They Say: Prenatal Folic Acid Not So Good After All

JeanneSager — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:57:00 GMT

Am I the only one who is starting to feel like scientists flip a coin every day to decide what's good for our kids? The latest flip flop hits those prenatal ~~horse pills~~ vitamins every mother tries to force down throughout her pregnancy.

Turns out that folic acid we always thought was so necessary for their development? This week, they're saying we probably should hold off about three months. Stay tuned (these things are subject to change).

The study out of Norway has some heft to it. Researchers followed thirty-two thousand kids over a period of three years and found moms who took folic acid during the first three months of gestation were more likely to have a baby with respiratory issues all the way up to the eighteen-month mark. The kids were also twenty-four percent more likely to land in the hospital because of their wheezing.

Over the years, folic acid intake by pregnant moms has been liked to everything from a decrease in the incidence of spina bifida to a possible decrease in cancer in kids. I've known moms who started taking prenatal vites months before they even began TRYING for a baby because they wanted to have a healthy folic acid build-up in the body. And I'd imagine you'd be hard-pressed these days to find a prenatal vitamin that DOESN'T have folic acid built in (thank you March of Dimes).

So what's a mom to do? Would you say the benefits outweigh the risks? Or should we just stay tuned for the other flip flop to drop?

Image: MLive

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Madeline Holler — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:25:00 GMT

Lots of folic acid, not too much Vitamin A, enough Vitamin D, weekly replenishment of Omega-3s, chocolate brownies, calcium and protein. Protein, protein, protein.

Anybody who is eating for two care to name the missing ingredient for good fetal development?

Copper. About 8 to 16 percent of women bearing children aren’t consuming enough copper.

Copper? Like, pennies and phone cords and bowls for whipping egg whites copper?

According to researchers, tiny amounts of copper combine with certain enzymes in the brain helping to form neurotransmitters so that our brain cells can “talk” to each other. Oh. In the lab, they found even moderate copper deprivation made for dumb-ass rat babies.

Most of us are getting enough copper, but if you’re worried, here are some copper-rich foods: beef liver, mushrooms, trail mix (that’s a little underspecified and random, no?), barley, and canned tomato puree (that, on the other hand, is pretty specific. Why pureed? Why canned? Is copper leaching from something?).

Most fascinating to me is that humans actually eat – and need to eat – copper. Does that make me stupid? I guess Mom didn’t horse down enough pennies when she was pregnant.

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