Comments on: Pregnant Women, Postpartum Women and Fish Oil

By: Pack

Pack — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:47:17 +0000

I am the proud mother of a 2 month old baby boy. I just started taking my fish oil pills again (I only took the one approved for pregnant women before) and all of a sudden my son is sleeping longer and more soundly. Wow! Before he seemed to have difficulty sleeping and had to eat every 2 hours. Now he can go for 3 to 3 1/2 hours before needing to eat and can go 4-5 hours at night. I get the fish oil pills that say they are molecularly distilled and all PCBs are removed. They also have a special coating that makes it so that you will not burp it up all day.

By: Rich

Rich — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 05:29:45 +0000

My wife is 13 weeks pregnant. She consumes 4-6 liters organic soy milk each month for the last 2 years. Would this quantity be considered too high?
Seems like we need to reduce the quantity or stop altogether. What do you think?

By: Babylune

Babylune — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 12:36:20 +0000

[...] has a different opinion about how to best take fish oil and other prenatal and postnatal vitamins. Readers of Babylune have some excellent advice if you’re feeling queasy in the comments on [...]

By: kbaggott

kbaggott — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 05:01:21 +0000

Hi Ash- I just read some very scary articles an organic farmer sent me about how our food is being depleted of minerals due to soil erosion and other environmental problems. Once I’ve checked the sources on those articles, I’ll be coming back with a series of posts about it.

I *love* salmon and I love wild salmon more than any other fish. It is more expensive than the farmed varieties. While wild does come canned, it’s not as nice done that way and pregnant women have to be careful with their fish.

If you’re buying the smaller whole fishes, you probably don’t have to worrry, but there have been a few studies lately telling pregnant women to avoid fish more than twice a month and the bigger fish like tuna, shark and swordfish altogether. I am afraid pollution has contaminated most of the fish we eat with mercury, which can harm your baby. The oil in fish supplements has been purified.

If your body doesn’t like fish oil at the moment, you might like to try adding vegetarian omega 3s like whole flax seeds to your diet.

In any case, it sounds like you are doing a wonderful job listening to what your body needs.

By: ash

ash — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:32:07 +0000

Wow, I’m glad I stumbled upon this site. I started out the pregnancy taking fish oils, but my body has been rejecting them in the last 8 weeks. Even though I’m at 20 weeks and the nausea is gone, I still find it much easier to just eat the Wild Salmon pure and simple.

What ever happened to getting our nutrients from Wild and Organic foods all in moderation?

Sounds like fish oil supplements are great for baby even started later in pregnancy and throughout breastfeeding. I prefer to eat the food!

By: kbaggott

kbaggott — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:24:48 +0000

Hi Dean- We love experts and I would be happy to blog the research papers behind the clinical trials. Could you post the link to the peer-reviewed journal in which it appeared? As you can imagine, we get a lot of posts from people selling vitamins and these discussions are very, very involved.

By: Dr. Dean Raffelock

Dr. Dean Raffelock — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:01:19 +0000

Just want to clarify that my book recommends flaxseeds, not oil, for postpartum women. However, flaxseeds contain lignans that help the body reduce the most harmful type of estrogen ( 16-hydroxy estrone). Flax has only a fraction of the phytoestrogenic qualities of soy and is in fact protective of an unhealthy estrogen dominance. Hope I am not breaking any site rules by coming on as a doc. Kate please contact me if you would like articles/info on our research on pregnancy recovery. Good site. it would be my pleasure! DR

By: mamawell

mamawell — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:02:10 +0000

Yes that makes a lot of sense. Thanks Ratphooey.

By: ratphooey

ratphooey — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 23:12:19 +0000

The key is moderation. The classical Japanese diet uses soy as just one ingredient, whereas western vegetarians tend to rely on it for the bulk of their protein. A few pieces of tofu in a bowl of soup, or some soy sauce? Probably fine. But to consume larger quantities, day after day? A bad idea. Especially if you’re expecting a boy, and you want him to be able to create children one day.

Another problematic source of estrogen is that leeched from some kinds of plastic, including that used in many baby bottles and reusable water bottles. This was a big topic of discussion at a recent public health conference held last year in Philadelphia (rescheduled from New Orleans after Katrina).

By: mamawell

mamawell — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 22:10:06 +0000

Thanks.