Extremely poor diet . Can this affect baby development? Or cause childhood behaviour problems ?

[Odelia85]

Please do not judge me. I'm aware my diet needs to improve and I hate myself for it enough.

Since discovering I'm pregnant with my miracle baby my diet has went downhill.
I'm suffering from extremely bad food aversions . While I've been incredibly lucky not to suffer morning sickness, however if I eat fruit or veg I will 100% vomit. My sickness seems food induced. The only thing I can eat is greasy, fatty foods like i live on carbs chips, sausage rolls, crisps, pastries, goujons , store pizza anything bacon goes down well. Anything Drink like those feel like they line my stomach or something and it feels settled drinks are usually a bottle of yazoo milkshake.. most days 🙈 and sparkling water. Some days I can manage still flavour water.
Actually my diet kinda went downhill from the month we did ivf. I'm assuming it's hormone related. I've also not been exercising much due to complications with my ovaries. I've pretty much been on bedrest since late October and I'm slowly coming around. I
Am now 13 weeks pregnant and its only the past week that I'm starting to come around . I've managed to eat a small handful of raspberries every other day. Every few days I can take a jacked potato and beans . I couldnt manage them every day. Other veg is still a no go.
For the Past 3 days I've been able to drink one of those cartons of kids smoothies with fruit juice. And while I'm happy my diet is starting to very slowly improve again, I do wonder if how I've eaten over past weeks have affected the baby.
A friend of mine told me my bad diet can have affected baby's development in these early stages before 12 weeks as organs are developing and told me to "brace myself" ( she had a perfect pregnancy , perfect diet, dosent understand how some of us get serious food aversion) and also told me that a poor diet in pregnancy is linked to bad childhood behaviour. I just wanted to know your thoughts really on all of this

I can give you my anecdotal evidence.

I was really sick with my 1st. I could only stomach beige food. Lots of crisps and breaded chicken and my diet was awful. However my daughter was born completely healthy and is now an 11 year old just like her peers.

I did the same as you and started to have smoothies because then I felt at least I was getting some fruit and veg (although I'd often sick these up.)

Someone else may have more scientific advice but I'd try not to worry. If the sickness passes you can try and go back to your normal diet. Congratulations try and enjoy this time 🎊 you are being too hard on yourself and your friend sounds very insensitive.

I think that woman is no friend of yours. If all you can keep down is carbs at the moment and a bit of orange juice, you will make yourself iller by constantly vomiting. Get a good multivitamin supplement and tell your ' friend' to keep her opinions to herself.

I am sure I have read that the baby basically gets first dibs on all the nutrients, and that a mum can be really quiet undernourished, and still give birth to a healthy baby, so I honestly wouldn’t worry too much, @Odelia85 - though I know that it is a lot easier to say ‘don’t worry’ than it is to stop worrying.

It would be better for yourself, and your baby if you could make dupes of what you may be buying, such as homemade pizza, with home made tomato sauce as a base. Chicken goujons are easily replicated at home. Basically making those types of food healthier. Making homemade chips etc...

A friend had severe hyperemesis for the whole 9 months. She lived on extremely small quantities of mashed potato.

Baby was fine.

Your friend is not going to be a great support in your pregnancy as hers was so totally different.

@motheroreily thankyou very much for that.
It's so hard having these aversions isn't it.
I want to eat healthy so much .
I'm hoping I'm gradually coming around but I do worry after hearing that if it's true and if i could have done damage in the early stages .
I mean, even in adults they say eating like this can have consequences for our health nevermind a tiny growing baby.

Baby will always take what it needs and the mother is left with whatever is left. Women have healthy, properly developed babies with all sorts of circumstances, your friend is being a bitch.
I know of women that barely kept anything down for the entirety of their pregnancy - had healthy, intelligent babies. Its actually the 2nd trimester that counts (if anything does), I'm pretty sure there's very minimal brain development in the first!

While I normally have a fairy balanced diet, while I was pregnant, I couldn’t stomach anything. I barely took on any food and was sick all the time. I lost 2 stone when I was pregnant. My daughter was born at full term - and while she was a wee bit smaller than we expected (6lb 12 when we were expecting 8 lb ish) she is absolutely perfect with no problems at all.

that person doesn’t sound like she is a good friend to you

I spent my whole pregnancy at the chippy and now have a healthy 15mo boy. Baby will get what it needs and qs long as you take pregnancy vitamins and are lucky enough to not have morning sickness, crack on. I had awful heartburn towards the end so barely ate anything. don't listen to your "friend". Do what works for you 😁

You unborn baby isnt eating the food you eat. They only take nutrients from whatever you eat.
And even if you eat no veg or fruit, you will still get the main nutrients, which are protein and carbs.
This is also why pre natal vitamins are important, as they tend to supplement whatever you are lacking.

1st trimestre is AWFUL for most people, and very few people manage a healthy diet during it. It has ZERO effect on the babys development.

