I've heard that not all prenatals are made equal. I'm curious, what should one look for in a prenatal vitamin (I know folate is a must, but is there anything else I should look for)? Besides prenatals, are there anything else I should be taken prior to TTC?
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Thank you! I was just going to write a post asking this. I'm really wondering what other people take. I'm currently on 2 pills and one is the size of a house. I've been looking for some pills that are easier to take (read: smaller) or just a one-a-day, if possible.
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It seems like a lot of prenatals lack sufficient amounts of iron. And I believe that you aren't supposed to take iron and calcium at the same time as they cancel each other out. I take the walgreens prenatals and they are fine for me. They aren't excessively huge and have the recommended amount of iron. The contain very little calcium, however, if you get your 3-4 servings of milk/yogurt/etc daily, you should be fine.
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i take CitraNatal90DHA, which is a prescription prenatal, so i wouldn't recommend that until you get pregnant (it's definitely more expensive than over the counter - cost me $50/mo).
per 3 of my obgyns, you should take about 1mg of folic acid, but all over the counter prenatals only come in 400 - 800mcg. i think only prescriptions come in 1mg. (you could buy a separate folic acid supplement).
they also recommend DHA, which is found in fish and algae. i like the CitraNatal DHA because it's made of algae (plant based) rather than fish based, which they say could be bad because of mercury or something like that.
for a cheaper, over the counter prenatal, i like prenatal one by rainbow light or one a day with dha.
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i take a prescription prenatal called Prefera OB, but before that i took rainbow lite which is supposed to be pretty good:
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I take New Chapter Organics Perfect Prenatal (3x/day) with Nordic Naturals DHA supplement (strawberry flavor 2x/day). Kind of a pain to take so many pills and I spent a lot of time during the first trimester staring at them bc I just didn't want to take such big pills, so many times. But they were the only ones that didn't upset my stomach.
I was taking One a Days for a while and was so nauseous, I thought I was pregnant when I wasn't. The good thing about Perfect Prenatals is you can take them all at once, if you want.
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Fortunately, the one-a-days are working well for me -- taking a vegetarian one from WF (we've been moving more toward a flexitarian diet) -- because I also take a calcium supplement and a flax seed oil pill daily. All three have recently become annoying to swallow every morning -- I feel like I'm going to gag getting them down, and I've *never* had issues taking pills or vitamins -- and I couldn't imagine taking more than my current daily dosage!
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I take the Rainbow Light ones that Mrs. Bee mentioned above. I get them at Whole Foods but you can get them online as well. I get the one-a-days. They have the same time but I think you have to take three pills at three different times during the day. Although that might help absorption, I would most likely forget to take at LEAST one of them a day, if not two.
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I took a prescription prenatal called CitraNatal Assure. It's expensive though... I tried out the generic but it was making me nauseous so I went back to CitraNatal and it didn't make me feel a thing. I liked that it had an omega-3 pill along with it.
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I am taking the generic Target brand prenatal (which I find smaller and easier to swallow than others I have tried). Once I found out I was pregnant, I started taking DHA and a calcium supplement.
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I just bought some from Costco today, not even knowing there was a difference between the different ones out there! I guess I just assumed they would all be the same (or at least, the ones from Costco would be good). Mine are NatureMade Prental Multi +DHA, 1x/day softgel.
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@Habesbabe I take the same one as you. Been doing fine with it. Previously tried the Rainbow Light ones and had so much trouble swallowing that I switched to the NatureMade Prenatal Multi. I like that it has the DHA...no having to take extra pills.
Although I have to check with ob about needing 1 mg folic acid. -
I also take the Rainbow Light Just Once Prenatal One Multivitamin. I had done a bunch of research before we thought about trying, and found this one to be most appealing. The things that caught my eye were that it had a lot of the recommended percentages for many of the supplements plus it was natural (all the vitamins/minerals were derived from plant sources, not chemically made). They are a little big but never made me sick, so it's a plus. It doesn't have a lot of calcium, but I drink two glasses of milk (morning and night) as well as yogurt and/or cheese to get my calcium.
I also take the Enfamil Expecta DHA supplement daily.
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I was totally shocked when my midwife told me that, here in the UK, they don't recommend any prenatals at all- just folic acid. She said they only tell the conservative Jewish and Muslim women who have so much skin covered take them (I assume for the vitamin D). She said a balanced diet was all that I really needed.
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I took the Trader Joe's Prenatals, which are basically the Rainbow Light ones (may be a bit cheaper!). I loved them. Also get plenty of sunshine - you can try exposing your legs (with no sunscreen!) if you're worried about skin cancer risk. Legs usually get less sun exposure, and it's accumulated sun exposure that increases skin cancer risk.
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I'm ntnt, and I take Women's One-A-Day (Active Metabolism), which the ob/gyn told me was a very good thing to take, even though it's not a "prenatal" supplement. It has all the folate (folic acid?) I should be getting. I'm sure once I become pregnant and meet with my doctor, I'll ask what she recommends to do from there.
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Thank you all for the advice! I currently have Nature's Bounty Your Life Multi Prenatals. After hearing all of your thoughts though, maybe I'll look into the Rainbow Light ones. I don't recall seeing them at my grocery story though, haha.
@Tejbee - Agreed! Once I"m actually pregnant, I'll see if my doctor has any suggestions. I'm guessing it's not a huge deal which ones I take now, as long as they have the folate.
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My RE's formal recommendations are at least 800 mcg of folic acid, RDA iron to avoid anemia, and also 1000 IU vitamin D in the summer and 2000 IU in the winter. There's only a little vit D in my prenatal, so I supplement with another tablet.
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