What is YOUR opinion on Calcium?

[soontobesix]

I know opinions are all over the board on calcium consumption and the boy diet. Some of us are completely avoiding it and some are doing high-fat calcium. I'm curious about a few things... First, how are you are approaching calcium in your boy friendly diet? And how did you come to the conclusion? Second, what was your calcium consumption like prior to your other pregnancies?

I have read the opinions on both sides of the calcium debate... just based on my own personal background, I decided to go the high everything diet, but dramatically lower calcium intake (I still take some calcium in a prenatal and whatever may be in vegetables, beans and a few other random foods, but I avoid dairy altogether). My calcium intake prior to all three of my girls was through the roof... I'm talking 2-3x the RDA for calcium. Granted it was all lowfat dairy for the most part (Atomic recommends high fat dairy I believe) but still it was a LOT of calcium. For me, I just feel like I need to change things up to get my boy and drastically lower calcium is what I've decided upon.

Just curious how you all came to your swaying conclusions :)

[Cinss]

When i concieved my daughter i was drinking soy milk and eating a LOT of cheese. For my blue sway i am giving up cheese and swapping soy milk for high fat milk, only on cereal and in coffee.

[ELP]

I've conceived boys and girls with the same calcium intake. Milk on cereal, cheese usually daily. Personally I definately thnk its about what goes along with it. Now I added fruits, nuts and veg's I 'may' have a boy on board. When it was just literally sweet cereal, cheese sandwiches, pasta and rice it was girls. I think you definately! need the full package for a boy even if its just from other sources. if your body thinks its lacking in anything, then I think it will think its safer to go pink:)

[rainbowflower]

I'm taking 800mg as a supp (or 800mcg - whichever is the more standard dosage, I can't remember and don't have the packet to hand), but I'm BF and not eating that much dairy other than a little bit of cheese each day. I'm also BF so feel like I need it.

I think there must be something in it on it's own in supp form (i.e. not in dairy-form), I think there are a fair number of animal studies that support it and haven't seen any in humans to disprove it so will trust it until I see evidence otherwise.

[TTC5]

With my girls I was consuming DIET/LOW FAT/SKIM everything.

I think full fat dairy is important for a boy sway :)

[zanacal]

When I conceived my boys I was eating plenty of calcium (milk and cheese each day and lots of yogurts) as well as plenty of other foods - I pretty much ate lots of everything! I didn't take a calcium supplement for my girl sway but I ate cheese and yogurt and had milk in my coffee each day - I just made sure it fit the low everything daily allowances.

[Flava]

I guess I do almost the same thing. I try to do the HE diet so I take prenatals and if I eat dairy then it's high fat. Not much but like some butter or cheese or sour cream little milk on the cereal. No joghurt because I eat so much of that with my girls.(not the last one she was zero dairy with a boy sway...so I see that did not helped me get a boy)
So I guess Im like in the middle with calcium now. Hope it works.

[queen-of-harts]

I have always been a high fat dairy lover,i only drink skim milk when i drink milk but i could eat a ton of cheese and ice cream and also yogurt.I think with the fat,nutrients,calories it seriously sways blue,i did lots of kefir/strawberry/equal shakes while ttc my youngest and i think the fat and protein won out over any acidifiying benefits that drink may of had.I also took the max calcium pills every day and so did dh,i think its totally good for a boy and i will never have much diary at all when i sway pink.

[gizmo77]

im like you soon, had over the top dairy with myy 2 girls. now i just take it in my prenatal, and have cocounut milk with ccereal. no cheese, no yogurt, no icecream. i want to do opposite of what i ate with my girls. if i had NO calicum with my girls id probably ADD calcium to try for a boy. in reading everyones responses ever on calcium, my conclusion is that everyone sbody understands calcium different. maybe someone who suddenly started calcium would get a girl, verse someone who has ALWAYs had calcium it wouldnt make a difference.
i always had milk as a kid but stopped due to lactose intolerance (stopped for about 10 yrs) then started again when they came out with lactaid and lactose free products, and then over did it bc i thought id get osteoporosis from all those yrs of not drinking milk.
so when i re started milk it was alwaus skim or 2%. except ice cream and cheese was always full fat. no such thing as fat free ice cream in myhouse ;-)

[TTC5]

See it's hard for me to say because with my girls I was not yet diagnosed as being dairy intolerant but due to dieting I had low fat diet yoghurt every day and a splash of no fat milk each day too..

I think it was more the fact I ate little nutrition and the skim diary wouldn't have much substance to it either.

IF I could have dairy this time around I would definately have full fat dairy, cheese, yoghurt and milk!

[soontobesix]

I think it's interesting that we're all over the board. I just found an interesting research study involving calcium and the results were quite astonishing. Maybe you've all seen this one before but I hadn't.

http://www.medindia.net/news/Women-Consuming-Veggie-Diet-More-Likely-to-Produce-Baby-Girls-78920-1.htm

My gut tells me that the people that have luck with high fat dairy that it has more to do with the high fat than the calcium. Part of me has been thinking about this because we feed our kiddos lots of organic food (DD2 actually reacts to the added hormones in milk, eggs, meat, etc). Most of the hormones that are given to livestock to make them produce more food is stored in their fat... so if you're eating a high meat, high fat diet then you are in turn getting way more hormones from your diet than the person that eats a low fat diet or organic diet. Hmmmm... I wonder if this plays in a role in some of the extreme cases (I'm talking about people with three or more of the same sex). I think I might start a thread to find out if anyone eats all organic and what the gender of their kiddos is.

[Zivic-Bubac]

Before swaying: Calcium intake through the roof, cheese daily, milk, yoghurt ( skimmed) so I'm VERY cautious about it.

Swaying: 2dl full fat yoghurt with my cereals but not every day
no milk
cheese only on pizza

[atomic sagebrush]

I ate TONS AND TONS of dairy with all four of my boys.

Every failed sway I have ever seen, the people were taking massive doses of cal and mag (not saying that's what caused their failed sway, but that cal-mag supps are in no way a magic pink bullet because that is one thing that's easy for everyone to do so everyone does it.

[atomic sagebrush]

I think it's interesting that we're all over the board. I just found an interesting research study involving calcium and the results were quite astonishing. Maybe you've all seen this one before but I hadn't.

http://www.medindia.net/news/Women-Consuming-Veggie-Diet-More-Likely-to-Produce-Baby-Girls-78920-1.htm

My gut tells me that the people that have luck with high fat dairy that it has more to do with the high fat than the calcium. Part of me has been thinking about this because we feed our kiddos lots of organic food (DD2 actually reacts to the added hormones in milk, eggs, meat, etc). Most of the hormones that are given to livestock to make them produce more food is stored in their fat... so if you're eating a high meat, high fat diet then you are in turn getting way more hormones from your diet than the person that eats a low fat diet or organic diet. Hmmmm... I wonder if this plays in a role in some of the extreme cases (I'm talking about people with three or more of the same sex). I think I might start a thread to find out if anyone eats all organic and what the gender of their kiddos is.

Yes, we actually have the full text of that study available for anyone who wants it.

MPO is that it's the vegetarian nature of the diet (or in the case of the FGD and IGD, the restrictive natures of the diets) that are doing the swaying and the calcium is totally coincidental.

[Bumblebee]

I'm consuming calcium but I've incorporated it as part my high nutrition diet sway, if anything I'm eating more calcium now than I was before because I hardly drank any milk or ate cheese except for on pizza or milk in my tea.