Natural Birth and Baby Care.com

Vitamin D, Peanut Butter, and Milk Questions

Is it possible to overdose on Vitamin D while pregnant?

Also, I've heard eating a diet heavy in dairy will cause you to have a large baby because it is high in fat and growth hormones.

What about all natural peanut butter (you know where the ingredients are peanuts and salt and that's it)? I'm craving peanut butter like crazy and wanted to make sure I wasn't over doing it. It has a lot of unsaturated fat.

Answer:

Vitamin D overdose is technically possible but I think unlikely. The upper limit of daily Vitamin D hasn't been re-established yet. It's being researched intensely right now because the United States is facing an epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency. It seems likely that the upper limit will be set to around 10,000 IU.

Toxicity has been shown in adults taking sustained doses of 100,000 IU or more daily for several months. Infants have shown toxicity with doses of 40,000 IU a day.

I think it's highly unlikely you're going to reach those levels. I supplement Vitamin D every day (a natural vitamin D from fish oil) for around 2,500 IU and my kids get 400 IU. I've been taking that for months and my blood Vitamin D levels are still not "optimal" so I'm certainly nowhere near overdose even with a "big" dose.

Milk

You can solve the dairy issue easily - don't buy dairy products made from the milk of cows getting growth hormones. Buy milk from a local farm with grassfed cows. That's ideal.

But if you can't manage that, Wal-Mart milk doesn't have growth hormone in it, and there's a Wal-Mart almost everywhere ;)

You and your baby both need fat. You both need saturated fats. Your baby's brain is made of fat. That means your baby's brain needs fat to build. The human body needs a lot of fat.


You don't have to do dairy if you really don't want to - but you need to get enough protein daily (80-100 grams) and you need to get fats in - saturated fats.

Additionally, it has been proven that, in general, bigger babies are much easier to deliver than low-birthweight babies. The labors are shorter, easier, and safer for both mother and baby. After birth the babies are stronger and have less problems adapting to life outside the womb.

Even tiny women can and do birth big babies vaginally (and naturally). Do stop eating lots of sugar and processed foods... ...but don't restrict eating to restrict your baby's growth.

Peanut Butter

I've read that eating a lot of peanut butter during pregnancy (especially during your third trimester) can cause your baby to be more likely to be allergic to it. Peanuts tend to be one of the more common allergens, though.

However, I don't think peanut butter is at all a problem because of fat or salt. I talked about fat above - you DO want to restrict sugars and processed foods. But if you're eating natural foods don't worry too much about being "low-fat."

As for salt, you need to eat salt "to taste" during pregnancy. Your blood volume dramatically increases during pregnancy to support you and your baby - and salt is what helps that blood volume increase occur. The late Dr. Tom Brewer campaigned hard to get doctors to drop the "low salt, low fat" diets they were (killing) mothers and babies on during the 60's/70's.

He found that if women were allowed to salt to taste pregnancy complications were dramatically lowered.

I've written extensively on pregnancy diet - you can read more about fats and salt specifically on my prenatal nutrition guidelines page.

Best of luck with your pregnancy and for a big, healthy, happy baby!