Pregnancy diet

[leah3]

Hey everyone,

I’d really like to hear from those who ate a lot of junk food during their pregnancy and how their babies turned out? (Did it have any ill effect)

only reason I ask is because my diet isn’t the best. I can’t stand vegetables, never been able to and unfortunately can’t even force them down so they’re out of the question. I try to eat 2-3 pieces of fruit a day. I only drink water. For dinners I generally eat frozen crap and a takeaway once or twice a week. I snack on crisps and biscuits a little throughout the day.

my weight is completely fine and baby is doing well. I think my diet could be worse but could definitely be better. I’m also taking prenatals everyday.

please let me know :)

Thanks all above!

@BeanieTeen hello. Yes of course I’ve thought about that. But what am I supposed to do? Eat things that make me want to throw up for the next 18 years and be miserable as hell? Or not eat at all? Of course I’ll try and make sure my child eats healthily and not give them crap just because I’m eating it. You need to understand, it’s so easy for people to say “just eat some veg/something healthy” when it’s coming from people that like that kind of food… but I could eat super healthy and my child might grow up to still want a takeaway everyday. It’s something you can’t really control. I can only do my best. Of course I’ve tried to substitute with healthier options but I’ve struggled with healthy eating since childhood even though my mum always ate healthily so being pregnant hasn’t really helped that.

With my first I craved savory, salty, burgers and anything deep fried. It was a struggle to eat vegetables and I had violent all day sickness for the duration. DD was born exactly at term, perfectly healthy, and now in reception, she is thriving in every way.

@spottygymbag thanks love! I think people think it’s a choice to just eat crap when it’s really not lol. I’d give anything to be one of those girls that can sit and eat a plate of veggies and enjoy it 😢

im pleased to say my GD test came back negative, iron levels are great and baby is doing well so I can’t be doing toooo bad. 😀

My diet is awful! Thanks to Crohn’s disease and awful nausea. If I eat fruit and veg it flares my gut up and I am living on the loo (sorry for the TMI). I am also overweight due to a few rounds of steroids and mental health medication. I take a pregnacare plus, because I thought the extra fatty acids etc must be a good thing! My 16 month old was born 6lb 15 at 37 weeks. I am currently pregnant and other than being offered at glucose tolerance test, no issues have been raised with my weight or diet

Post pregnancy (not now, your baby will be fine I’m sure!) really try and focus on improving your diet.

Your taste buds will change over time I promise you (assuming you’re neurotypical). I used to hate peas, mushrooms, tomatoes, sprouts they all made me gag. But, studies have shown once you eat something enough you get used to it. I now actually enjoy all foods (well, I tolerate brocolli but I like the rest).

Start with something easy like blending a few carrots into a pasta sauce, and keep building up. You can do it whilst weaning so you and the baby are both trying stuff together! It
will do you a world of good.

@henni85 thanks love, that’s a lot to deal with! I’m also on Pregnacare and they seem to be doing some good 😌 what kind of things are you having to eat if u don’t mind me asking?

@Mushroo thank you, I’ve honestly been trying to do that even before I was pregnant lol but unfortunately my body/mind/tastebuds whatever it is, are very stubborn. Idk loll I’ll keep trying but don’t want to make the pregnancy miserable or myself

Hi Op, the ready meals/takeaways/biscuits you are having, why don't you cook/bake them from scratch?

@leah3 definitely! With my second I craved broccoli and all of the fruit. We've had a lot more health problems with him even though my diet and general pregnancy was a lot "better".
We've had suspected allergies (full body rashes at every breast feed), prone to ear infections (2 ruptured ear drums so far) and is quite pigeon toed (so we've had lots of falls, split lips and bashed teeth as a result).

Sometimes I wonder if it was because I had a bad dose of influenza in the first trimester, or the tick bite in the second trimester, or if it is because he is a lockdown baby who didn't have the same exposure.

Every pregnancy and baby is different, we just have to do the best we can with what life hands us.

