Need Answers - Southgate,MI

I agree with all of the answers except for nuts. Nuts are healthy and a great snack when you are on the go.

Avoid: soft cheese (brie, feta, camembert, blue cheese, queso blanco, queso fresco, panela) any unpasturized food/drinks, hot dogs and deli meat (due to listeria concerns), sprouts, swordfish, shark, king mackerel, tilefish, large amount of raw fish, undercooked meat/poultry/eggs, alcohol.

Cut back on sodium and sugar intake to help you have a healthy and safe pregnancy and baby, and to avoid unnecessary swelling. Cutting back on lots of junk foods and sodas are highly recommended.

Eat a lot of fruit/veggies, healthy carbs with good proteins (such as chicken and avoid too much red meat), dairy... If you have heartburn or nausea avoid things that trigger them.

I highly recommend you join babycenter.com, it's free and has a pregnancy/birth tracker and has tons of great info.

Lots of great dietary good info here:
http://www.webmd.com/baby/features/foods-to-avoid-when-yo...

Avoid anything that sounds gross and unappetizing to you. Eat what sounds good.

The only things that I avoided was too much caffiene and some soft cheeses. As long as it's pasturized, you're fine. I don't eat a lot of fish, so the mercury wasn't a problem for me. I think they say, 3 times a week is fine.

With my first pregnancy . My husband wanted me to eat healthy witch is fine, So i ate alot of fruits and veggies, i cut out the fast food,the pop, I drank alot of water. So along with that I didn't gain to much weight. lol. only 9lbs. I was a lucky one.. Best luck to you hun..

Hi S.---Your diet during pregnancy should be the very same one that is good for optimal health and disease prevention. It should consist of mostly plants, 85-90%. Minimize animal protein and eliminate dairy. There is nothing in meat and milk that can't be acquired through plants, with the exception of B12. So, if you don't have any sort of degenerative disease, you will be using animal protein more as the side-dish or flavoring for soups and stews. See www.pcrm.org and www.thechinastudy.com for the reasons why.

You get plenty of calcium, without the fat and disease promoting animal proteins, from greens such as bok choy, kale and broccoli. There is also lots of calcium in sesame seeds so hummus (uses tahini-ground sesame) is a good choice. Look at Bumble bars to eat as snacks. I think almonds are a pretty good source as well, but I don't have my plant based calcium list open right now.

Keep in mind that what you eat now determines your baby's food preferences AND his/her risk for disease. Only plants contain the nutrieints necessary to allow the body to protect and heal itself. As a wellness educator, I have a lot of great resources to share that may be of interest to you. Feel free to contact me. It is my honor to help, no strings attached! Good luck...D.

You got many good answers and sites to check out so hope they help but I wanted to add that I had my kids a long time ago, the youngest is now 26, but I ate whatever I could that sounded good and did fine, there were few restrictions then like there is now. All of my kids were healthy so all this to say just try to eat healthy and follow some of the advice that you can but don't let it worry you and make you not enjoy the pregnancy. It's an exciting time.

Sometimes, I think too many answers can be confusing, don't you? Eat the foods your body responds well to, like the ones that give you energy and a feeling of well being, and that is different for everyone. You should pretty much know by now what your body likes.

There are some things that dr's seem to be in consensus with such as fish containing mercury and PCB's. Also, certain spices can be uterine stimulants.
God bless you and your tummy:)

You need a lot of protein for your child's brain development, but don't eat seafood with mercury in it - look that up on line so you know which ones to avoid. And don't eat sushi either.

Don't eat "for two". You'll just end up gaining a ton of weight.

Drink plenty of water - you will especially need it when you're out of your first trimester. The uterus is a smooth muscle tissue and can start contracting if you become dehydrated because it shrinks when you become dehydrated. Also, when the bladder becomes full, it pushes on the uterus and can cause it to contract. So the upshot is, drink plenty of water and go to the bathroom a lot - drink and pee, drink and pee - that should be a common occurence for you, even if it is inconvenient.

Are you taking prenatal vitamins? You desperately need the folic acid in them, right now. The first 8 weeks of gestation are critical to prevent neural tube defects (like spina bifida) and some forms of cleft palates.

If you aren't having morning sickness right now, you are one lucky lady. Pretty much, you should make EVERYTHING you put in your mouth count nutritionally. Eating whole grains and fiber, vegetables and lean protein, no fat cottage cheese, Greek yogurt high in protein (look at the Chobani, and read the label), and low fat string cheese for snacks is the way you should be eating. Strangely enough, an avocado has 9 grams of fiber in it, compared to a serving of broccoli that has 4 grams. Avocados are high in fat, but it's the good kind of fat. Keep sugar to an absolute minimum except for natural fruits. Eating fruits spaced out throughout the day and snacking on string cheese in addition will help keep your sugar levels from spiking up and down. Later on in your pregnancy, managing that well can keep you from having gestational diabetes, (even though sometimes that happens anyway with best attempts at good diet habits.)

Drink plenty of milk - you need the calcium.

A pregnancy book with sample meals in it would be helpful to you.

Congrats and good luck!
Dawn

In general you should limit caffeine, fish and seafood, deli meats.

Eat lots of fresh or frozen veggies. Remember to drink lots and lots of water.

I avoided caffeine, raw seafood and processed sugars if possible.

But I had Morning sickness every morning my entire pregnancy, even the morning i was in labor at the hospital, the Nurse freaked..

So they told me to eat what i wanted and what I could keep down.
I still craved fresh veggies, fruits and steaks..

I avoided hot dogs and other processed meats with nitrates, refined sugar and baked goods with transfats. BAGGED SALAD (which sounds healthy but apparently the preservatives are bad), and fatty stuff that I didn't crave.
I craved dairy and raw vegetables - so a spoonful or two of premium vanilla ice cream fed my craving while pea pods and carrots got me through morning sickness. Also, I drank a TON of water to stay hydrated enough to avoid stretch marks (and not put on extra pounds).
So, basically, the stuff everyone says is bad for you at any time.....I'm not sure if nuts are now to be avoided to prevent allergies, but I would go with raw nuts over processed/salted nuts now anyhow.

Congrats S., here's to a healthy pregnancy!

What Momma L said. However I believe the recommendation is to avoid soft unpasteurized cheeses (hard unpasteurized that are age adequately are ok), the pasteurized ones are fine (they will say if they are raw milk cheeses).

Alcohol and smokers around you. Everything else - no limits.