be perfect. However since my MS has been getting worse and worse ive been awful for taking them. They're huge and smell horrendous as well as taste it (I've always hated the smell of all vitamins yuck!) so in short I haven't been taking them everyday mainly because I feel like if I take it I will just throw up straight away.
So I was just wondering is there any risks to not taking them everyday? My partner is being really anal about it and keeps begging me to take them but even the thought of them make me want to barf. I take them at least 3+ days a week but some days I just genuinely cannot stomach it. Just starting to get a little worried about it all, sometimes feel like I'm being selfish but when Im feeling really bad I end up working myself up to the point where I'm crying because I don't want to take this pill. Please help any advice or personal experiences would be a real help! Thank you x

If you're struggling to take it, get a pack of plain folic acid tablets, I had some that were £1 from tesco and the pills are tiny. Also try to figure out the best time for you to take them - I have them as I go to bed. Folic acid prevents neural tube defects so is incredibly important during the first trimester.

I would suggest eating foods containing folic acid instead of a supplement but I'm guessing that's not an option if you're suffering with morning sickness!

I didn't take them everyday and took nothing after 12 weeks and I have a perfectly healthy 7 month old. I found the full of everything vitamins made me feel sick. If you contact your local Sure Start centre they'll have a vitamin with folic acid, vit D and something else in that's small, doesn't smell and is free.

Thank you! Do you just need folic acid for the first 12 weeks nothing else? Because this pill I have has literally everything in so was a bit worried about just getting a folic acid vitamin x

Folic acid for 12 weeks and the NHS are recommending Vit D too due to an increase in rickets. Or that was the case when I was pregnant last year.

Can you change the time of day you take them? I try and take mine with dinner, they go down much easier. I am taking tescos version of pregnacare, and a vegetarian omega 3 supplement, so 2 big tablets to take every day. I know what you mean, mine used to make me throw up if I took them at other times :( chin up!

The ones I take are like horse tablets- huge! And they stink. I take them at night. I know you're meant to take them in the morning with food but I figure at nights when they don't make me feel sick so maybe try that?

Thanks for all the advice! Will definitely try taking them at different times just the majority of the time I can't even keep water down I very rarely ever have meal anymore just snack when I don't feel like I could throw up any second which isn't often :( MS sucks! But fingers crossed it will begin to ease shortly or so I hope!x

I took mine at night for a while as they made me feel awful (folic acid is known for that apparently) but it was still too much so I stopped well before 12 weeks and instead took in food form, Ovaltine is v high in folic acid, plus I had fortified cereals to make up the 100% RDA of folic acid.

I took a separate vitamin D (well mine's in with magnesium and calcium in the one tab) and I still take these for restless legs/cramps.

I haven't taken anything, even folic acid just followed a healthy diet mainly due to ms at first then me being someone unable to swallow the huge tablets and with nothing soluble on offer. Twenty week scan was perfect. As long as your diet is good and you are generally healthy it's not something to worry about, I'm sure lots of women are the same .

Thank you Ellen very reassuring! My mum always says 'what do you reckon they did years ago?! The human race has still survived so I'm sure you'll be fine!' But definitely going to look into just getting the correct vitamins through a healthy lifestyle I think. Thanks again to everyone taking their time to reply and share their experiences x

I had awful morning sickness and had to have medication from the Doctor because of it - i told him i couldn't bear to take the pregnancy multivitamin as it always made me feel worse - i think it's the iron in them - anyway he prescribed me just folic acid tablets on their own. They were much easier to cope with, small and no aftertaste!

The Doctor also said the baby is like a parasite - it'll take everything it needs from you and leave you feeling like death! He said the baby only needs small amounts at first so even if you're being sick lots try not to worry too much - as long as you're not getting dehydrated.

Hope that helps. Also i should add i'm nearly 11 weeks now and my sickness is so much better so hopefully yours will get better soon x

Boots folic acid tabs are tiny. they have one with vit d too

Thank you Natale! Finally someone who knows my pain and ah good I really hope so, not sure how much more I can take of it! You've definitely put me at ease was just worried about the effect it could have on baby but I am reassured now so thank you dearly for taking your time to reply to my post really means a lot when you get supportive feedback. Wishing you all the best in pregnancy and parenthood everyone xx

PS: If you continue to take folic acid after 3 months, apparently your baby has a higher risk of getting asthma. Also, in my case, it was the huge amount of iron in the pills which made me ill.