WHAT To Eat & Not Eat When Pregnant?

Smurfy,
Are you taking iron supplements ? I remembered when I took iron, I have headaches. So, I just take 2-3 times a week instead of everyday. The headaches went off.

Watermelons, papaya and coconut are cooling fruits. As for canned aloe vera, try not to take too much canned food as all these contain preservatives like ham, bacon, chinese sausages which are not good for health regardless of whether you are pregnant or not.
 


We are new parents, our little girl Yasmin is now 11 month-old. Let us share with you what my wife ate and avoided during pregnancy.

Ate:
Lots of soups - We bought a charcoal stove to cook soup to save on gas bill as we make old-fire soup (3-5 hrs) everyday. we made mostly fish soup. As my wife's family are fish wholesaler in Malaysia, they told us not to eat any scale-less fish as they are 'poisonous'. So I bought 5-6 small mullet (ikan kurau??) cook with potatoes and tomatoes, carrots. or replace fish with chicken, or meat

Steamed fish - we have steamed fish everyday, mostly steamed.

Veg - we ate lots of different kinds of veg.

We are the lucky ones, besides going to visit gynae or to antenatal classes, we have meals at home. So minimised MSG intake and fast food.



Avoid:
Papaya, pineapple, banana - according to my mom, these are slippery, even though we know it is baseless, but since they insisted, we follow the old wisdom.

Deep fried food - To heaty, may lead to bad case of piles

Coffee, Tea, coke - Gynae told my wife not to take any. We tried once, and baby had disco party all through the night, so never taken anymore. Gynae advised if really tempted, can drink 7-up or soda water for kick only

Ginseng - Ginseng should be avoided, according to research in Hong Kong, consumming ginseng too early in pregnancy may lead to deformation. If you want to take ginseng to prepare you body for labour, take it sparingly during the last 2 month of pregnancy.

raw veg, raw egg - to avoid food poisoning ( one of our friends in the antenatal class was food poisoned and induced labor, luckily after 2 nights in KKH, she was ok)


smurfy, red bean soup needs the following:
red bean, dried mandarin orange peel X1, lotus seed (fresh or dried), lily bulb (fresh or dried)

soak red bean, mandarin orange peel
scrape the white layer of orange peel off under running water, soak lotus sees and lily bulb if using dried ones.

put red bean, orange peel in a pot add water and bring to boil for 30 mins then turn down heat to simmer for about 1.5 to 2 hrs until 'sandy'. if using fresh lotus seeds and lily bulb add them during the last 30min cooking time.

Add chinese compress brown brick sugar to taste
 
hi celia and danny,

Thanks for your recipe for red bean soup but I had given birth on the 5 April already.. now "enjoying"
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my confinement...
 
Hi smurfy,

'enjoy' away! I rem my confinement *shudder* gross!

btw, my mum did confinement for me, and she esp instruct me during confinement, as your uterus is recovering fr trauma, whenever u drink or eat, muz SIT DOWN! if not, in the future may have urine incontinence, and try to rest as much as u can... heh heh, dat means cannot go online for too long coz staring at PC bad for your eyes
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i had abt 1 Del Monte banana a day when i was pregnant.
What's supposed to happen? Coz it didn't cause anything to me/ baby..

i had KFC several times a week sometime during mid-trimester.. near 2005 CNY. Coz collected lots of KFC ang-pow packets with their special meal deals, until now haven't finished using =)

i had eggs with runny yolks many mornings for b'fast. But my cholesterol shot up. After birth cut back.

B4 pregnant, i could finish 1 fish (pomfret/ red snapper) a day. But I during pregnancy, I couldn't stand the thought/smell of fish. But immed after i gave birth, i started taking fish again for BM. Had fish for lunch & dinner for dunno how many months after gave birth... to make up for the 9 months fish-free period. haha.
 
Westin, some old folks think it is better not to eat frog legs.

But for my mum, she thinks frog legs are good source of protein and since I enjoy it, she tell me to go ahead and eat.

Whatever you eat, just eat in moderation
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This is NOT confirmed, but I'm just listing down the food to be avoided, from some of the discussion forums that i've read:

To Avoid (those with ? signify "not sure"):

Coke
Coffee
Tea
Green Tea?
Cold Drinks
Alcohol

Melon
Water chestnuts?
Pineapple
Pear
Durian?
Del Monte or Branded Bananas?
Coconut?
Papaya? (Jaundice?)

Radish
Barley
Cincao
Carrots ?
Celery
Chinese Cabbage
Cucumber
Chilli and Spicy food
Prawn Paste

RAW food
Mutton
Tuna (reduce due to Mercury)
Sharks fin (due to Mercury)
Weird stuff like turtle, frog, etc


Birds Nest
Some Chinese Herbs (due to Mercury)
Chinese Herbal Medicine

Ginseng?


