Did you have a vegetarian pregnancy?

Question

I'm not pregnant now. I was just wondering what it was like for you and what you ate on an average day. Are you happy you did it? If you didn't have a veggie pregnancy, would you have if you were pregnant now?

Answer 1

I have been a vegetarian since I was a toddler.

When I got pregnant with our first child I craved chicken, but couldn't stand the thought of puting it in my mouth.

I took vegan/vegetarian multivitamins.

Even though my family pushed for me to eat meat "for the baby" during both of my pregnacies. I stuck to my normal habits and things went well.

My best advice to a mom-to-be that I LOVE:

"Don't eat for 2 (mom&baby) - Eat enough nurtition for 2" ...

I gained too much weight with my first child giving in to every craving & eating for two. Had a 9lb 6 ounce baby all natural.

During my second pregnancy I followed that lil saying and wrote it on a piece of paper and put it on my fridge.

I didn't starve myself, I just didn't stuff my face. When I had a craving I made a small serving remembering it was just a "craving" and sure enough a few bites into my "craving" I was full. My second child was 8lb 5 ounces.

I must say. The second pregnancy was easy, healthy, & a wonderful experiance.

Good luck to you.

A happy & healthy pregancy is possible even as a vegetarian.

Find some supportive people to be positive throughout and enjoy the whole experiance!

Take Care!

Answer 2

I had a vegetarian pregnancy. I've been an ethical vegetarian for many years now, and am a healthy person, so there was no reason to eat meat during my pregnancy. My OB was supportive of my diet.

I typically ate the same foods I ate prepregnancy:
*Breakfast: oatmeal or cereal (with soymilk when available)
*Lunch: whatever my work cafeteria served (minus the meat), such as salad, pasta, a gardenburger, etc.
*Dinner: usually a meat substitute by Morningstar Farms or Quorn (both of these brands can be found in most grocers' health food or regular freezer sections).

Everyone is different, but I craved fruit during pregnancy, specifically watermelon. I ate TONS of watermelon. A couple of my non-vegetarian friends told me they had the same craving.

I did occasionally crave fish while I was pregnant, a problem that I solved by eating something with tartar sauce on it. (When I used to eat fish, I almost always ate it with tartar, so the association of the two is very strong for me). It is my understanding that women are supposed to be very careful about their fish intake during pregnancy anyway (possibly due to mercury levels???), so I didn't feel that I was doing my unborn child any harm by not succumbing to that craving.

My daughter is now 17 months old and we are raising her vegetarian. She is a very healthy, happy child. I know that's not part of the question here, but just in case anyone is wondering....

I hope this answer about my vegetarian pregnancy helps. The diet part was EASY, especially compared to all the changes pregnancy brings. ;) Best of luck!

Answer 3

I did, My son is now a healthy 4 year old vegetarian.
I generally eat very healthy however I did find during my pregnancy I ate a LOT more eggs. I craved eggs, cherries, and watermelon alot, that was really the only difference though.

My son was 9 lbs, 11 oz. when born so he was a big boy and being vegetarian did not affect his weight and still hasn't

Answer 4

I had a vegetarian pregnancy. I did at one point have a craving for chicken, went to the grocery store to pick some out, and almost threw up at the smell of it (on the spit), so I bought a box of iron fortified cereal and my chicken craving went away. I ate tons of peanut butter, I normally hate peanut butter.
If I had to do it over again, I would have been vegan.

My son was born 8lb 12oz and on his first day of life he could lift his head and he was trying to roll over.

Oh yeh, and I took a prenatal vitamin that is made for vegetarians and vegans.

Answer 5

Actually I was vegan when I was pregnant. I had an excellent pregnancy, my mid-wife commented that I was in excellent conditions and at one point she mentioned that I was healthier than a non-vegetarian pregnant-person.

My average day consisted of oatmeal with toast (soy milk and butter) fruits/grains/nuts. Lots of tofu prepared in different ways with veggies. My favorite dessert was toffuti ice cream. Another important fact is to take pre-natal vitamins
There are resources for vegetarian/vegan families. check this website. http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-pregnancy/index.htm
Hopefully this will help and encourage you to continue with your vegetarian diet once you are pregnant. Be healthy!

Answer 6

I'm in the middle of one.

How is it? Fine. I've never eaten meat; I'm not about to change that. My mother's vegetarian, too; I was a healthy baby...

Average day: muesli and coffee for breakfast. Plenty of milk and juice, perhaps some sort of egg dish for breakfast or mid-morning snack. A sandwich crammed with veg for lunch; maybe some fruit on the side. If I'm out, I might grab a bean taco. Dinner's frequently pasta. Nothing too odd.

Am I happy about it? Yes. The only thing I'm doing differently is taking a DHA supplement (seaweed source, not fish; overpriced, but).

