It's funny how much things change over time. When my youngest was born (he's now 12) I was on W.I.C. and two of the things I was given was tuna and peanut butter. I wonder if they still do that.
When my oldest (now 18 ) was born the big thing we were told was do NOT give them formula with iron...studies supposedly showed that too much iron would cause them to have learning difficulties. So we took it easy on the iron and gave him formula without it. With my second son 7 years later they encouraged giving as much iron as possible so he had formula with iron. Both of them turned out super intelligent so who knows.
I did avoid alcohol and cigarettes both times once I knew I was pregnant. I still drank sodas and ate pretty much whatever I wanted (but hate fish and don't eat much unpasteurized dairy stuff that I know of anyway). I was careful about what medications I took. Like others have said, it was only 9 months...well even less by the time I found out I was pregnant..so it wasn't such a huge hardship to give things up just to make sure the baby would be ok.
The internet is great for finding information but at the same time there's SO much information you can drive yourself nuts reading it all and trying to do everything just right. I guess the best thing to do is just use common sense and follow what your doctor or midwife tells you.