Looks like a lot of stuff!
 
ya, I do agree with Mrs Wong to just eat in moderation as that's also what my gynae told me. I merely skipped grass jelly and coconut for the early stages. Nearer to delivery like the last few weeks then I'll take coconut.
 
that one is true. everything in moderation, even the supposedly "good" stuff. nowadays, got many research here and there, which contradict each other. example, (non-pregnancy related) some say 3-6 cups of coffee a day is good for you, but many actually say coffee is bad.
 
Hi,

Frog legs is ok for pregnancy depends on how you cook it.

I saw on TV once that frog legs harbour lots of parasites, and since the thigh part is thick, short time cooking may not completely kill all of them. So I think it is better to cook it in soup for a longer time, rather than stir-fry which takes only mins.

The same would go for young babies, make a frog stock then use it to make porridge, rather than giving babies the frog meat.
 
Hi,

What about red dates drink boiled with dried longan? I know it's good for our body to produce more blood but not sure whether can drink during pregnancy.

Pls advise.
 
I drank red date and longan soup while pregnant..no problem. I actually ate that with bird's nest. The additional iron is good for preggies.
 
wow.. seems like this thread more advices... what about fishes.. batang fish, salmon fish and ma(3) jia(1) fish can eat?? those sold in coffeeshop and foodcourt fried fish mee hoon heard are ma(3) jia(1) fish which must avoid cos it contents high level of murcury ar??

anyone active in this thread know about this??

hmm.. btw.. chinese cabbage cannot eat.. then what about those salad served with western food eg. fish and chips.. those can 1st trimester MTB eat??
 
Hi basically low salt, low sugar, law fat. High fiber, healthy diet. DH made soup for me almost every other day. Fish soup mostly with carrots/tomatoes/potatoes. Was told not to eat scaleless fish cos they are 'poisonous'. I was those lucky ones, besides thoes evenings going to antenatal classes, I've not eaten out at all. Homecooked food throughout.

No raw food(fear of e coli food poisoning), coke(caffine, baby would kick all night)
 
Dear ladies,

Is it ok to cook dishes with cooking wine such as shao xing or hua tiao wine? I hv been cooking with those whenever i marinate the meat or stir frying. Any idea? Thanks!
 
I eat almost anything, except for completely raw food. I even had medium rare steak during pregnancy.

My MIL keeps reminding me to eat crab. According to her, she say it strength the baby's bone. My baby indeed got strong bone.
 
Hi <font color="0000ff">Geraldine</font>,

I also eat almost everything n avoid raw food. My hubby also insisted I take well done steak though I always have it medium. Wow, your MIL pretty modern leh, many old folks dont allow MTB to take crabs.
 
sure no problem to cook with wine... read somewhere that MTB shouldn't eat highly allergic food (mostly seafood) and raw food, buffet etc..... one of my antenatal classmates went to buffet and was food poisoned, and triggered contraction at week 28... admitted in KK for 3 days for observation, had a great scare....
 
Thanks for yr advice. I was soooo worried after realising that I hv been using cooking wine to cook all these while. Then I started to panic and worry abt my baby. Now, I can relax and try to stay positive.
 
Celia,

my mil is not that modern lah. she grow up in kelong and had 6 children and 10 grandchildren (including my gal). So it is her experience that counts. All my sister in laws ate crab during pregnancy and all of them have strong bones babies.
 
ic...cos my colleagues were surprised when i told them i eat crabs. One of them said her mother die die say no crabs and sotong. For me, I eat crabs & flower crabs almost every other day cos my dad works in a floating fish farm.
 
Hi Geraldine Loh,
IC.... my mil is from Hong Kong, Cantonese has alot of funny traditions regarding everything. My FIL who is hokkien by origin, also from HK. A friend of mine visited me during pregnancy and brought with her bananas and papaya, when my FIL knew about the gifts, he was quite crossed, saying they should have brought these fruits for a pregnant woman... they are "slippery". quite funny.

My family is from a fishing kampong, but strictly no scale-less fish and crab.... MIL's sister ate crab during pregnancy, and the son was born with serious skin problem... that's why.... It only went away 20yrs later and after seeing many docs...
 
Hi Celia & Danny,

I guess it all depend on individual, but whatever we eat, eat in moderation so as to prevent any food allgery. eg. My skin will itch if i ate too much crabs. So i reduce my amount, but i continue to eat.
 
punkki,
can tell us why advoid nuts, cos i had been eating quite a lot of peanuts foods like peanut butter for my breakfast and tao hu goreng with peanuts topping etc... now i'm quite worry of that. can u tell us also what kind of nuts r u referring to?
 
