Help with Prenatal Vitamins May Be (TMI)

My prenatal would make my stomach upset as well, so I started taking it at night before bed with a snack of banana and graham crackers or ginger snaps if you can find them. Ginger snaps are great for naseua and I didn't noticed any symptoms cause I'd sleep through it. My grandmother told me never to drink anything even water when first waking up, eat something first. I keep crackers in my nightstand to eat before getting up lol!! Crazy as these tips may sound they really worked for me, hope they could be helpful to you. Congrats on the baby :0)

Take them in the middle of eating dinner, NOT first thing in the morning. I can't even take regular vitamins when I'm not preggers first thing in the morning without wanting to puke.

Tell your OB what you're experiencing, they will probably switch your vitamins. Have you tried OTC brands? That may help as well, but start eating them with dinner!

The previous poster is right, taking vitamins on an empty stomach is like dropping a heavy bomb in a nest. Loose stools are strange as iron generally has the opposite reaction (making it hard to go!) so my guess is that you have become lactose intolerant with the pregnancy (yogurt making you sick could be a sign - apple not really because it's hard to digest for prego stomach anyways) and therefore your bowel has trouble absorbing vitamins correctly -infact vitamins could be irritating the already inflammated intestines. My guess.

I second Rachel's suggestion about taking them in the middle of dinner. This really helped me out as I was experiencing horrible nausea (although not diarrhea like you). Ask your doctor about a prenatal with B6 or about taking another B6 pill. It is what my doctor gave me for similar symptoms.

Best of luck to you.

ooooooh...you always have to eat with them or you might as well just punch yourself right in the gut.

Ive always found that whole food sourced vitamins make me less sick and especially ones with non heme iron. Go to your local health food store ask the ladies there (they are usually well read on the subject and know everyones preference and stories of trail and error)

My mom always reacted like that to iron supplements-- which is a TOTALLY weird reaction because iron constipates most people. Prenatals are iron heavy, maybe it's the iron?

I took some vitamin (sorry can't remember the name) that was split in 2. 1/2 was the vitamin, the other was the DHA (fish oil or something). It was the only one to not make me sick. Your OB should be able to identify it. It was in a yellow box, if I remember correctly.

Have you checked the labels? Many prenatals have a stool softener in them because, as you mentioned, many women have trouble with constipation related to the iron and/or just pregnancy itself. They do make some without, but they are harder to find. Of course it is usually just a softener and not a laxative, which shouldn't cause the cramping and such. But I would check anyway. Have you taken a multivit or prenatal vit outside of pregnancy? Maybe this is how you respond to all vitamins, or if you tolerate them outside pregnancy then maybe something about this pregnancy and vitamins don't mix. Have you tried half a pill with lunch and half with dinner? Or even just a half a pill a day with a meal. Maybe splitting it up would help.
Of course prenatal vitamins are really not even necessary. Many women are not able to tolerate them, especially during those early weeks of morning sickness. Just try to keep your diet as diverse as your pregnancy hormones allow and things should be fine.