Best Prenatal Vitamins

Question: "Which are the best prenatal vitamins? And when should I start taking them if I want to try to get pregnant?"

There are so many prenatal vitamins on the market, available both by prescription and over-the-counter, that choosing one to take during your pregnancy can be quite overwhelming. 

Prenatal vitamins are a multivitamin intended for women who are trying to conceive, are pregnant, or are nursing.  They are meant to supplement a healthy diet with daily additional minerals and vitamins and are important for the well being of both the mother and the developing baby.  Prenatal vitamins are specifically formulated to primarily ensure adequate intake of folic acid, iron, and calcium.  Folic acid is important in the prevention of defects in the spinal cord or brain.   Spina bifida is the most common example of a neural tube defect.  Since the development of the baby’s  central nervous system starts before many women even know they are pregnant, adequate intake of folic acid, at least 400 mcg a day, is recommended at least a month prior to conceiving.  Some prescription prenatal vitamins have a special type of folic acid that is more bioavailable branded as Metafolin.  Iron, at least 27 mg a day, is recommended to help prevent anemia, low blood count,  which is very common as the pregnancy progresses. Iron, however, can also lead to constipation and for some women, upset stomach, so there are varying doses of iron in different prenatal vitamins depending on need and side effects.  Calcium is important for the bone health of both the mother and baby.  While 1,000 mg a day is recommended, most prenatal vitamins have between 200 and 300 mg with the rest of the daily requirement meant to be from dietary sources.  

Prenatal vitamins generally also contain vitamin B 12, C, and D, as well as thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and zinc.  Vitamin A, in high doses, can have serious consequences for a developing baby and should therefore be limited to less than 4,000 IU a day.  

Many prenatal vitamins are now incorporating Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) an omega-3 fatty acid, either into their supplement or as an additional softgel capsule because of reports of improved brain and eye development in the baby.  

Prenatal vitamins come in many different sizes and forms such as gel tabs or solid tablets. There are even chewable and liquid forms for those who have difficulty swallowing a pill. Some are meant to be taken just once a day while others spread the daily dosages across several pills.  Be sure you understand the daily dose you are receiving from the number of vitamins per day you are recommended to take.  It is possible to have too much of a good thing so do not go over the daily recommended allowance by taking additional vitamins or supplements without checking with your obstetrician.  Also, some prenatal vitamins have a stool softener to help with constipation.  If you switch from one brand of vitamins to another, you may notice changes in your digestion, your bowel movements and even the color of your urine. The bottom line is that you should choose a prenatal vitamin that has enough of what you need, and not too much of what you don’t need, and is easy for you to take and tolerate during your pregnancy and the months that follow.  

A Summer Vacation with a Pinch of Adventure

We all look forward to vacations. They are so anticipated and often come when you feel you couldn't go another week without one. While the goal, once the vacation has begun, is to unwind, planning for the week of relaxation and preparing to leave can be ridiculously stress-inducing. In my case, that does not make the time off that much sweeter - just makes me more wound up. 

So for our vacation with the kids this summer we decided to take the pressure off and spend a week at our family cabin in California's San Bernardino Mountains. Minimal planning. Minimal prep. This was what I actually needed this year to make the week off truly a time to exhale.  Other than family time, I blissfully had no real agenda at all. But, while I envisioned a week of reading by the fire and hikes with the children, my husband had a somewhat different vacation idea. He had a master plan. It was all about the holy grail of catching crawdads. 

 Did he mean crawfish? The things I ate during a college Mardi Gras road trip? Now, my family has been going up to Big Bear Lake since I was eight years old. We bought this cabin in 1976. Please don't do the math. And I have never once, in all my years of fishing alongside my father, walking along the lake, or hanging out by the Marina seen a single crawdad. But my husband, armed with childhood visions of himself and his friends catching crawdads by creeks in Colorado, was unswayed. And he passed the bug onto the very excited children.

Would one call it obsessed or prepared?  I'm not sure.  After hours of web searches, Dave ordered a crawdad trap off the Internet. It looked like mesh cornucopia horns that locked together. We bought organic nitrate-free bacon ends from Trader Joe's as bait.  Only the best for our little crawdads. And we purchased enough corn, potatoes, onions, garlic and andouille sausage for the biggest crawdad bake this side of Mississippi. Not to mention the online search for the country's  number one crawdad gumbo seasoning,  "Slap Your Mama".  Offense taken to the name, but it had no MSG so I let it go... Yes,  we received that via Amazon prime as well. We armed ourselves with two huge pots for cooking all those crawdads we were going to catch.  Ready! We packed up our car and our dreams and headed for the mountains. Big Bear Lake was an oasis of vanilla scented pines and 70 buck "good for a whole year" fishing permits. In other words, Heaven.

The plan was to drop the trap in the cool of the evening. By the morning we'd have about a dozen critters in the trap and then we'd fish with sticks, string, and bacon pulling in another dozen or so. The rest of the day would be spent preparing for the feast of the crawfish bake.

Not so much.

We dropped the trap each night in water not too shallow or deep, where those crawfish would be sure to smell the bacon and raw chicken. We found areas around the lakes with big rocks, perfect for those crawfish to hide under.  We thought we saw baby crawfish at one fishing spot- turns out they were baby catfish.  How could those crawfish resist homemade poles of sticks, fishing line, and weights?

My son was sure at one spot a crawdad had taken the bacon off his line then escaped when he went to pull him up. The kids never lost their optimism.  Dave, Gotta love him, kept wanting to try just one more place. Slowly, trying not to be too obvious, I began to use the ingredients we'd brought up for the bake.

On our second to last evening in Big Bear, on our way to a night hike in Fawnskin, we decided to drop the trap one last time at the same location where the boy saw the "one that got away".    The next morning at the crack of dawn Dave and the boy drove half way around the lake again to pull out their trap.  They were holding onto the dream and the stakes were high.  A crawfish! One beautiful real actual crawfish!!

They brought that guy home full of pride.  He lived in the bucket with some lake water and rocks and Dave gave us lessons on how to pick him up without getting ourselves pinched. When it was finally time to bring him back to his spot in the lake, my little boy moaned "I'm so sad to put him back.  We had such good times."

It was a wonderful vacation week, which was indeed filled with fireside Rummy Q games, reading marathons, hikes in the mountains, kayaking in the lake, and s'mores galore. But the highlight?  Definitely catching that single crawdad.

Bravo, Dave!