Caring For Your Baby

It is ideal to take prenatal vitamins if you are trying to conceive a baby. This prepares your body in facing challenging task during pregnancy.  It is believed that taking prenatal prior to your pregnancy might actually reduced miscarriages and maternal death rates, low birth rates, birth defects and other preventable infant problems.

* Why should I take prenatals?

Prenatal vitamins contain folic acid or folate. To protect your baby, it is important to take folic acid – one of the most important nutrients that a new mother needs – in the first 4 weeks of fetal development. With extra folic acid, the baby will have lower chances of being born with spina bifida or incomplete spinal column.

* I have no plans of getting pregnant, do I still need to take prenatals?

Yes. In fact, it is important that you make it a habit, especially if you come to the certain age where you could bear a child even you are not planning to become pregnant. Because most of the time, you’ll just know that you’re pregnant after you missed your period.

* Where else I could get folic acid aside from vitamins?

Food is also a good source of folic acid. It can be found in vegetables as well as in dark green and orange fruits. It is also added to many breads and pastas. However, eating the same amount of folic acid in food is good but a daily supplement of folic acid is better. It offers more protection from spina bifida.

* How much folic acid should I take?

While you are pregnant, it is recommended that you take at least 600mcg of folic acid a day.  You have to take 4000mcg or 4mg of folic acid daily if you have had a baby with a neural tube effect and must start at least a month before you get pregnant.

* What are the cons in taking prenatals?

You’ll feel sick and queasy if you take a prenatal on an empty stomach due to morning sickness and food aversions that you can’t eat much food. This is also the reason why women can’t take their prenatals during their first trimester.

Some prenatals could cause you an upset stomach due to its high iron level. Also, it could lead you to constipation. How to prevent constipation during pregnancy?

* I’m having trouble taking my prenatals, should I stop taking it?

Not taking anything is the worst thing that you can do, especially during the early stage of your pregnancy. If you’re having troubles in taking your prenatal, you talk to your doctor and ask if he can give you a prenatal with less iron or if he can give you a folic acid supplement too.

Prenatal is recommended for women before and during pregnancy. For some people, taking it before pregnancy is not always possible but it is essential to take them while you are pregnant.

This is one of the most common complications of a pregnant woman. It is when you are having high blood sugar levels during pregnancy. The cause of this is unknown. Overweight women are more prone to this kind of illness, however, this is not yet proven.

The only cure for gestational diabetes is to deliver the baby. After giving birth, your blood sugar level will be normal once again. To treat gestational diabetes is you have to take a shot of insulin each day. There’s an alternative if you don’t want to give yourself a shot of insulin, you can try to change your diet.

When it comes to dietary changes, you can consult a nutritionist for your meal plan design. They will work with you in designing your eating plan with the right amount of carbohydrates. It is important that you spread your carbs throughout the day. Eat 3 small meals and 2 to 4 snacks. Breakfast meal can rise your blood sugar quickly so eat less carbs like eating a protein filled breakfast with eggs or meat. And quit eating sweets if you have gestational diabetes.

However, going on a low carb diet or skipping meal is not advisable. This will cause your blood levels to fall to low levels. When this happen, you’ll become exhausted and legatheric. To make sure that you are at a safe level, test your blood sugar levels regularly.

You have to keep your gestational diabetes under control, otherwise, you will be developing type 2 diabetes’s later in life and it will affect the health of your baby. If you were diagnosed with gestational diabetes your baby tend to be larger and this will increase your chance of a c-section and could cause more delivery complications.

Don’t worry too much. Gestational diabetes is common nowadays. Just take the right diet and maintain your blood sugar at the safe level and things will be perfect.

Do you spend too much time sitting on your toilet and nothing wants to go out? Maybe your one of the pregnant women who suffer from constipation. Almost half of the women are experiencing constipation during pregnancy and it is because of progesterone that your body creates.

Progesterone relaxes the muscle of the bowels that causes your digestive tracks to work much slower (this make your body absorbs the nutrients from your food for your baby) that makes a pregnant woman constipated. However, it must be kept under control, otherwise, it can lead to hemorrhoids.

So how will you going to avoid constipation? Here’s how:

1. Include plenty of fiber in your diet. Foods like whole grain cereal and oatmeal are high in fiber. Fresh fruits like melons, plums, figs, raisins, apricots and prunes are all rich in fiber. Eat at least 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day but too much of it can lead to diarrhea which can lead to dehydration that will endanger the baby inside you. If your stools are large, soft and you aren’t straining to pass them, it means that you have already enough fiber to your body.

2. Eat yogurt as often as you can. This will help to stimulate the intestinal bacteria to break down food better.

3. Avoid too much iron.

4. Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water a day. Drinking fluids will help to keep the digestive products moving through your system. It is very important to keep up your fluids because your body needs the water to soak up the fiber or else you’ll constipate more.

5. Avoid eating white breads, cereals like corn flakes, white rice and bananas.

But if none of these works, go to see your doctor so he could prescribe you the right medicine that will help you to regulate.

