- The story begins long before baby's birth
- Food variations on the theme of girl/boy diets
- Other methods for influencing baby's sex
You feel it, you know it, it's time for your couple to become parents. Already, you're imagining yourselves with your child. But little boy or little girl? Blue room or pink room? (Or a gender-neutral green decor!). Still, you'd like to know, or better still, decide. At least try. And, since baby's going to take up residence in your womb before he has his own room at home, maybe that's the place to start. We tend to forget it, but for a serene pregnancy, attention should be focused on the body, well before the conception phase. How do you do this? By looking after your diet, for example. Vitamins, minerals, nutrients, etc., everything you need for a healthy mother-to-be... and to help you choose the sex of your future baby, thanks to an adapted boy/girl diet!
The story begins long before baby's birth
You love each other. You want to have a baby. You're overjoyed. But right now, all attention must be focused on you, the mother-to-be. Because you're all going to be making an invaluable effort to conceive, carry and give life to this long-awaited child, it's important to be well prepared beforehand.
Every day, taking care of your health
Pregnancy often begins with the appearance of the little "+" sign on the test. Stop drinking alcohol and smoking, prescribe food supplements, rest without limits, wellness sessions... Nothing is too good or too beneficial to take care of yourself and the life you're carrying. But what if, earlier, much earlier, from your own birth and throughout your life, long before you became pregnant, your health was determined by an element common to all ages? That element could be diet.
Decoupling benevolence from the desire to have children
What we do know is that good health boosts fertility and favors conception, as well as the settlement and healthy development of the fetus. A positive solution, therefore, is to be particularly kind to yourself, your body and your metabolism, from the moment you first begin to question your desire for a child.
Organic or home-grown fruit and vegetables, gentle but regular exercise, plenty of mineral water, attentive listening to the body and its reactions, no processed foods... The aim is to regain or maintain vitality, in particular by avoiding processed foods and endocrine disruptors, which are often the cause of extended conception delays.
But the little extra, the little trick, would come from certain types of diet, the famous girl/boy diets, which would be capable of influencing nature's choice of sex for the unborn baby. A gamble worth taking, and menus to try out as much out of enthusiasm as curiosity, or for the astonished reaction of your friends and family when you tell them you've succeeded.
Food variations on the theme of girl/boy diets
For many years now, science has demonstrated that themother-to-be's diet, prior to fertilization, can influence the proportion of girls and boysborn. A subtle dosage of minerals could therefore increase your chances of conceiving a baby girl, or increase the likelihood of giving birth to a boy.
Sodium and potassium for getting pregnant with a boy
To maximize your chances of having a baby boy in a few months, focus on foods rich in sodium and potassium, and their acidifying properties. If you're what we call a "salty eater", you'll love it.
Choose dried fruit with care, including prunes, blond and brown grapes, apricots and dried bananas, which are ideal for snacking. At the table, opt for salted or smoked meats and fish such as canned tuna, sardines in oil, cod, herring or cold cuts, washed down withsodium-rich spring water, squeezed fruit juices (75 cl/day if possible) and reasonable quantities of tea and coffee. As an accompaniment, you can eat lamb's lettuce without limit, again for its potassium content,legumes and all vegetables except green leafy ones.
Calcium and magnesium to conceive a girl
Conversely, the ideal diet for getting pregnant with a baby girl is alkalinizing.
This time, the essential food is milk, 75 cl/day if possible, for its high calcium content. You can also consume all its derivatives such as soft butter, cream and plain yoghurt or petits-suisses, but be careful not to eat cheese. You'll also find calcium in green vegetables such as cabbage, spinach, watercress, beans, leeks, cucumbers and peas, as well as in carrots, tomatoes and eggplants. Add unsalted meat and fish, fresh fruit, salt-free bread and rusks, as well as pasta.
It's possible that one of the two diets is easier to follow than the other. We'll let you guess which!
Whatever you choose, remember that these are preconception diets. As soon as your pregnancy is confirmed, return to a rich, balanced and varied diet until your baby is born.
Is baby's sex just a question of pH?
The mother-to-be's diet does play a role in conception. By modifying the body's pH, what we eat also varies the consistency of cervical mucus, which in turn affects the ease of sperm movement. A high pH (acidic) favours male sperm (X). On the other hand, a low pH (basic) favours female sperm (Y).
Other methods for influencing baby's sex
Beyond boy/girl diets, the Shettles method is that female sperm (X) are slower, but also more resistant than male sperm. So, if a couple has intercourse two or three days before the expected ovulation date, the only male gametes still present could be X spermatozoa.
The Roberte method relies on the civil and menstrual calendars. Based on our grandmothers' almanac, author Roberte de Crève-Cœur creates a calendar of pink and blue days each year to guide future parents. Depending on the mother-to-be's ovulation date and the color of the day, they would be more likely to conceive a girl or a boy.
The Chinese calendar allows you to cross-reference your age with the month of conception to obtain a girl or boy result. Similarly, certain sexual positions are more favorable to the conception of a boy or a girl. Generally speaking, opt for deep penetration if you want a boy. Once again, this will facilitate the work of the Y spermatozoa.
Living well with pregnancy and accepting happiness as it is
Whichever way you choose, once you're pregnant, you're free to wait until the birth or the 6-month morphological ultrasound to find out whether your method of selecting the baby's sex has been effective!
If so, congratulations! If not, don't be disappointed. Discuss it with your friends and family or your gynaecologist and put it into perspective. It's hard to beat nature! The birth of a child remains a biological miracle, always coupled with an element of chance.
