Fish and pregnancy

Squidgy

I hate fish and did not eat any whilst pregnant with both my children and they are both bright, happy children. They both like fish themselves and I do prepare it for them and daddy. We will probably give them that supplement thing as well when they go off to school. I think there is a lot of pressure on first timers. Go with your instincts x

andycarmi

Ted_Hutchinson wrote:

Lentils
Garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
Tofu

If you check the omega 3 content of the above links you will see how you may easily have put your daughter brain development in jeopardy by limiting the amounts of omega 3 available.

That nice!
I haven't thanks.

black-saturn

You should eat what you fancy when pregnant as long as your careful about shellfish and pate and anything you think might be off it's OK. It's your baby's way of telling you that's what it needs for nutricion.

Mrs_pbradley936

I wonder about what the experts tell us at times. My only concern about vegetarians is in child rearing. There was a lot of publicity a couple of years ago about a baby that “failed to thrive” on a diet of fruit and cereal (I do not think s/he had milk with the cereal). It is all the more tragic to think that people believe that a vegetarian diet is better for health. I don’t think you can afford to be an ignorant vegetarian where children are concerned.

The details about the baby are here:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1542293.stm

andycarmi

pbradley936 wrote:

I wonder about what the experts tell us at times. My only concern about vegetarians is in child rearing. There was a lot of publicity a couple of years ago about a baby that “failed to thrive” on a diet of fruit and cereal (I do not think s/he had milk with the cereal). It is all the more tragic to think that people believe that a vegetarian diet is better for health. I don’t think you can afford to be an ignorant vegetarian where children are concerned.

The details about the baby are here:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1542293.stm

Our child will eat meat like her Dad.

Ted_Hutchinson

andycarmi wrote:

I haven't thanks.

Perhaps you could help other vegetarians by detailing the sources of DHA and amounts of DHA in the foods eaten by this mother during the pregnancy.

you will see from this link Mums-to-be unaware of omega-3 need
that many mums to be are unaware of the need for DHA and many vegetarians appear unaware of the difficulties associated with metabolising it from ALA.

Other veggie readers may be interested in Cerebrum Capsules - (Omega 3) Vegetarian Algal DHA - Gelatin Free120 capsules £6.95 Free UK Delivery!*

ailuro2

Sainsbury's sell omega3 vitamin supplements for veggies, I just noticed them today, since the ordinary fish oil capsules leave me tasting oily fish flavour after a couple of hours.Yuk.

markymark2020

you can get Omega 3's from seeds, as mentioned linseeds but also pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, often it is easier to add these to salads or breakfast cereal/porridge. Our bodies metabolise Omega 3's from oily fish faster but will still metabolise Omega 3's from seeds but you need more seeds than you would the equivalent amount of fish.

good luck.

Ted_Hutchinson

markymark2020 wrote:

you can get Omega 3's from seeds, as mentioned linseeds but also pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, often it is easier to add these to salads or breakfast cereal/porridge. Our bodies metabolise Omega 3's from oily fish faster but will still metabolise Omega 3's from seeds but you need more seeds than you would the equivalent amount of fish.

Maternal ALA+LA supplementation did not promote neonatal DHA+AA status.

Essential fatty acids cannot be synthesized in the body but they are required for maintenance of optimal health. There are two classes of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)--omega-6 and omega-3. The parent omega-6 fatty acid, linoleic acid (LA) is desaturated in the body to form arachidonic acid while parent omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is desaturated by microsomal enzyme system through a series of metabolic steps to form eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and decosahexaenoic acid (DHA). But there is a limited metabolic capability during early life to metabolize PUFAs to more active long-chain fatty acids. There is a critical role of EFAs and their metabolic products for maintenance of structural and functional integrity of central nervous system and retina. Most of the brain growth is completed by 5-6 years of age. At birth brain weight is 70% of an adult, 15% brain growth occurs during infancy and remaining brain growth is completed during preschool years. DHA is the predominant structural fatty acid in the central nervous system and retina and its availability is crucial for brain development. It is recommended that the pregnant and nursing woman should take at least 2.6 g of omega-3 fatty acids and 100-300 mg of DHA daily to look after the needs of her fetus and suckling infant. The follow-up studies have shown that infants of mothers supplemented with EFAs and DHA had higher mental processing scores, psychomotor development, eye-hand coordination and stereo acuity at 4 years of age. Intake of EFAs and DHA during preschool years may also have a beneficial role in the prevention of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and enhancing learning capability and academic performance.

Supplementing lactating women with flaxseed oil does not increase docosahexaenoic acid in their milk.

This study examined whether dietary SDA can increase tissue EPA and DHA concentrations in healthy human volunteers and compared its efficacy with that of dietary ALA and EPA. None of the dietary test fatty acids at either dose resulted in a numerical increase in DHA concentrations in the phospholipids of either plasma or erythrocytes

Conversion of eicosapentaenoic acid into docosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid hardly changed in the 3 groups and was <0.1% of dietary ALA.

A large proportion of dietary linolenic acid (ALA) is oxidized, and because of limited interconversion of n–3 fatty acids in humans, ALA supplementation does not result in appreciable accumulation of long-chain n–3 fatty acids in plasma. Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) but not DHA concentrations in plasma increase in response to dietary EPA.

andycarmi

Ted_Hutchinson wrote:

Perhaps you could help other vegetarians by detailing the sources of DHA and amounts of DHA in the foods eaten by this mother during the pregnancy.
QUOTE]

I just posted what I ate instead of meat. I consulted by GP/MIDEWIFE.