You have successfully completed 3 months of your pregnant period as you were more careful in taking right foods. These foods have helped you be confident and risk free. Now you are going to get 4th months and you can see some changes such as you don’t feel weak or you don’t feel nauseous and stop vomiting that were present during 1-3 months. In this 4th month, you have more energy as well as your belly has increased larger level from the normal level. It is because your baby has grown. So be careful of taking what your baby needs at this stage. Iron is strongly needed at this stage and try to take enough foods that contain high iron. Now we discuss about foods which are good source of iron during 4 months pregnant.
Leafy green vegetables: Most of the iron in the human body is present in red blood cells and production of cells is supplied by iron intake. As your baby is growing and taking iron from your blood. So you need to take iron to replenish iron in the red blood cell. Iron is present in a variety of plant foods like leafy green vegetables. Leafy green vegetables are spinach, broccoli, peas, kale, asparagus, Brussels sprout etc. it will be always best if your intake of leafy green vegetables are raw forms and try to keep little amount of leafy green vegetables in your every meals.
Dried fruits: 27mg iron is needed for rapid growth and high needs of your baby especially for blood volume. Your baby absorbs extra hemoglobin if you have extra iron in your blood cell. Even excess supply of iron in your blood will help your baby get plenty of oxygen from your lungs. So dried fruits are great sources of iron. Dried fruits are date, dried apple, dried banana, nuts, almonds and walnuts. They are also great sources of fiber, vitamin-A and Vitamin-E.
Whole grains: At this time of pregnancy, the body requires plenty of iron daily to develop foetus and supportive tissues to expand blood supply. So you need whole grains as bread and cereals which are rich sources of iron and folic acid. Even fiber is also available in whole grains but not in processed or white rice.
Lean meat: Lean meat, poultry, pork are sources of iron. Most of the iron animal part contain in liver. So every week, you may take meat especially one or two times in meals. Red meat also contains high amount of iron if you can without any problem. This iron from this food is so helpful to prevent anemia (number of blood cells in the blood is lower than the normal that may cause inability to supply enough oxygen to all the tissues in the body) which cause iron deficiency. Premature delivery may occur if you have iron deficiency. You should also avoid meat as raw and undercooked and cook and heat with stream well to be safe from toxoplasmosis.
Beans: Beans may be of different black beans, white beans, lentils, and black eyed peas. Beans in not only a good source of iron but also contains protein, fiber, folate calcium. So beans should be regular in your meals list for its high nutritious value. As they have fiber and antioxidants so there is no side effect of taking beans. Research also says that taking beans means developing cognitive process of your baby which will work to develop your baby’s IQ and judgment.
At the end, this 4th month is so important to supply quantity of iron but it does not mean that you just will have foods described above. You need to add up those foods in your daily meals to make sure effective supply of iron to increase the blood cell volume.