Prenatal Nutrition

Prenatal nutrition is of vital importance for a healthy mother and baby so here's the list of nutrients I rushed to purchase from amazon as soon as we received news of our baby (week 6 onwards)

1. Nature made prenatal vitamins and minerals. 

2. Twin labs folic acid 800mcg

3. Schiff vitamins calcium with magnesium and vitamin D

4. Now foods omega 3 (DHA)

5. Now foods lecithin

 


The prenatal vitamins go easy on vitamin A which would have consequences in high doses which is usually found in normal adult multi vitamins.

Folic acid encourages normal fetal development and prevents neural tube defects. However, as it is covered in the prenatal vitamin, we subsequently lose this in the daily regime.

Calcium and magnesium are complementary with vitamin D helping better absorption of calcium which is in higher need during pregnancy.

Dha helps in maintaining healthy vision and mental development. The now foods omega 3 is molecular distilled to remove heavy metal contamination which could be common in normal fish oil supplements. Contaminants such as mercury accumulates in marine fishes and have detrimental effects on brain development.

Lecithin is a natural emulsifier commonly used in food products such as bakery foods. It is also the precursor to choline which encourages normal mental development. It comes in capsule and granule forms but I would recommend the granule form mixed with milk or cereals to cut down on the number of huge daily capsules.

In addition to this we add a daily mug of prenatal formula milk, Enfa-mama made by Mead Johnson. It contains the highest stated amounts of dha and choline among other brands.

We mixed the prenatal milk powder with regular low fat milk and add the lecithin granules in for good measure.

Breakfast usually consists of healthy mix of the following grains which again I purchased from amazon. Didn't really did a cost comparison so might not have any cost savings here - simply because it is so easy to find these exotic grains online.

Bob's red mill natural grains
1. Chia seeds
2. Hemp seeds
3. Raw sunflower seeds
4. Flaxseed
5. Unsulfured raisins

 

And the common instant oats from our regular supermarket.

And the huge bags of healthy nuts of almonds and walnuts given by our parents.

It makes for a bland boring breakfast. So to placate J's complaining I mix her favorite cereal: Post's banana nut crunch to provide the sweetness and flavor.

And to top it off, we include a serving of white boiled eggs every day with the occasional serving of Japanese dried seaweed for the iodine.