What your baby needs is for you to eat something, anything, so that it can grow.

Your “friend” is a real piece of work. I’d get rid.

Think how many mums get morning sickness and have to eat blank food like you are and then many people have crap diets even without that. If babies were being born disabled due to beige diets half the country would be disabled.

people have healthy babies even when there’s famine.

If you aren’t already I’d take some vitamin tablets but other than that keep going as you are!

I went through IVF last year and 100% the treatment made me have such a bigger appetite. I think the progesterone I was on once I became pregnant then made me hungrier too. My diet was crap. Always has been. I'm such a beige eater. I tried to cut down and eat better when I got pregnant but there were some weeks I had take aways most nights. My baby girl was born a healthy 9lbs 8oz. No issues at all. Only problem I have now is getting all the weight I gained while I was pregnant off again lol. Tell your friend to mind her own.

Congratulations! When I was pregnant with my twins I could barely eat the first 20 weeks due to nausea. I ate toast and ready salted crisps - the kids are all fine. I had to go for extra tests for gestational diabetes due to carrying multiples but never had any issues. A good diet and gentle exercise will always be beneficial (and pregnancy vitamin) but don’t worry too much. Just enjoy your pregnancy!

In my first pregnancy I ate chicken Kyiv and potato waffles every single day. It was the only stuff that didn't make me throw up. DD is about to do GCSEs and is predicted all A*s and As apart from Maths but she didn't get strong maths genes from either parent! (were in Wales so different grading)

Your ‘friend’ sounds very unsupportive and judgemental. You could speak to your midwife if you’re worried about nutrition but as pp’s have said your body will prioritise your baby and you will be left with whatever is left. Are you taking a pregnancy multivitamin? And an omega 3 supplement (not cod liver oil) You could do that just to feel you’ve covered the basics in a way. Please do not worry about your baby you won’t have done them any harm. Your friend is talking rubbish.

@LadyKenya I have been trying to swap for oven chips and oven breaded chicken lately. Most of what I eat now past 3 weeks is oven cooked.
In the first weeks I felt grateful to even get out of bed to shower . Cooking was definitely not something I was able to do previously as I had ovarian hyper stimulation from the ivf . My ovaries were so swollen I wasn't able to even move , which it's prolonged if you get pregnant and can last weeks so it's a slow recovery and I still have a little difficulty with things

Thanks all. Your comments have made me feel alot better.
After hearing what she said I came home and googled it and came across a study that claimed a diet high in fat can cause neuro problems with baby including spina bifdia which has made me kinda anxious over my diet now.
I suppose my concern was if I'm not eating healthy then how is my body getting nutrients to give to the baby?
I am taking my pre natal daily

Congratulations on your pregnancy. I had hyperemesis throughout my whole pregnancy and gave birth to a 9lb baby!
as others say baby takes what they need and you just need to eat what you can when you can and not worry.

I had very bad 'morning' sickness with my first. Lived on dry rice Krispies for the first 13 weeks. After that I could manage cake, and occasionally a microwave meal (limited the cooking smells).

He's 22 and at uni now - no issues at all.

If you are feeling really sick it's worth speaking to your GP - there are medications that can help.

There is a huge percentage of the population that eat nothing more than processed shite masquerading as food 100% of the time. At least you're aware, and any fruit/veg you can manage is a bonus.

There are lots of things to beat yourself up over in life, but nausea/vomiting in pregnancy isn't one of them.

@bambi102 I'm on progesterone until 16 weeks and my hungry is insatiable. I'm probably eating twice the amount of crap I would normally eat in one sitting.

@ru53 yes I'm taking a prenatal daily and also taking a pregnancy fish oil

I was the same as you in terms of sickness, nausea and food aversions. Luckily I managed to get some anti sickness tablets which didn't resolve it completely but defo helped get my diet back on track. Are you able to get your GP to prescribe them?
I'm now 36 weeks and can eat most things again, still sick once every couple of weeks or so but otherwise all good x

If you're taking a good prenatal vitamin and mineral supplement to the recommended dose then that's a good first step.

Agree with PP that if you can make some swaps eg kefir or plain yoghurt or glass of milk instead of yahoo, make own pizza and add veg etc

Your 'friend' is a superior bitch to say something so heartless and worrying.

I think baby will be fine. Unfortunately the worst bits of your diet (salt, saturated fat, ultra processed foods, etc) are likely to have a worse impact on your health than on baby's.

But it's okay OP, it is very early days and you say you are already turning a corner. There is a lot of future ahead of both you and the baby! If you carry on making small improvements every day you will both reap the rewards ahead soundly.

When I was pregnant I ate so many sandwiches and cakes that my colleagues joked I was single-handedly keeping in business a local chain of bakeries. I had to laugh cos they had a point! They didn't know about the mountains of pasta, cheese and bacon I ate at home.