Knowing that eating a well balanced meal is very important for pregnant woman because it provides vitamins, nutrients and minerals for baby to grow healthy inside and outside the womb. But not all foods are good for you, there are some that needs to be avoided like caffeine, cigarettes, alcohol. These might be harmful for the delicate condition of the mother and the growing baby.

So what are the other foods that needs to be avoided?

First, raw meat like rare steaks or rare burgers is a no-no. This may cause toxoplasmosis and salmonella. Always prefer well done cook meat. To avoid the risk of listeria do not eat cold deli meat and cheeses like brie, feta, and Gorgonzola. Because cheeses like those are made with unpasteurized milk and this contains listeria. Listeria is a bacteria that can cause an infection or blood poisoning to your baby. You can still eat deli meats as long as they were reheated until it is steaming and select any soft cheeses that are made with pasteurized milk.

You can also eat fish that contains essential nutrients except fishes that contains a high level of mercury like shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish, raw shellfish and fish used in sushi. Mercury can cause developmental

delays and brain damage. You can eat canned, chunk light tuna because this contains a lower amount of mercury but in moderation.

Other foods like raw eggs and anything with raw eggs in it should be avoided too due to the risk of salmonella. Don’t go for raw cookie dough, brownie mix. Homemade sauces like hollandaise, Caesar dressing and blue cheese dressing are also a no no. Most restaurants uses pasteurized eggs instead of raw eggs in their recipes but you should still be more cautious and try to double check. It will be wise also to ask the waiter for any sauces or dressings if they contain raw eggs.

So be careful to what you’re going to eat. These foods may harm you and your baby without knowing it. These could cause serious problem like miscarriages and other birth defects.

Knowing that there’s a human life growing inside you, feeling them moving as they  get bigger is truly a joy for each and every expectant mothers. The whole nine months will be pretty exciting for you and the baby.

In order the baby inside of you to grow healthy, it is very important for you to eat more nutritious food. You first three months will be difficult for you. Dealing with food aversions and morning sickness will give you a hard time to balanced out your meals.

Eating balanced nutritious meals will assure your baby’s foundation. Baby needs calcium and vitamins for his organ formation, brain and bone development and . Eating junk foods like potato chips will not help the baby to achieve them.

With the right eating habit during pregnancy will help the babies to eat well after they were born. Here’s how it works, some portion of the food you ate will cross the placenta and the taste will be in your baby’s amniotic fluid. When the baby swallow the fluid, they were able to taste it because their taste buds are already developed.

Babies who are exposed to a wide variety of vegetables and fruit while in the womb will help them to appreciate the fruits and vegetables more.

Drinking milk throughout your pregnancy will benefit your baby’s bone and teeth development. It gives calcium that is essential to his bones and teeth. Drink at least one-eight ounce glass of fat free milk a day. This will also help the babies to adjust from drinking breast milk to formula or regular milk.

Of  course, you can still indulge to sweets but keep it in moderation. Both you and your baby might suffer in the end if you not take the proper diet. Being pregnant does not mean that you can eat whatever you want for the whole nine months.

When it comes to food, planning ahead could help you to make the smart choice. It could provide you the learning you need on how to undo your bad habits. Being pregnant would be the great time to change any bad habits that you have and to form good habits, planning ahead is the best way for you. This is what you can do:

1. Planning your meals is an excellent idea. Plan for meals that can be easily prepared and attained. Try not to plan for meals that will consume lots of your time because this will stress you out and it is not good for a pregnant woman to get stress. You can start by looking for easy and quick recipes. Do not attempt to try complicated recipes because this will avoid some time pressure when you got home from work.

2. Plan your meals for the whole week. This will help you to be more organized and save time. Besides, being pregnant tends to be more forgetful due to hormonal changes. It is very tiring when you always have to think on what you should prepare for lunch and dinner.

3. After making your meal plan, do the food shopping list. This will help you to buy all the important things you need instead of forgetting them or overloading your cart with unnecessary items.

4. This is also the best time to get yourself the habit of making vegetables as your main dish. For example, make your salad your main dish and the chicken breast a side one. Be sure to buy the fresh vegetables for they are good for the mother and the unborn baby. Aside from that, fruits are also good for pregnant woman like you. This is a good replacement for your sweet cravings.

5. When going outside, take some healthy food like nuts or cheese sticks with you. This can help you resist of going to the vending machines for candy bars.

Making advance planning could keep you on track especially with your eating habit during your pregnancy.

1. Combine your names

Every child is unique so why not give your baby a unique name by combining your name with the father’s name, or with any friend or family’s name. Simply write out the names you choose and start by combining letters until you have created he perfect and unique name for your new baby!

2. Use your family

Ask Great Aunt Marie how she came up with her sons name. There may be a religious reason or a family reason that you were not aware of. It’s great to carry on traditions in the family.

3. Start your own name tradition

Want to start a new family name tradition it is real simple. Take the first letter Read the rest of this entry »