Pregnancy vitamins make me sick - can I take just folic acid??

[Woodlandwitch]

I’ve tried all brands of pregnancy vitamins and no matter what time o day I take them or if I take them with food I end up feeling horrendous about 30 minutes later.

Generally a healthy balanced diet so can I just buy folic acid supplements and take them on it’s own or do I really need all the extra vitamins?

Why do they make me sick?

You need folic acid and vitamin D as an absolute minimum. Try taking them separately and see if you tolerate them better x

Could be iron? I can’t keep any iron containing supplements down. My midwife told me to take calcium and folic acid, said everything else is not necessary. I also take vid d, magnesium and zinc as part of the calcium supplement. I also found I can tolerate hema iron really well though that’s not suitable for vegetarians..

I got awful diarrhoea from all pregnancy supplements apart from plain folic acid. GP had no idea why, but suggested it could be something in the substrate of the pills, and said just to take folic acid and eat a good diet.

Weirdly by the second trimester I was fine taking pregnancy vitamins again. No idea what changed! I’m now on iron supplements and they are also fine, despite my over-sensitive digestion.

So yeah, I say stick to the folic acid and see whether you can tolerate that better, and see what you can do mineral and vitamin wise with your diet. Best of luck!

Its folic acid and vitamin D that's recommended

Have you tried the liquid one?

Boots do a folic acid and vit D combo, nice small tablets. I couldn't tolerate the pregnacare ones, partly due to the size

I actually never took any vitamins during first 2 pregnancys this one I got a multi one ans was fine on it at first... then all of a sudden it was making me feel like crap I havnt took them since . I would ask your midwife about them see what she suggests xx

I just took a combined folic acid and vit D (I think most of the ones you can buy are combined anyway), even when I had horrendous morning sickness and didn’t eat much. I didn’t take the multivitamins until later in my pregnancy. No issues at all, and that’s all they recommend anyway.

I got folic acid and vitamin d combined from Holland and Barrett. Tiny pills and only cost a couple of pound.

Ugh those pregnacare horse pills with the awful smell and after taste - you’d think they could improve on that wouldn’t you?!

It was the iron with me. Maybe try taking them as you go to bed, or get some without iron.

have you tried taking them before bed time?
I had to take high dose iron and ended up having it an hour before bed so that I slept through the worst side effects.

Folic and vit d.
My mw said not to bother with the others if I eat well

I recall having a spray that I used as I had horrible HG and couldn't keep water down let along huge pills. Did take folic acid whenever I could though too.

NHS recommendation is folic acid and vitamin D. You don't necessarily need anything else (presuming you have a healthy diet and don't have specific deficiencies).

As said, folic acid and vitamin d are the most important and you can take these separately. I found taking the full prenatal vitamin fine if I took it in the evening after a meal (and a whole day's worth of food). Taking it in the morning made me horribly nauseous.

I think it's a mental thing not the actual supplement?

With morning sickness we still learn to eat as good for baby same with supplements

I only took plain folic acid with my first child, and only up until 12 weeks, and she was perfect.
The vitamin D thing is a fairly recent thing and wasn’t recommended then. I’m taking pregnacare and extra vitamin D with this one but I do feel like I’m being conned a little

Don't take folic acid, take folate instead

@BarleyG The vitamin D recommendation is recent yes, it comes after seeing a return of rickets in children that we once thought had been almost eradicated. With how little sun we get most people are vitamin D deficient and then we keep our babies out the sun and smoother them in sun cream adding to the low levels. It’s why pregnant women, babies and toddlers are now all recommended to supplement.

@notmytea I’ve not seen folate in the chemist, is it something il have to order? Why superior you folic acid?

I just take folic and vit d