I needed to disable self sign-ups because I’ve been getting too many spam-type accounts. Thanks.
Vit. A detox before pregnancy?
Quote from Sarabeth on January 9, 2023, 4:45 amMy husband and I both had a similar philosophy with Baby #5 (conceived just six months into our Vitamin A Detox, when I was forty) - the tests are basically useless, and possibly damaging psychologically, unless you plan to abort your baby or get further testing based on the initial screening tests. We opted for remaining "in the dark" so that we could prepare for a healthy birth, because any health issues will be easier to deal with if the birth goes calmly, and any terrible health issues...cannot be prevented at this point! And we just knew that we could not abort a baby based on test results.
Baby #5 did have midline issues (tongue tie/lip tie) just like the four older kiddos had had, and now I realize that in addition to consuming a high Vitamin A diet, I was also vegetarian for years (low zinc) and in efforts to "fix" things, had upped vitamin A and reduced B vitamins and choline still further. Sigh. One wishes for perfection, and one gets....life!
But, midline defects happen immediately after conception, as far as I understand it, and no amount of wishing can change their existence even if there was a magic formula (I sure wonder what would have happened if my B vitamins were in balance, among other things, at conception!). And our Baby #5 is, while equally intelligent as his older siblings, just FAR and away healthier and happier than they were. It is a revelation, that having a baby and a toddler can be so much FUN! I would have had ten if I'd realized how to prevent the "normal" health and behavior and feeding problems that are rampant among children, and still so normalized by the doctors and parents who care for them.
You are doing a great job!
@Sarabeth Thanks for sharing your experience.
In terms of detoxing while pregnant...I did wonder about it, but the alternative - continuing to ingest large amounts of vitamin A which I was fairly sure had been an underlying cause of Disease during my four previous pregnancies (not to mention health problems in my infants) - seemed worse! So I was fairly "strict," in that I didn't sneak any kale or carrots or squash. 🙂 I figured my body would be better able to deal with the detox better with fewer additions to my copious stores...and I also have this theory (unsubstantiated) that a mother's body "uses" vitamin A somehow more efficiently or just MORE while pregnant/breastfeeding. I don't know that it's true, but it just seems to be such a large component of "baby" things: eggs, milk, organs, etc. Maybe the baby's body benefits from the hormesis effect?? Maybe vitamin A in milk is part of what primes the baby's immune system after birth?? I really don't know. (I do know that excessive vitamin A, in the form of my overloaded breastmilk and subsequently the liver formula I made at Sally Fallon's recommendation, did NOT do good things for my baby...but moderation in all things, and I was not moderate.)
I've written about this elsewhere: I did NOT choose to encapsulate nor otherwise consume my placenta this time! 🙂 I can't find any evidence for this, but I suspect the placenta contains (or stores?) a lot of vitamin A, and my post-partum period for Baby #5 was way better than for any of the others (and I ate the first four placentas). Causation, or correlation?? You decide! But I did NOT miss it, nor did I find it tasty the second, third, or fourth times I ate it, so I don't think the consumption of a placenta by a vitamin A toxic mama is a good idea. 🙂
Interesting!
I saw this article today about eating placenta and wondered whether it would be like eating liver if it also acts as a filtration system. An online search suggests that placenta is high in vitamin A (if it is filtering it out?)Â
https://www.independent.co.uk/health-and-fitness/placenta-pills-health-benefits-b2801763.html
I meant to respond months ago...just to say that I ate my placenta (raw!!) after each of my first four babies were born. This was only approximately .1% due to it being appealing! And it did NOT ward off PPD by any stretch of the imagination; with Baby #4, I started taking Walsh supplements (lots and lots of zinc, mainly) and this helped a lot, and I think despite all the vitamin A and placenta. 🙂 After babies #5 and #6, I was eating lowish in vitamin A and did not eat my placentas, and for what it's worth, my mental health was WAY better those last two times. Can't say that it's bad to eat it definitively, nor that it couldn't be medicinal or therapeutic in certain ways, but definitely not the fabulous miracle cure in my case.