@Angeldelight21 hey! I could do it once in a while but it works out wayyyy more expensive and with the current cost of living and trying to buy everything for the baby, it’s not really a good option for me 👎🏾

Ah jeez, got to love munsnet sometimes. Brings out alot of Gwyneth paltrows. Seriously who has time to bake everything from scratch? Pregnancy is exhausting and with working full time, I CBA cleaning up a blender. My diets not great either OP, I try and eat as much fruit as I can and a good cereal for breakfast. Most boxes of cereal have so many minerals and vitamins packed in them. Other than that, aren't happy hormones also good for baby? So way I see it, eating some crap that makes you happy is actually good for baby 😉

So basically you are saying you live on biscuits/ready meals/ take aways because of the cost of living increase?

Are you trying to say 10 years ago you had an amazing diet and you cooked everything from scratch? LOL

I ate really badly until 20ish weeks last time but made sure to eat reasonably well from then on. If this is just because of pregnancy sickness all will be fine as it's short term but if you have always had such a poor diet I'd be getting professional help from a nutrition expert now for the sake of your child one born.

Even with the best intentions during weaning you may find your child will get to the age of only wanting to eat what you eat (normally modelling in child development) and if you feed them what you're eating now that would be very bad for them and have lifelong consequences on their relationship with food and potentially gut health.

'How their babies turned out' 😂

I tend not to be able to eat much healthy food in pregnancy. I tried a nicoise salad the other day and was vomiting all evening. The smell of vegetables and. meat make me sick.

Take your vitamins. It'll be fine.

I ate really badly during first pregnancy, ice cream with melted chocolate, loads of takeaways. Regretted it as I was so huge I could barely walk and my son was 10lbs 5ozs and born by emergency c section

My cousin was hospitalised with HG in all her pregnancies. Basically could only handle crackers and diet Coke. Her kids are fine x

I basically live on carbs and protein, with a few safe (ish) fruits and veg. Bananas and tinned fruit I can tolerate. I can eat veg if it’s cooked to bits in a pasta sauce etc. I can’t eat high fibre food, and I struggle with high fat stuff! I tried to eat better for a few days, but it made me feel so rough I gave up. I just hope my GTT is ok, there is no way I could manage a diet for gestational diabetes

I ate absolute crap during my pregnancy. Carbs and stodgy things were the only thing that kept nausea at bay and I went through packets of haribo tangfastics because it was the only thing that got rid of the horrible chemical pregnancy taste I constantly had and then I also drank my fair share of san pellegrino orange fizzy cans as again only thing I could keep down liquid-wise.
I will say I did put on the max amount of weight they recommend for a healthy bmi but I lost it all a few months after giving birth due to all the walking I did to get baby to nap 😂.
my baby is nearly 6 months old and completely healthy! Very alert and reaching all his development milestones just fine. He’s not overweight (slightly below average actually!) and above average length.
Your baby will take what he needs regardless of what you eat. Yes healthier options would benefit your personal health but don’t feel bad if you don’t as I know how hard it is, especially in those first few months when you feel absolutely rotten and exhausted.
how about soups? Or hidden veg pasta sauces? Could they be an option to help increase veg intake? How do you feel about veg in things like potato cakes or savoury muffins?

Thank you others! X

@Flittingaboutagain im aware of that but I’ve ate crap my whole life, I’m a size 10 and 100% healthy with normal levels and no health issues whatsoever. At the end of the day, there’s way too many things in this world that can impact one’s health.

@Lijay honestly, I couldn’t believe it LOOL. Can you imagine the price of buying all those ingredients to make everything from scratch all the time and then finding the time to make it 😂 & thank you for your answer love. As much as I appreciate people trying to help, I just want to hear from those who were similar to me so thank you ☺️

Op if you can, purchase this it's brilliant. Full of low cost quick to make foods, not full of vegetables but better than takeaways. I have only recently this week started cooking properly and for me it has to be quick cheap and healthy-ish as i have been eating way too many takeaways. Now is the time to start practicing so when baby is here they start growing up with proper food (and occasional takeaways)

@leah3 haha how funny that I've seen your reply just as im waiting for a nandos to be delivered! I did swap my usual Peri Peri chips for spicy rice though and I had a nectarine with lunch so I'm actually counting today as a win 🤣