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

Sorry I quoted SDTG to say I agree with baby getting all the nutrients first but got distracted and forgot to type it 🙄

Yep I remember that well! I was on it until about 8/9 weeks and the hunger stopped nearly as soon as I stopped the progesterone. Was crazy! I still ate so much crap though and felt so guilty for it too. I just made sure to take all my pregnancy vitamins so I knew baby was at least getting that.

I'm also an IVF pregnancy :) it's sooooo hard to eat well after months of hormone treatment and then pregnancy hormones too!
I also couldn't stomach anything other than beige food for the first 16 weeks ish! I have ended up with anemia but midwife said baby will take everything they need which just leaves very little left for mum and not to worry! Baby has measured perfect at all her scans and they've no concerns!
I'm 26+3 now and I'm managing salads and veg now, however I do still have days at a time of nausea and sickness!
I'm also rubbish at remembering to take my pregnacare!
I think your friend should keep her opinions to herself, causing you anxiety and stress is also not helpful for pregnancy :)

The only 'food' I could tolerate for most of my pregnancy was haribo and digestive biscuits.
I was sick throughout (not hospitalised thankfully) and lost 1 1/2 stone.

Definitely a case of the foetus taking all the nutrients they required.

We joked that DC would come out looking like a jellied sweet...

DC was fine with no repercussions.

I still like haribo...

Once the placenta starts draining of your nutrients, it gets first dibs. Your baby will steal all the goodness it needs and leave you with the leftovers. So for the small amount they need, they'll be getting what you need.

I could only eat chips with Dd for around 5 months. She's nearly 24 and quite healthy.

When I was pregnant I couldn’t eat - at all - for at least 7 weeks. I existed on water and then eventually gravy and much later very, very runny mash potato and gravy. Anything else had me in hospital. My DD is now a tall, healthy and bright 11 year old. You and your baby will be absolutely fine.

Your body has tonnes of stored nutrients that the baby can access. It’s one of the reasons that a lot of women’s teeth suffer during pregnancy- baby is stealing the calcium from them!

think how tiny baby is in first trimester, it doesn’t need as much as you think . if it’s survival was based on your being able to eat a wide range of foods evolution wouldn’t have made morning sickness.

With my first I had awful nausea - I was never sick but everything made me feel like I was going to throw up and it was awful. The only things I could stomach were plain carbs - plain chips, certain crisps, bread occasionally. The midwife told me it's better to have something than nothing, and while the official advice is a nutrient rich diet, there are always times when this just can't happen and to carry on eating whatever I could manage.

DD4 is perfectly healthy - enjoy whatever you can manage

OP your friend is misinformed. I have HG in pregnancies. Currently 37 weeks with #3 and weight a stone less than I did pre baby (I tend to start with a healthy/average BMI and end up malnourished). My Babies…are healthy. They drain me of nutrients for what they need!!

Outside of pregnancy, I love exercise, I cook daily, eat healthily and genuinely enjoy “good” food and a range of veg. Inside of pregnancy, I’m lucky if I can stomach toast. Food tastes like sawdust. I also can’t/don’t stomach multivits (sometimes the kids chewable versions stay down). It’s the least healthy I ever am!! But…I’ve had two healthy kids, who have exceeded milestones, eat a wide range of foods (considering they are toddlers) and are - if anything - on the smaller side of the weight centiles for their height (ie. My crap diet hasn’t made them fat/crave fatty foods!)

Sounds like your pregnancy was hard fought for. Being worried about trying to “do your best” for baby is very very normal
but please tune out stupid advice like your mate!! And try not to google! There isn’t a “right” was to do pregnancy (or parenthood) you’ve got to do what works for you!

Your friend sounds wild 🤣 pregnant with baby number 2 and living on Diet Coke and plain Pringles as I did with the first. Once the sickness lifts and you can feel a little better you can eat lots of lovely healthy food, until then just eat what you can and baby will suck all the goodness from you anyway!

