How much is my diet harming my baby?

[mommysharkdodo]

I keep reading posts on apps about how important a healthy diet is to have a healthy baby and it's got me a little worried.

Before finding out I was pregnant I had a healthy diet, only drinking water or diluted juice, nicely balanced meals but since finding out that has completely gone out the window!

I now crave fizzy drinks as water makes me gag (I am trying to drink milk instead) I am eating so much bread because my nausea is so bad the only thing I feel I can handle is toast. I feel like I could eat pizza every day of the week (I'm not though honest!) I haven't done the slightest bit of exercise since finding out I'm pregnant, I work 40+ hours a week so whenever I have any time to myself I am sleeping as I am just sooo tired!

My OH works up to 60 hours a week so neither of us are preparing any meals and we are also in the middle of moving house so a lot going on at the moment!

I'd just like a bit of advice on keeping a healthy diet im so scared of putting on loads of weight during pregnancy!

Take any folic acid/vitamins with a meal

Take the folic acid. Low levels of folic acid early in pregnancy can be known to cause spina bifida.

As for what you eat, at this stage just eat what your sickness allows you to. If that is pizza then so be it. Hopefully the sickness will ease soon and you can try to balance it out, however, if it doesn't it won't harm the baby, just east what you can.

Eat not east

I had hyperemesis and lived entirely on folic acid and fish finger sandwiches for about four months babies are very good at taking what they need!

I'm 24 weeks and can only want lovely lovely carbs. Mmmm pizza.
My 2 faves (curry and spag Bol) just don't want to eat . Are a LOT of bread.

Due to such awful reflux I was being sick bile 10+ times a day there was very little I could eat when pregnant. I basically lived off cereal bars, stale lemonade and mash potato with onion gravy - it's all I could manage.

I did have a young girl at work who's never been pregnant regularly take it upon herself to lecture me about the health of my baby. That is until I quite literally lost my shit at her for being so fucking insensitive and totally unaware of the realities of individual pregnancies.

Don't beat yourself up!

Oh just seen your other posts the vitamins made me sick too! The only way I could manage them was literally taking them mid meal. So whatever was my biggest meal of the day in the middle of bites I'd take them. That helped. Good luck!!

I guess OP is good example of why putting folic acid into white flour would be good thing.

Yes, my first trimester was a sea of beige carbs - like so many people. Things I used to love (veg, fish etc) I couldn’t even say the name of without feeling sick! Makes me think that we’re quite poorly evolved for our bodies to only want non-nutritious foods at a time we need the most goodness! 🤷‍♀️

How far along are you? Try and take folic acid if you can - don't try the pregnacare multi vitamin ones as they have made a few of my pregnant friends feel sick - and did me too. I survived on bran flakes, mcflurrys and cheeseburgers for the last 8 weeks or so. The only thing that didn't give me crippling heartburn but 3 stone later I wish I'd persevered with a slightly more healthy diet!

From a nutrient perspective pizza and toast are really not that bad for you! Bread is often fortified, cheese is pretty good nutrient wise, there's some tomato etc. If there's only one food you can eat I would probably chose pizza tbh, or toast with cheese and tomato on! Better in my mind to have the pizza and no veg than veg and nothing else.

It's really not that bad, it's only considered bad because of the calories. Eat what you can, you might gain weight while pregnant but you will have raised a healthy baby and you can always lose it later. Dont worry about the fizzy drinks, again they are bad for your teeth but drinking them for 9 months isn't going to do much long term damage, and they aren't touching your baby's teeth! Think how many people drink litres of them everyday and are fine! (Trust me it's a lot of people)

You and baby will be fine OP, just eat what you can when you can. A lot of emphasis is placed on healthy diets atm, and of course we should eat healthily where we can, but your body is actually pretty good at adapting and when people have nutrient deficiencys they are often very very low on those things. I

I think our body's crave carbs during pregnancy because they are a good, easily digestible source of energy for us, it's logical really that the most important thing is probably calories so our body craves calories!

Your replies are all so helpful thank you so much!
I am definitely going to try taking folic acid during a meal and hopefully that will ease the nausea.
For those asking how far along I am I have no idea until I go for my scan on Friday. I have very irregular periods ranging from 28 days to 68 days! If I go from the date of my last period I would be 12+1 but my guess would be more around 9 weeks.

I have ate a full loaf of bread in less than a week! BUT a good thing is I have not touched chocolate at all since about a week after finding out as I have completely gone off it! Would never of believed anyone in a million years if they said I wouldn't want chocolate haha

Keep taking the acid. It gets better after about week 15!