Need Pregnancy Nutrition Suggestions for Difficult Situation

[lwheelr]

Gluten free doesn't help me any. Crohn's causes a similar irritation, and some of the sensitivities are similar, but gluten isn't one of them now. It was last summer when I got REALLY bad (I was down to where I could only handle about 10 individual ingredients), but I've healed enough that I digest wheat protein without any problem now - that resolved during the first week of treatment, and I have been making steady progress since. Slower at some times than others, with lots of setbacks, but at least it is progress.

WZ, the issue I see with ACV tonics is that I am also very sensitive to Citric Acid. As it is, I need a couple of servings of fresh fruit a day, and if I exceed that, I have problems. I can only tolerate a small amount of ACV, and then only if I make sure I've not had other sources of Citric Acid outside my allotted fruit.

The Citric Acid sensitivity is one that I don't care to take chances with, because I get horrendous sinus headaches from it - one serving too many and it will flatten me. This is improving as I get things under control, but has been an issue since high school, so I doubt it is going to ever go away completely!

I do use teas, and tisanes, and I have a capsule maker so I can encapsulate any herbs I want to for those things I just can't get enough of by adding to foods (turmeric, for example - you can only tolerate so much of that).

Well, tried raw egg (half of one) in a yogurt shake. It gave me a pretty severe stomach twinge - the kind I get when something irritates the lining of my stomach - felt like right about where the duodenum starts. So that probably isn't going to be a solution, unless I can get some more bantam eggs, and if I tolerate them better than the regular chicken eggs.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Have you looked into spirulina? It is a supplement I take and it helps me alot.
I am just throwing this out there. I don't have near the problems you do nor the understanding of my body as you seem to have of yours

Would you consider stating where you live (even a sort of proximity), someone here might have some of the things available like bantam or quail eggs, that they would be willing to help you out with. If you lived close to me, I would certainly be willing to give or sell at a low price my bantam eggs.

I really hope that this pregnancy and baby works out for you, since you want it so much

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Also, maybe try just the yolk?

 

[lwheelr]

Oh, I could try just the yolk. That is where the majority of the nutrients that I need are anyway!

Hafta laugh about maybe there's someone near here! There's NOBODY near here!

I'm in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Pretty near the exact middle of nowhere.

 

[Bethanial]

for your situation. I have one son, and one known miscarriage, and I don't know how those of you who repeatedly miscarry handle the emotional pain. I only knew I was pregnant for 3 days, and I still think about that child.

I can't offer any help or advice. But:

I'm in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Pretty near the exact middle of nowhere.

I thought *I* lived in the exact middle of nowhere! If I start naming towns people might now, I have to go through "circles" of towns that are either 45 minutes, 1.5 hrs, 2 and 3 hours away before finding one that person knows. And if they've actually heard of my town (much less actually KNOW where it is), I'm liable to pass out I frequently say I live 45 minutes in the middle of nowhere

 

[lwheelr]

I'm an hour from anything recognizable to people in the state, two hours from anything recognizable by anyone who has ever looked at a map of Wyoming, and four hours from anywhere recognizable by the average person in the US...

1 hour each way to Rawlins or Laramie.

2 hours from Casper and Cheyenne, in opposite directions.

4 hours from Denver.

Last night, at 6:30, I finished my dinner. 4 oz of elk strips, half a cup of cooked cabbage, half a cup of cooked carrots, and sauteed diced onion over a cup and a half of rice. Mind you, it had been just half an hour since I'd had a shake with half an egg and a cup of yogurt in it.

By 8:00 I was ravenously hungry again - I had the second half of the rice topping, and by 9:30 when I was ready for bed, I had to have two slices of toast thickly spread with cream cheese, and some romaine, plus a shake made of a banana, a cup of milk, and a cup of fresh spinach blended smooth (didn't taste too bad, actually, better than the wheatgrass shake usually tastes).