I'm sure your perfect friends perfect DC still eat biscuits off the floor like every other child on the planet

I'm not gonna even read, just let you know that going from a very healthy, nutritious diet to eating plain dirt is perfectly normal in early pregnancy.

Pretty much 90% of us find that the 'healthy' diet goes out the window and it's absolutely fine. Just take folic acid and vitamin D

Trust me, I can normally eat up to 1.5 kg of vegetables in a day and I was down to take away pizza, cereal drowning in sugar and jelly sweets

You are hopefully over the worst of the food aversions by now. For me I was constantly hungry and craving high carb food early on and that petered out after about 20 weeks. It'll probably get better for you too OP.

Your friend is telling you a load of rubbish. Eat what you can face, and hopefully the sickness eases soon and you can improve your diet. Behaviour will be dictated by your parenting and their personality, not your diet when the baby is a speck.

Then you are doing better than I did during my HG pregnancies. The idea that I might cook healthy or cook at all when I was too sick to eat would have been a non starter - I couldn't even keep down water and ended on drip rehydration a few times. Like many HG pregnancies the best I could do was nibble a few dry, crunchy, salty foods in tiny quantities plus small amounts of sweet tinned fruit (which I loathed before and since!).

In fact your "friend" would have been horrified at my diet. I lost weight in each pregnancy and yet produced healthy babies - they take what they need from your body. The first weight I'd recommend losing for you is the several stone of "friend".

This is actually very normal. I also had an aversion to fruit and veg in first trimester which is very odd for me. Finally got ‘back on track’ mid second trimester. You’re taking your multivitamins so that’s good. Your body is going through huge changes and needs lots of protein and carbs to grow your baby. Please don’t put too much pressure on yourself. First trimester is very hard.
Also really not impressed with this ‘friend’.

I had extreme sickness for the entirety of my first pregnancy , the only thing I could eat was jacket potatoes with butter or cheesy wotsits . I ended up with a 10lb+ baby who was a delightful child and is now an assistant headteacher . Stop worrying , baby will be fine .

A better diet will be better for you. But baby will be absolutely fine. Don't be hard on yourself.

Wait until this phase of sickness passes and then see how you feel. You might feel more up to introducing a healthier diet.

Your friend is being a bitch by the way.

You should absolutely 'brace yourself' for the rest of her horrible advice. There will be more.

Can you eat things like spaghetti bolognese?
You could make a homemade sauce with loads of vegetables and puree it.
How about soups? Smoothies?

For me, hiding and pureeing the vegetables and fruit helped.

Even if the food doesn't work, maybe some healthy snacks? Nuts, dried fruit? Can you eat those?

As long as you take your vitamins every day, you and your baby will be fine!

There were healthy babies born in concentration camps. The baby will take what it needs from your body. A poor diet may result in you having nutritional deficiencies etc but the baby will almost certainly be fine. I eat whatever I can keep down during the first trimester, which isn’t much and isn’t health food, and all five of mine are completely okay. I’ve had dental issues and other things postpartum but nothing major.

Just to add to others’ experiences - please don’t panic. I was very sick for the first 3 months of one pregnancy, could only eat tiny amounts of mashed potato or rice, …and she’s absolutely fine. She’s perfectly healthy and is sitting her A levels soon 😁 Take a good pregnancy vitamin if you can keep it down.

What you describe in your first post is definitely 'morning sickness' which can certainly happen all day. I had this for almost the whole 9 months and ate whatever junk I could keep down. My baby was fine.

Your friend is a bitch. Eat what you can x

I was similar, I had hg and it was very hard to keep anything but water down.

I drank a lot, took multivitamins right before I went to sleep when I had the best chance of keeping them down. I could also only stomach beige carbs in the first few weeks and then I tried to add in smoothies etc .

Ds is super healthy. Try not to stress as easy as it is to say that!