Folic acid worries

[brightandbeautiful89]

Hi everyone,

I am not entirely sure when I conceived - either 16 or 18 days ago I think. I have only been taking folic acid for the last 10 days (didn't think I could conceive and only started taking it on the very small chance that I could have done). I feel very worried that I haven't done the best for my baby and that there will be NTDs. I asked my GP and midwife if I should take more than 400 micrograms but they said no. I remain worried. What can I do?

Also I am taking pregnacare plus but now I've read that pregnacare max has folic acid that is better absorbed - is this true or just marketing?

Folate is what you want, folic acid is the artifical one which some people can't absorb properly

Breathe
You know now and have started taking it.

Remember you can get folic acid in your regular diet too so it's not as if you haven't had any folic acid.

Good sources of folic acid stolen from the NHS page

broccoli
brussels sprouts
leafy green vegetables, such as cabbage, kale, spring greens and spinach
peas
chickpeas and kidney beans
liver (avoid liver if you are pregnant)
breakfast cereals fortified with folic acid

@Fuzzyhippoomg so I have been taking wrong thing??

@Superscientistthank you, I don’t eat any of those 😅

Honestly I took folic acid with all of my pregnancies and they're fine 😂 It's only this time round I learned it's better to take folate (which is found in food too), but either is ok!

Don't think of it as the wrong thing but more than there's potentially a better thing.

I've only ever taken folic acid in pregnancy although eat lots of the above foods! My grandad actually had spina bifida and his mum had grown up in severe poverty reliant on food handouts and had a very poor diet.

Folate/ folic acid is amazing but do remember how much diets in general have improved over the decades. Pregnancy is long and hard and there will be a million things you can potentially beat yourself up about doing/not doing. Just focus on making the best decisions on the day.
As soon as you thought there was a chance of pregnancy you started a well known pregnancy supplement.
You have new information, look into that make decisions.
Don't use previous decisions to beat yourself with

you don't eat ANY broccoli, leafy veg, peas or chickpeas??! That is quite unusual I would've thought and you'd be best off starting there rather than worrying about supplements

@Superscientist thank you for your help - I have just been out to buy the pregnacare max and some spinach and eggs! Do you take your folic acid on an empty stomach? Pregnacare says to take it on a full stomachbut chat gpt says it is better absorbed on an empty stomach?

I did try and take it after food but kept forgetting so started taking it in the evening with other meds. I figured remembering to take it everyday was better than taking inconsistently at the right time.

I would follow whatever is on the packet rather than chatgpt

@Superscientist thank you for your help and advice. There is so much to worry about. I will continue to take on a full stomach and might ask a pharmacist for advice.

I would hope I haven't done too much damage - some women get pregnant unexpectedly and don't find out for a while and so start taking folic acid much later? I am so upset with myself - if I had known I would have done this all properly

Please please please give yourself a break otherwise it will be an extra long 9 months!

I'm on pregnancy 3 in 14 months. The first 2 I found out at 4-5 weeks stopped drinking caffeine and alcohol as soon as i suspected. I couldn't test straight away with one of the pregnancies. Did everything "right" they ended in miscarriage.
Third pregnancy I drank alcohol and caffeine and didn't find out until nearly 8 weeks. Had spent the previous 3 weeks very stressed going through redundancy, then got made redundant. Went through another month of stress frantically trying to find another job. Helped an elderly couple move a 25kg bag of compost before realising I probably should be careful lifting. Guess what.... That pregnancy stuck and I'm now nearly 36 weeks!

@Superscientist ah that's lovely, I am so pleased it is finally working out for you! Not long to go now! Had you been taking folic acid prior to conception? I think the risk is small anyway isn't it?

@FlayOtters the veg I mainly eat is peppers, green beans, carrots and sweetcorn.

I started taking the vitamins before I came of contraception but really neural tube defects are much less common now. My grandad has surgery when he was a newborn and then didn't have any complications as a result of his spina bifida and this was in the early 30s before the NHS!

I was taking the multivitamins more to make sure my body wasn't deficient I'm anything with my daughter I had hyperemesis and really struggled to eat and didn't want to get run down or deficient in anything if that happened again....which it did with both losses but not this pregnancy.

@Superscientist ah that's lovely about your grandad! I am currently reading about MHTFR, seems like that can pose a risk if you have it but a lot of people don't know that they do. Not sure why the GP/pharmacist told me folic acid was ok when clearly it isn't for everyone!