I am incapable of making a decision on calcium / magnesium PLEASE help me.

[Lassie1982]

I am torn on wether to continue with Calcium / Magnesium.

I've had two unsuccessful attempts, am skipping April, so will be attempting in May, im pretty confident with most aspect of my sway, except Calcium / Magnesium.

Please help me! I think i saw some stats somewhere on success rates and it was pretty bad?
Is there anything conclusive either way??

How did you decided wether or not to go for it?

Please help girls, I'm in need on expertise, im fence sitting and simply cannot make up my mind.

Other aspects of my sway are:
- LE diet
- Vegetarian
- Cranberry
- LR (DH)
- Peppermint Tea (shedloads)
- Vitex
- Folate
- Zrytec
- Rephresh
- Sylk

[Ribbons]

I, too, had a VERY hard time giving up the CalMag but finally did it about a week ago, 5 weeks before my attempt.

I was a disciple of the French Diet (own the book and I've read it backwards and forwards, analyzed the example diet in the book, initially based months of meal plans on it, etc) and had a really hard time even after reading all of AS' essays on the subject and the studies she bases her conclusions on.

I was only convinced after doing my own analysis on all of the sways on this site, and at least 100 from IG (I do not recommend you do this however LOL) Success rates lean ever so slightly in no CalMag direction on this site; if you include IG stats they lean ever so slightly toward CalMag, but I find a lot of that data suspect. My thinking is - if there is just an "ever-so-slight" lean in either direction, then really, CalMag doesn't sway much, if at all. It's kind of silly for a factor that most of the swaying world thinks is the be-all-end-all!

So, to make myself feel better about it, I decided to take it just long enough to "stick in my system" (since the French Diet says it takes 2.5 months for your minerals to "reset", which is also kind of a suspect suggestion since our body regulates minerals in our blood very tightly) - but dropped it 5 weeks before (LE-ish diet length) so I would get the best of both worlds LOL - probably crazy, but it helped me not to worry about it! I get most of my protein/fat from dairy, so my diet is somewhat high in calcium but only gets to about 1000-1200mg a day (RDA amount) - I feel good about that.

Something else that helped me: The CalMag factor comes from the French Diet, and in the book, Papa states that the research he did found that women that had a ratio of 2:1 calcium-magnesium/potassium-sodium had more girls. Even at 1000-1200mg of calcium (which my diet alone provides), my vegetarian low sodium (high veggie intake!) diet falls easily into this ratio.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do... your sway looks great!

[jennibel]

I still can't decide either, so am of no use

[Mochagirl]

I know I'm only one person, but I didn't take any cal/mag and I also hardly ate any dairy for my successful sway.

[Mommasita]

I am having a hard time deciding too! When I conceived DS I had very low cal/mag in my diet. When I conceived DD I was taking a cal/mag supplement and drinking loads of milk (always skim). But there were many other factors at play as well (with DS I used Preseed and EPO, and my diet was high in sodium. With DD I cut back on sodium and took cranberry).

All of this contradictory info is so confusing! I think that what I am going to do is stick with the cal/mag supplement, and cut back on dairy in my diet.

[atomic sagebrush]

Ds 1,2 always ate tons of dairy (I love milk!! I had whole meals with DS 2 that consisted of buttered toast and huge glasses of milk.)

DS 3 was lactose intolerant by then but ate MEGAtons of dairy (I can still eat yogurt, cheese, and small amounts of milk) and also took Vit. D and a supplement that had both cal and mag (was not swaying)

DS 4 ate tons of dairy and took tons of cal, mag, and Vit. D. Right after he was born I was diagnosed with low potassium levels (I have had a heart arrhythmia for years which has gotten way better since I started potassium supplementation. My sister also was diagnosed with low potassium and she also has a boy. Also ate low sodium.

My DH also drank TONS of milk. We drank a gallon of milk a day between the two of us and two little boys (one of whom is lactose intolerant and doesn't drink milk.)

DD1 ate no dairy and did not take cal-mag supps. Tons of sodium, taking potassium supplements 3-5 times a week. DH became lactose intolerant between conceiving DS 4 and DD and was also eating very little calcium, the least he's ever drunk. He also was taking in tons of caff. which supposedly blocks calcium. I was also taking in more caffiene than normal and by far the most I've ever conceived at.

My mom is lactose intolerant and never ate much dairy - 2 g and a boy

My stepmom - I've never seen her drink milk or eat much dairy - 1 g

My MIL does not like milk and eats a horrifying amount of sodium - 1 b 1 g

All three of the above women drink TONS of caffeine.

Every failed pink swayer from IG was taking tons of calcium. Every failed blue swayer from IG was avoiding cal-mag like the plague and supplementing with unhealthy amounts of sodium and also potassium.

[Lassie1982]

Thanks All

AS thanks for that summary, that was great as a snapshot...

Ribbons - i wasn't aware of that ratio you mentioned. Maybe that the key? My daily diet does have calcium in it, and i'm being very careful to be low on the potassium and sodium, so maybe thats my solution there..Thanks so much for mentioning that!

Im leaning towards dropping the supps now .....

arghhhhhh decisions.

You know by the time our kids have kids, swaying will be 100% down packed, you will be able to pick up the pills from the chemist and they will have a high rate of effectiveness, none of this guessing and trial and error like we are doing!

[KnockYourBallsOff]

I took a TON of supps, including calcium when conceiving the boys. My moms, who had GBG, NEVER took supps and hated ALL dairy. She lived the LE lifestyle to a T.

I really think that the girl moms who love dairy maybe consume it, but sitll follow an overall LE lifestyle. I did not use either for my sway. We don't know what we're having yet. I was torn too. I hope it was the right decision for me. Good luck!

[ELP]

Lassie, i think if you are doing LE then make it a true LE including low calc/mag and low Vit D aswell! incase your in two minds about that one aswell