Omega3 in mineral supplements and pregnancy

[priye]

I am 5.5 months pregnant and a vegetarian. For the purpose of consuming essential fatty acids, especially Omega 3, is it safe to take PrimaCare mineral supplements with my prenatal vitamins. These mineral supplements have 1 mg of folic acid and some iron on top 800 mcg of folic acid and 28g of iron included in the generic OTC prenatals that I use.  Is this overdose of folic acid and iron harmful? As info, I was consuming multi-vitamin supplemnts for general health maintenance before getting pregnant and have never been vitamin B12 deficient. I seriously feel I lack the diet that provide essential fatty acids required for fetus's good brain and retina development. I will sincerely appreciate your advise.

[Hayashi Girl]

HI, I am taking flaxseed oils many months back before I knew I was pregnant, I am now 6 weeks pg. Anyway, doctor says that once pregnant, we have to increase our intake of folic acid as well as iron (to prevent low blood pressure) which I experienced in my 1st 2 pregancies with my 2 daughters. But however, if one increases iron in the normal diet be it supplement or food intake, our body becames so heaty that we will experience constipation. At regular constipation is not good because you need to push harder and sometimes it cause bleeding in the early stage of pregnancy therefore, taking flaxseed oil is really a good help to ease this problem and at the same time provide the Omega 3, 6 & 9 that our body needs at this stage. However, our body needs to convert the flaxseed because its a vega source and can't be absorbed without being converted. I am thinking of switching to Tuna Fish Oil (250DHA vs 50EPA) which has higher DHA than EPA compared to Salmon Oils (180EPA vs 120DHA)and with this, our body need not convert. Anyone taken tuna oils before.

[lmroswell]

I'm not a fish person, but I recently joined WW and am eating more fish.  Can't say it's great, but I feel better.  Never thought of the pills being rancid, because I just got them, but I guess it's possible.  Haven't had the courage to take them again, but I know I will try.  I just hope I don't taste like low tide gone bad...

[greenpixie]

They were probably rancid.  You got to stick to the fats in their natural forms.

[lmroswell]

Oh, but those pills are sooo nasty!  I took them a few weeks ago, and all I did was burp.  I thought I was a fish rotting from the inside out.  Woke up the next morning with a migraine from heck.  Don't know if the pills and the headache were related, but I haven't taken them since.  :(

[vegamama]

I am a Vegetarian and my husband is a hardcore Vegan. I am 29 weeks pregnant and I make sure I get a healthy does of Omega 3's everyday to maintain my baby's physical and mental health.  We supplement our diets with ground flaxseed or flaxseed oil.  100% vegan, from a plant source.  It is very important to get enough Omega 3's during pregnancy, especially in your last trimester.  Recent studies show that babies that received more Omega 3's in utero were more sociable, outgoing, and less moody during childhood than those that receivied less.

[greenpixie]

If you are like me when you first tried to go veg you picked up a cook book and didn't know half of the ingredients!  It takes dedication, time, and a bit of effort to educate yourself about a vegetarian diet.  Once you do it though, it will be well worth it!  Some of my favorite books are: "The Vegetarian Gourmet's Easy Low-Fat Favorites" by Bobbie Hinman, these recipes are EASY and GOOD; "Vegetarian Express" by Nava Atlas; and "Recipes from a Vegetarian Goddess" by Karri Allrich.  These books use more common ingredients and are pretty simple.  I'm sure you can look on amazon if you are interested.

To answer your questionabout what we eat, we eat everything but meat! :)  Seriously, beans, grains, fruits & veggies make up the bulk of my diet.  I still eat eggs and dairy too.  I could never go vegan.  Why would anyone purposely give up ice cream?

[jgirl34]

I don't know exactly why hun. I've seen some other responses so maybe it's not that big of a deal. My midwife told me that when we were talking about vitamins because I can't take regular prenatals I have to take 2 flinstones and there are so many different kinds of flinstones she just gave me a sheet of what everything should have and told me not to go over those amounts.

[BlueBirdSchless]

I've been trying to be a vegitarian because I absolutly hate handling raw meat. But my veg recipes have all been flopps, what do you people eat?

[dandeelyon]

You can actually take more then 1 mg of folic acid.  Women who's babies are at risk for neural tube defects are supposed to take around 4 mg.  Your body will get rid of the folic acid it does not need.  The problem with taking large amounts of folic acid is that it may mask another vitamin b deficiency.

[Ninnity39]

I was on Duet DHA which had an extra vitamin of fish oil.

[cutiemama]

Why can't you take over 1mg of folic acid? I take 1.4 mgs and now I'm worried.

[jgirl34]

You're not supposed to have like over 1mg of folic acid, and not more than like 30mg of Iron. This mainly is a question for your Dr, because this is medical advice, and you would want their opinion to make sure you're not harming the baby!

[jifnif]

forgot to say..i am a vegetarian as well and i also take spirulina and chlorella along w/ an acidophilus...these are controversial as to benefits but i dont eat meat so they are added proteins in my diet.  as always, ask a dr.

[jifnif]

well i am on the primaare one and this is my only prenatal given to my by my obgyn.  i would talk to your dr.  mine has everything a prenatal has + the omega 3s.  this is a prescription.  good luck

[greenpixie]

I have read that a lot of those supplements go rancid very quickly.  This is especially true of flax seed and fish oil supplements.  You can tell by cutting one open and smelling it.  If it is rancid it will have an almost gasoline smell.  I am also vegetarian and I just make sure to eat ground flaxseed (I put it in my cereal and soups, or whatever), walnuts, and eggs.  These are all excellenct sources.  As far as the B vitamins go, you probably should be taking  a supplement.  Nutrional yeast flakes are a pretty good source though.

[ajaball]

When I was pg, my doc gave me Opti-Nate.  They include your reg. prenatal vit. plus a pill with fish oil-free omega-3.  I liked them a lot.