I woke at midnight, had some yogurt, then woke again at 2:00 and had to take a supplement. Woke again at 5:30 and had to have some more yogurt. This morning when the alarm went off at 7:00 I was again ravenous, not to mention pretty groggy from playing yo-yo all night.

I have come to the conclusion that there is not enough food in the county to keep me fed right now.

My husband thinks it is funny. I'm not so sure I appreciate his sense of humor!

 

[lwheelr]

Still battling low vitamin A, I think I've figured out the Calcium. Calcium absorbs better when consumed with fruit or veggies.

Today has been hard, I've been kind of shaky. I think probably because of the egg whites a couple of days ago - I often get shaky a couple of days later, when diarrhea hits from something that was harsh on my system.

I've been taking a short walk every day, and I do mean short. Down the driveway, to the corner of the street, and back. I made it 20 ft further yesterday than I did the day before.

Baby still seems determined to hang in there.

 

[lorihadams]

Good lord honey, my heart goes out to you.

Are there any fruit/veggie combo smoothies that you could do? Like combining the spinach/wheatgrass mixture with something else that will help with the absorption? Could you premake a big bunch of it in case you wake up hungry and then you can just chug it and go back to sleep?

I am gluten intolorant but I have no clue about crohns.

 

[lwheelr]

Wheatgrass doesn't store well, so you pretty much have to have that fresh.

I'm doing ok at night now. I do have to eat twice in the middle of the night right now, but I make sure I have stuff before I go to bed - yogurt, apple juice, cooked carrots, etc, so I can get what I need depending on what is happening when I wake up.

I had to do this a little during the pregnancy with the daughter we lost, though I just had a yogurt shake in the middle of the night, one time. It wasn't like this, having to get up twice to eat several things each time.

Every day seems like a major triumph, and waking up in the morning still pregnant is an achievement. I've woken countless times with countless other pregnancies and have known in the morning that it was gone, so each day really counts right now.

 

[lwheelr]

Well, things are moving along, it seems. Still hanging in there. Learning some things too.

Calcium absorbs better in the presence of either green veggies or some kind of fruit. I haven't completely isolated which ones work best or which ones are ineffective, but so far, if I have milk with either a leaf of lettuce, or a few ounces of apple juice, then I don't have calcium deficiency symptoms nearly so much.

Calcium also absorbs better with lactose, and lactase enzyme. Even lactose free milk absorbs better with lactase enzyme - go figure.

Calcium does not absorb well in the presence of chocolate.

Calcium absorbs better with probiotic cultures present.

Magnesium absorbs best in the presence of calcium.

Magnesium absorbs better in the presence of probiotics.

Magnesium absorbs better if you have sufficient vitamin d.

Magnesium absorbs better in the presence of plant acids.

Info regarding phytates and oxalates and the absorption of calcium and magnesium (and several other nutrients) is inaccurate. It makes no differentiation between supplementation forms of nutrients, and natural forms. Natural forms absorb just fine, artificial ones have problems. That makes perfect sense, because if you take the info on oxalates and phytates seriously, then you'd be thinking you'd never absorb ANYTHING, since some of the best sources of calcium and magnesium have those components in them!

So by balancing how I combine things - for example, 1/4 cup of cooked cabbage and 2 oz of apple juice every time I have a glass of milk, gives me a good amount of both calcium and magnesium. If I make sure and have a lactase enzyme with that, and make sure the milk has lactose in it, and if half of that milk is yogurt, then I get the maximum absorption of calcium and magnesium from the milk and veg. If I add in a small piece of meat, I get a little more out of it.

The proof is in the symptoms. When I do this, I have no symptoms of calcium or magnesium deficiencies.

The hard part is that I can only have a small amount of fruit a day, so I have to really control how I mix things. But I'm managing to get by with less and less supplementation of those few things that I've had to supplement.

Baby seems to be hanging in there, if the nausea and raging hunger are anything to go by.