They Say: Prenatal Folic Acid Not So Good After All

re: They Say: Prenatal Folic Acid Not So Good After All

Ella — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:55:52 GMT

Baby #1 - no caffine, no shellfish, no lunchmeat

Baby #2 - tea every day, raw oysters at McCormick and Shmicks on a date, and loads of salami.

Guess which baby sleeps better and is generally more laid back? Number 2.

re: They Say: Prenatal Folic Acid Not So Good After All

mehndilotus@hotmail.com — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:03:07 GMT

F@#* it. They can't make up their minds. I'm going to eat whatever the hell I want.

re: They Say: Prenatal Folic Acid Not So Good After All

Melissa Schluer — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:17:50 GMT

Whew. My mom didn't worry about anything. lol. And I'm still kickin'.

re: They Say: Prenatal Folic Acid Not So Good After All

Cat — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:39:40 GMT

I'm with Jen M. We all should but mothers specifically, should really concentrate on nutrition. Eating a healthy diet, proper exercising, RESTING, stress reduction, and just all around treating your body as the vessel it is for childbirth is so important.

We are not gods, though with medical technology we like to pretend we're close, there is always going to be risk. Being pregnant and delivering a child is the hardest thing a human being volunteers it's body to do!

re: They Say: Prenatal Folic Acid Not So Good After All

Jen Mueller — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:35:01 GMT

We could just try eating a healthy diet heavy in vegetables. That should cover it.

re: They Say: Prenatal Folic Acid Not So Good After All

Alice — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:02:08 GMT

Baloney. In China the highest rates of spina bifida and cleft palate in newborns occur in provinces where home grown corn is a daily staple in the diet. The homegrown corn is subject to Corn Mold which prevents the body from absorbing any folic acid. There are also many other studies that support folic acid to prevent birth defects. One study finding the reverse is not good enough to negate years of research in this area.

re: They Say: Prenatal Folic Acid Not So Good After All

gpgirl — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:43:47 GMT

One problem is that you cannot perform a true, double-blind study on pregnant women or kids. (Because it is not ethical and/or no company wants to open themselves up so badly to a lawsuit.) Therefore, all "studies" done on pregnant women are retrospective. (They interview the women to ask if they took folic acid, etc.) These studies are seriously flawed, but they are the best that can be done.

I would probably say don't worry if you took folic acid, but also don't worry if you didn't. (Is that wishy-washy or what?) Folic acid is supposed to reduce neural tube defects by 70%, but the natural occurrence of these defects is 1 in 1000. So it it should be reduced to .3 in 1000. In either case, you are unlikely to have a neural tube defect, even though the reduction is significant.

This is the case with most things people say you should/shouldn't do when pregnant or have kids.

In most cases, kids will turn out just fine, no matter if you take folic acid, give them water in Nalgene bottles, formula feed them, etc.