There's loads of stuff written about vegetarian pregnancies, and most of it is garbage. If your diet is healthful and well-balanced to begin with, you don't have to do much of anything besides eat just a little more of it.

This:

http://www.andrews.edu/NUFS/Vegetarian%20Diets%20During%20Pregnancy.html

is useful, if you're looking for more detail.

This:

http://www.babycenter.com/expert/2286.html

is part of the above-mentioned 'garbage.' The (unappetising) protein recommendations alone work out to 1576 calories a day...!

Answer 7

I can’t speak for my wife’s feelings, but she is vegan and ate the same sort of things during as before. Rice, vegetables… jeez, we’re talking 10 months of food here. The only difference is what she didn’t eat. She abstained from sugar, caffeine, any kinds of food additives, preservatives, etc. and ate as natural a diet as possible (still did after for breastfeeding too). If I baked cookies I’d make a batch for her and our daughter without sugar. If she ever got a craving for sweets, I’d get her some malt to eat which can also be used for cookies (super cheap in China town or at Chinese herbal shop). Malt is a complex carbohydrate as opposed to a simple sugar therefore it will digest without jumping into the bloodstream. Anyway, she also avoided things like sage (not that we eat it on a regular basis), all medications, and so forth. With a balanced diet, there won’t be many cravings, but if there are cravings, it may not be the certain food which one is craving, but something in the food, or some other kind of reaction the food causes – who knows; no one really. She had a craving for sea food from time to time, some of which were non-vegan.

The non-vegan things she ate? She did grow up eating a lot of sea food in her home country thus her body is accustomed even if that was many years ago. She ate some sardines once in awhile to fill her craving (i.e. need). There were also some traditional preserved duck eggs she had. I think that was it, the rest were vegan, but nothing wacky like those stories you hear of N. American women demanding dill pickles and peanut butter, or ice-cream and… whatever. Very odd cravings. Unheard of anywhere else in the world, I think.

Basically, she would listen to her body during pregnancy. If the baby didn’t want her eating something, then she would not feel well or have indigestion etc. so she wouldn’t eat it anymore. Simple. That’s what morning sickness is too. Simply by following the rule, if it makes you feel sick, don’t eat it, then you won’t get sick anymore. Of course being a healthy vegan, she never had any feelings of sickness and never threw-up or what have you. Those people are just eating things their baby doesn’t want, and they puke it up. Again, simple. Our family friend who is not a vegetarian or vegan would puke every time she ate meat. She was horribly sick and ill, but when she didn’t eat it, she was fine, but she shoved it down her throat anyway because of the old, “if you don’t eat meat then… blab bla bla” fears. Her family was pushing her too.

Anyway, moving off topic, having a midwife also helped a whole lot as they already know about this kind of stuff and simple rules such as the one stated above; plus had a great library on every topic. Every pregnancy is different; therefore having someone help out who delivers many babies per week is a great benefit. They also help afterwards too. We had a midwife with a home birth – that’s the best way. Read about it and natural births, breastfeeding and evils of formula, horrible practices and policies of hospitals, vaccinations, immunization, and so forth and you’ll set your mind at ease. But what it all comes down to is feed yourself well, exercise, and all that other good stuff, and the body and baby know their job and are able to function properly in order to do what needs to be done. Macrobiotic Pregnency and Care of the Newborn is a very informative book and also her other books about feeding children. I think the other we have by Aveline Kushi is called Family Favourites. Basically our children follow the simple rule of no sugar, preservatives, medications, fluoride, vaccinations, etc. which my wife avoided during pregnancy. We have no problems with trying to get them to eat healthy foods and stop them from eating junk food. Junk food doesn’t exist to them yet; simple. I tell my daughter she can go get anything in the store she wants. She always loads up on dates. OK, I’m getting way beyond pregnancy now and getting on a HUGE rant. Hope there’s something useful in there for you.

Answer 8

i've got been a vegetarian for 17 years and have 3 babies. Vegetarians do no longer neccessarily could take a undeniable supplement, vegans have a stricter eating regimen than us. even nonetheless they do make nutrition supplementations specially designed for vegetarians, even nonetheless I even have continually in basic terms taken an mind-blowing multi nutrition wheile no longer pregnant and in easy terms a prenatal nutrition for the duration of being pregnant.

Answer 9

I've heard of others being vegetarians while being pregnant and its very possible. Just make sure you get all your nutrients, tell your doctor your case about being a veggie and then, make sure you get the vitamins or multi-vitamins you need and go from there.

Good luck!

Michelle

Ps. Try to eat fish to make the baby healthy! :)

Answer 10

I was a vegetarian for 12 years before I got pregnant, my baby wanted meat! So I ate it.