Hi rast,
avoid nuts if there is any history of nuts allergy in the family, as it may cause same allergy in bb
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also, when bb is <1 yr old, try not to give nuts or food with nuts in case develop allergy as well..

i had to watch out for this 'coz my BIL has severe allergy to nuts.

i'm living in UK now, so basically not following any chinese customs on what to eat or what not to eat... i try to eat 5 portions of veg and fruits per day... lots of milk/cheese for calcium, salmon for omega3, no raw food and prenatal vitamins every day.
 
Hi Geraldine & Rast

Actually, I also read from most books that nuts suppose to be good. Esp. walnut (good for the brain)but I'm avoiding all nuts to play safe.

My partner doesn't have nut allergy but his sister has. Her 3 sons have been suffering from a little skin allergy (she has a little skin allergy too) and food allergy.

The main food allergy is nuts. It is so bad that even the smell of nuts would trigger the child (turn blue) It's so bad that they now do the jab themselves at home.

I also read from books and sites that only introduce nuts to your child after they are 4 years old onwards.

As for egg, introduce the white first. If there's no reaction in the next 3 days then introduce the yolk.

I have tried to avoid nuts during my pregnancy cos I don't wish my newborn to suffer from any future skin allergy. It can be really troublesome.

If your child suffer from nut allergy. You have to be so careful to make sure that food you buy contain no nuts.

As far as I know, the food label in Singapore is not that great. They hardly have information stating this product contain nuts or no nuts.

In Europe, such information is very common. Maybe nut allergy is more common over there.
 
when i pregnant that times, i eats a lots of birdnest. it really helpfull. my baby is very actives and the skin is very fair. i buy the birdnest with a friend, very cheap then outside. 100 grams of birdnest only $420. A grade of indonesia birdnest. the contact is 97373898
 
Hi Anne,

I'll believed that birdnest really helps alot during pregrancy or even when the guy is going for NS. It applied similar like my hubby's case. Last time while he was in NS many yrs ago, my MIL brewed alot of birdnest for him to eat. Until now, I feel that his body & his hands r very smooth. Heehee...like girl like that.
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At the same time, it also applied to 1 of my younger cousin who also gave birth to a girl a few yrs ago. She tot me that she ate alot of birdnest which made her daughter so nice skin & so fair.
 
Hi,

My MIL suggested me to eat lots of 'snow ear' soup during pregnancy. She heard that it is not advisable to eat too much Chinese herbs during pregnancy, so we dared not cook any ginseng, cordycep soup till my last 3 weeks of pregnancy.

However hubby cooked lots of soup for me, almost daily soup cooked with charcoal fire. fish soup mostly and every other day he bought me sweet beancurd. DD is so fair like milk and smooth-skinned from birth till now. Hubby's family is HongKongers, so soup every night, their complexion and skin condition is superb!
 
my gynae advised me against eating raw food... so sushi is one of them lor.. esp sashimi which is my favourite.... as for seaweed, i think not wise to eat too much too cos high content of iodine... moderate should be fine bah... for me i more ks.. once i pregnant.. i didnt eat seaweed already... i mean those ready-to-eat kind..
 
dear ladies

i've been taking the sliced fish noodles which probably uses mackerel.
recently i started avoiding it after discovering that mackerel is high in mercury but i drink the soup cos it's so tasty and i really love it!

does it matter if i take the soup of high-mercury fish?
 
hi rpa,

whats mackerel in Mandarin? o no... although i know diff stallholder use diff fish... it will be offensive if i ask them what fish they use...:p
 
read from today My Paper beside shark and tuna fish meat... Marlin 槍魚 fish meat, swordfish 劍魚 ,sea bream 鯛魚 too as they contain higher level of mercury
 
hello is this thread still active?

can i check those in foodcourt or hawker centre that serve fried fish bee hon or the slice fish soup. what sort of fish is that? mackeral? what the name in chinse? does those fish contain high level of mercury and cant eat often?
 
hi wishtobemum,

i only know those foodcourt selling fried fish bee hoon, slice fish soup all not those mentioned above. safe to eat.
 
cos i read from the earlier thread that some mummies commented those fried fish bee hoon or thise slice fish soup in food court are maybe mackeral fish thus may not be safe to eat?
can anyone confirm that?
 
Hi, i do not know if this thread will revive..me too also curious to verify this. think sellers out there may sell diff types of fishes..hope to search for more info fm e web
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fishes like tuna, shark, mackeral are large fishs so they contain more mercury, so avoid them.

but everything in moderation shld be fine.
 



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