I recently started taking the Target Up and Up Prenatal vitamins. I love them so far and they haven't made me sick at all which is so great. However I am now concerned about the level of Vitamin A (4,000 IU as retinyl palmitrate). After a Google search, it appears that preconception and during pregnancy, high levels of preformed Vitamin A (as retinyl palmitrate) can be harmful. I am worried about the Vitamin A issue. Regular non-gummy prenatal pills use beta-carotene as the primary source of Vitamin A, which is plant derived and supposedly doesn't have the side effects/risks that retinyl palmitrate has. Anyone heard about this or did your Dr say anything about this? I really want to continue taking the gummy vitamins because they seem to be working great with my body so far and no sickness, but if they are harmful I am going to have to try to switch to something else. : ( Would it be better to just take one that is based from beta-carotene?
Re: Target Up and Up Prenatal vitamins potentially harmful?
Wow!
Ive never heard of that. Ive been taking my "one a day" prenatals and was thinking about switching. There's a lot of women here who take those vitamins. Im interested to hear what others have to say.
My prenatal (nature's bounty) has the same amount but as beta-carotene. The source of the Vitamin A was something I was specifically going for when looking at prenatals.
Because it is a non-soluble vitamin, I think the overall amount is important when you take a look at your diet, too-- I have a lot of it in my normal diet. It's funny, as soon as DH and I were in our first 2ww this time around, he immediately got all restrictive of my sweet potato fry consumption.
*giggles*
I knew someone would chim in with FACTS.
If your doctor is ok with it, I don't see the issue.
I highly doubt that a prenatal supplement with far too much Vitamin A in each daily dose would be allowed to remain on the shelves.
The problem with a "Google search" is that when you're asking pregnancy questions you get a lot of blogs and baby sites re-reporting bits and pieces of research, and it's often without context. I'm not aiming this at you, OP, but just a general warning for everyone.
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My RE has on my initial instructions to not take any more than 4,000IU of vitamin A. But it is well within the guidelines for pregnant women. You are safe.
https://teratology.org/pubs/vitamina.htm - if you would like to read more.
Study suggests that 25,000IU might be the safe upper limit for pregnant women. Beta-carotene is completely safe. My prenatals have all vitamin A as beta-carotene. But having 4,000IU by retinol is not harmful.
Started fertility treatments 11/2010
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