Is the more expensive prenatal vitamin really worth it?

[Anonymous]

I started out my pregnancy with a prescription (and generic) prenatal vitamin that cost $10. I assumed it had DHA in it because that's what I'd asked my doctor's nurse for. Turns out they ordered the wrong one, the one without DHA, so a couple months later, I started taking the CVS brand of DHA supplement (200 mg I think). Now I'm back on the correct prescription for OB Complete with DHA and it's $50/month. Do you think it's really worth paying the extra money for this non-generic prescription prenatal vitamin w/ the DHA in it? Or should I just go back to the cheaper one w/ the supplement cause it doesn't make a big difference. $50 just seems like a lot for vitamins.

[Anonymous]

My OBs always told me to buy OTC pre-natals.

[Anonymous]

How can anyone answer this question? I took OTC prenatals, and my son is smart, healthy, etc. But who knows how much smarter, healthier, etc., he would have been had I taken prescription prenatals?

[Anonymous]

Compare the ingredients. I think most prenatals are pretty much the same.

[Anonymous]

No. They just create expensive pee. If you need additional DHA then just get that and a basic OTC.

[Anonymous]

What matters are the ingredients/contents, not the price tag. I buy CVS prenatal a & DHA supplements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can anyone answer this question? I took OTC prenatals, and my son is smart, healthy, etc. But who knows how much smarter, healthier, etc., he would have been had I taken prescription prenatals?

[Anonymous]

The only thing that matters to me is the DHA pill that comes with it. I usually buy the 2-bottle package; one prenatal multivitamin, one bottle is dha. When I went cheap, the dha pills had an awful fishy aftertaste that made me want to gag. It also caused fishy burps. So disgusting. So I do think that the way the pills are made makes a big difference.

[Anonymous]

I use Nature Made with DHA include, usually $15-20/90 pills. What else would the expensive vitamins have?

[Anonymous]

The biggest difference I've found in more expensive (but still OTC) vitamins is that they can be taken on an empty stomach, are food based and more gentle. Also organic, but I do it because I can afford it. If you want to know how much of a difference they'll make in the kid, probably not any. However, there are lots of vitamins that don't contain what they're supposed to. You can surely google it, but there's a site that has tested them to see and has the results. Just make sure they have what they say they will.

[Anonymous]

I had the opposite experience from pp-- I found the less expensive vitamins much easier on my stomach than the expensive ones.

[Anonymous]

as pp mentioned, if the cheaper vitamins are easy enough on the stomach - there is no need to pay money for fancy ones.

[Anonymous]

Used CVS brand and had no issues.

[Anonymous]

OTC all the way

[Anonymous]

Prescription prenatals are basically the same as the standard OTC ones, which is what most medical practitioners will tell you. Some people can get better prescription coverage (low or no out of pocket) so that's why they'll offer a scrip.

That's not saying there aren't better, higher-quality (and somewhat pricier) vitamin/supplements out there, but just not to be obtained at CVS, OTC or RX.