Nevergirl’s

Do prenatal vitamins really play a part in how smart your child turns out? And if so, to what extent? I used to pay such close attention to Alex’s mental development early on because I’m not really sure how much vitamins – or the lack thereof – affect a fetus’ mental development. When I was pregnant with Alex, I only started taking vitamins when I was 6 months along. It wasn’t just that we were broke (badly so, back in the day). It was also because it took me a while to realize I’m pregnant. I was so thin and my tummy barely grew that it wasn’t until I was 5 months along that we realized the jig was up.

Now, you may wonder, “How could a woman not realize she’s pregnant?” Easily enough, in my case. I’ve always had an irregular menstrual cycle; I menstruate only twice or thrice a year so when I started missing all those periods, I didn’t even raise an eyebrow. Plus, I used to be so tiny the growing bump barely showed. At 5 months pregnant, I didn’t look pregnant at all and we wouldn’t have known I am if the now hub (then boyfriend) didn’t think it odd that my stomach is slightly rounded instead of the usual hollowed.

So, anyway, Alex didn’t get vitamins until I was 6 months along. This worried me a lot. I only stopped worrying after she talked and walked early. Still, I can’t help thinking. Would she have been more intelligent if I had taken supplements early? Would she have been more talented, more gifted, MORE in every way if circumstances had been different?

We’re not too sure, the hub and I. Even doctors cannot point out the specific differences to the IQ that these vitamins make. But we covered all bases with Charlie. We worked hard on getting pregnant with the second daughter and so we knew the precise moment she started growing. This is the second daughter now.

Nope, she can’t read but she loves lying down with a book on hand, and she’s super talkative. We’ve stopped counting the words she can say because she now says so many – book, dog (dawg), cat, birds (bihds), tubig (tupik), pakpak, school (tol), shoes (tos), dagat (tatat), milk (memelk), baby (in reference to her hahaha!), ate, kuya, nanay, mama, papa, chicken (tiken), and the names of everyone in the house and the neighbors’ names to boot.

Yesterday, we were sitting in the veranda when one of the guys living downstairs opened the gate. My 15-month-old waved at him with a huge smile, “Loloy, hi!” That made me laugh. I didn’t know the guy’s name but my daughter does!

To the other moms who read this blog, do you believe prenatal vitamins impact a child’s IQ dramatically? Share your thoughts!

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 16th, 2010 at 7:47 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.