Bacteria & Flagyl, nutrition, and pregnancy

I know, isn't it crazy? Kind of like WLS patients who are years out and say they take their Flinstones and everything has been "fine." Oh, but they haven't actually had labs run in two years, and when they did, it was a short list that didn't include most of the potential problem indicators...

I've been very fortunate as far as nausea and such; I felt nauseous for maybe two weeks earlier on, and I threw up once, but for a couple weeks now, I've felt pretty much completely normal. My appetite and tastes have changed, and most foods don't look appealing in general, but no more nausea or vomiting. Although, we'll see what this Flagyl does for me since nausea is listd as a potential side effect  :P

I'm going to start the Flagyl this morning, and I'll keep taking my probiotics as well (but in different doses from the Flagyl). My research online shows that it's a Class B drug, which is about as good as it gets during pregnancy as far as antibiotics go. I was even able to find a metanalysis on PubMed that was unable to link Flagyl to birth defects, even when taken in the first trimester. Although I did see one woman post on a forum somewhere about how Flagyl attacks the fetus because it sees it as a "virus." Too bad antibiotics don't actually work on viruses! Thank goodness I'm smart enough to sort through my Google results and be able to tell which are more reliable sources . On a side note, people keep telling me not to read pregnancy forums, blogs, etc., because they'll just freak me out. Umm, no, they kinda make me feel smarter a lot of times, actually  :P   And sometimes, I even learn something!

Just out of curiosity - did you find that amoxicillin is also Class B?  I was given amoxicillin during my pregnancy and I'm sure it was okay - I asked 4 or 5 different docs at the time (and it was the high risk OB that prescribed it).

(I'm allergic to flagyl so that's never an option for me,  FYI)

Yes, amoxicillin is also Class B (and others in the penicillin family). When I was younger, though, I had a LOT of UTIs and other crappy infections (including double kidney infection), and I was on penicillin and amoxicillin so often that the effectiveness began to dissipate. If she had prescribed it for me now, I would have taken it, but I wouldn't have been surprised if it didn't work very well for me  :\

I know you will anyway...but definitely follow up and make sure it is gone.  Group B strep is a fairly common bacteria found in women's flora and is not problematic for her.  If it is present during a vaginal birth, it can be very problematic for the newborn.  Group B Strep should not be present at all, in any quantity at birth.  Most OB's routinely test for this in the third trimester.  But a little follow-up never hurts.

I am sooo excited for you!  Babies are so amazing :)

The studies about probiotics preventing antiobiotic diarrhea usually have the participants taking the antibiotic and probiotic at the same time.  Maybe not together at the exact same time, but through the course.

That OB must be psychic to know that none of her patients' babies are going to develop problems later in life due to poor nutrition in the womb.  And jeez--doesn't even test iron or folic acid?  what a nutjob.  Anyhow, I just got done taking a class taught by a cancer researcher and there are a fair bit of papers that associate a mother's diet with disease processes later in life...and not only that, but her diet can even make changes to DNA that are seen throughout her child's children's lives, so this is even a generational concern.

Anyways, I don't know that I'd trust her judgement at this point, even on the flagyl.

I take pills 4 times a day, so I've got my PRObiotic in 2 doses and my ANTIbiotic in the other 2 doses  :)

I've done a little reading on "fetal origins" in the past, and it's mostly why I'm choosing to be relatively picky about my diet now that I'm pregnant. My mother gained a LOT of weight while she was pregnant with me because she quit smoking and ate a lot of junk; I ended up obese since my age was in the single digits and had type 2 diabetes by age 25. I can't prove the two are directly connected, but I can sure do everything I can to start my child's life off the best way I know how. I am avoiding all soy, artificial sweeteners, grains, and limiting my sugar intake. I buy organic when I can and "all natural" often as well. I can't say I'm perfect (as the Red Robin mozzarella sticks the other day will show!), but I'm doing what I can!

Haha--no one is perfect!  The obesity thing also goes the other way around, too.  A mother that has too-low intake can cause her baby to adapt to living during what it thinks is famine and when it comes out of the womb and sees food food food everywhere, it's metabolism is somewhat "set" and it stores the food, because it was basically told to expect famine on the way out.  I thought it was kinda interesting that low birth weight babies had been seen to have a lot of instances of chronic diseases later in life--diabetes, heart disease, etc.

My professor also mentioned that it's been noted that babies born in certain months can tend to have certain related conditions/symptoms/characteristics, which they think might be due the produce that is seasonally available that the moms were eating, etc.

Anyhow, the fetal origins thing might also be called the Barker Hypothesis if you want to do more reading on it.  I think it's pretty interesting, whether it has a huge effect on how we end u*****t.

On September 1, 2011 at 4:49 AM Pacific Time, Kayla B. wrote: I thought it was kinda interesting that low birth weight babies had been seen to have a lot of instances of chronic diseases later in life--diabetes, heart disease, etc.


That is VERY interesting - in my first year of life, doctors were apparently concerned because I wasn't gaining weight quickly enough. I don't thin kI had a low birth weight, just wasn't growing enough. That problem was obviously overcome  :P 

Yeah, I think that was the general trend.  My professor also noted that there is more of a movement to make sure the "catch up" weight doesn't get put on as quickly as possible now, but is stretched over many years, but this is apparently more recent.