Food & Products to avoid when TTC

[Ask4joy]

I keep finding out about more food and products to avoid in early pregnancy and was thinking it would be nice to start a thread to share what you know! I just at recently read about making sure not to get too much vitamin C or the retinol form of vitamin A. Curious if there are certain body products that should be avoided (like anti-wrinkle creams with retinol). Please share any other info that would be good to know!

 

[MindUtopia]

You should avoid retinol and vitamin A in early pregnancy, so yes, that makes sense to cut it out while you're TTC as well. I wouldn't smoke either, obviously. But other than that (I don't smoke or regularly take any supplements with vitamin A, retinol, etc. anyway) I didn't cut out anything when I was TTC. The only thing I really avoided in pregnancy was alcohol, but still when TTC, I carried on drinking as normal until I had a reason to believe I was pregnant (which was from about 5 dpo). Definitely improving your diet generally will increase your chances of conceiving - so lots of fruit and veg and not much junk food - but otherwise, I think enjoy everything else you really like until there's a reason not to. You'll have a whole pregnancy to abstain from foods you like and then once you have a baby, you'll be too busy to remember to eat anyway. So I think enjoy them while you can.