New member!!Is prenatal and multivitamin same???

[MydreamS]

Hi Atomic and all other friends
I am a new member, i was going through all the forms in this site for the last few weeks and finally got in and posting my first thread.
I am a mother of 21 mths old DD,now trying for baby no 2, would like a baby boy.
Plannic ttc Jan 21 onwards.Please give some advise about supplements.I have not started any prenatal, only taking vit D and omega 3.DH is on Proceive men from last month.
Do i have to take any prenatals or just regular multivitamin like centrum? I was not on any supplements last pregnancy. So i am follwing all the advise in this site.

[atomic sagebrush]

A decent multivitamin can take the place of a prenatal vitamin and in many cases are actually BETTER.

Prenatal vitamins come in two types. One of them is the type that has just the barest minimum of nutrients (sometimes even excluding things that pregnant women NEED, like iron and iodine) and are meant to just give a minor supplement to a healthy diet while avoiding nausea that many pregnant women experience when taking vitamins. They also avoid any form of Vitamin A, as some kinds of Vitamin A can be harmful during pregnancy, but very few vitamin producs even INCLUDE that form of Vitamin A any more; and also low doses of Vitamin D, again, because a different form of Vitamin D was harmful in pregnancy, but now we have better forms of Vitamin D that are safe and even desirable at higher levels during pregnancy. I find that generally these very minimal supplements are not worth the expense, do not have things you need in them, and you can just take a multivitamin instead.

The other kind of prenatals seem to take the opposite approach and have massive amounts of nutrients in them (TOO MUCH) plus in addition often have herbs shoved in there too (herbs that are not adequately studied for safety). These are often terribly expensive and cause more harm than good. When you are pregnant and take too many nutrients, that may cause harm to your unborn baby that we don't know about yet, and also the herbs may have harmful effects. Additionally, when you take these products when you are trying to conceive, high doses of B Vitamins and herbs may mess up your cycle, delaying or even stopping ovulation, and high doses of some other nutrients such as DHA and Vitamin C may cause your blood to be too thin and harm your chances of ovulation. These are also not worth the expense (which is considerable) and actually cause much more harm than good. I believe many of them should actually be taken off the market.

Prenatals that have a wide array of nutrients but in safe and sane doses, without herbs, are hard to find. Naturemade prenatal is one of them. As Naturemade is not always available I also recommend Women's One a Day multivitamin in lieu of a prenatal (though unfortunately they have recently increased, but then decreased the amount of Biotin. While they returned to their original formula, you can still find some bottles of One a Day on the market with a higher dose of biotin. I do still recommend the product overall if you can find the ones that only have 100% biotin. But if you have a bottle with higher biotin, it's probably ok too. If you're are worried about too much biotin, or are taking biotin in another form like a nail and hair vitamin, you should probably choose a different brand or find one of the bottles that doesn't have the higher level of biotin) Centrum Women is also good.

Long story short - I recommend Women's One a Day (without the extra biotin if you can find it, though it's probably ok if you can't), NatureMade prenatal, and Centrum Women for TTC a boy.

[MydreamS]

That is grat!!!! Thank you so much Atomic and I really appriciate the effort and time that you took to explain this answer in a such fantastic way.
One a day multi is not available here IRL, I have Centrm women which has 125% Biotin , but i think its ok because i am not on any other forms of biotin for hair or nail.
For DH Centrum men 50 plus and Omega 3, Vit D.
Is probiotic important in blue sway as I have not taken that before, so i dont know what kind of probiotic would suit when ttc.
Thank a mill for this great support

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes 125% is ok. For a while the vitamin companies were putting like 1000 mg in the One a Day. They stopped now but some are still on the chelves.

Yes I would like to see everyone taking the probiotic for blue. The probiotics help you get more nutrients from your food and even make small amounts of B12 themselves. Any kind of probiotic is ok. There isn't a certain kind you need to get.

[MydreamS]

Myself and DH tried very hard to conceive our DD last time. We tried more than 6 months and the month i got pregnant we had BD 3 times × 24 hrs just to get a baby..hard enough lol!.
Anyway I am following BD pattern mentioned in forms and taking multivitamins and probiotic which I didn't do last time.And i am hoping the best.Thank again for your kind help.God bless

[atomic sagebrush]

Great! 3x in the fertile window is good for blue, too. Even though you got a girl the last time I hope you can fit in 3x in the fertile window this time as well. Good luck and blue dust headed your way!

[MydreamS]

Hi Atomic
Can i ask another doubt re my diet. I am trying my best to follow HE diet , but as working full time mother some limitations. I only eat meat 2 - 3 times weekly and veges daily. I am trying to be full always, not let me in hungry as i did before.What is your opinion about it, can you give some advise pleaseee.

[atomic sagebrush]

You can still have a great sway on a completely vegetarian diet.

What other options for protein are you eating?? What kind of fat are you getting??

[MydreamS]

In my diet i am having one Egg , full fat milk daily. Yougurt and Nuts like Almond, Cashews for snacking.

[atomic sagebrush]

Great! Let's keep doing that!!

I would try to use either coconut oil or butter to cook your foods rather than vegetable oils.