When actress Radhika Apte debuted her baby bump at the BFI London Film Festival 2024, fans were surprised and delighted by the news. Radhika, who is expecting her first child with husband Benedict Taylor, had kept her pregnancy under wraps until she posted a series of snapshots from the UK premiere of her upcoming film Sister Midnight on October 17. Dressed in a sleek black bodycon dress, Radhika’s radiant smile contrasted with the difficult journey she was quietly enduring.

In a candid interview with ETimes, the actress opened up about her challenging pregnancy journey, marked by sleepless nights and physical hurdles.

Radhika Apte Battling Sleepless Nights During Pregnancy

Now in her third trimester, Radhika Apte reveals she has been grappling with severe insomnia. The actress confesses that she has been unable to get a full night’s sleep for five days in a row, a challenge that has left her physically and mentally exhausted. Reflecting on her struggles, she shared, “The third-trimester insomnia has kicked in, and I just don’t get any sleep, so it’s been quite bad.” She noted the strain of hearing well-meaning advice from others to “stay happy” and the frustration that came with it.

“People were telling me you need to be happy because you're having a child. I wanted to punch them. I'm telling you that I'm suffering, and you're telling me to be happy,” she said, highlighting the emotional toll that the lack of understanding can take.

For Radhika, the beginning of her pregnancy was also incredibly challenging. She detailed the physical difficulties she experienced, from bloating and constipation to severe nausea. To make matters worse, she was shooting in grueling 40-degree heat for three months straight, pushing her to her physical limits.

“The first trimester, I was having such a hard time. I had terrible bloating. I was terribly constipated. I had nausea. I was filming at 40 degrees for three months straight. I was having a meltdown all the time,” she revealed, describing how the demands of her career collided with her body’s changing needs.

Radhika also shared her personal reflections on this unexpected journey into motherhood. She admitted she had never planned on having children, and the decision came as a significant twist in her life. “I never had any plans to have children. So, this has been quite a twist and a big turning point. It was a lot to process. I never really intended to or wanted children,” she disclosed, revealing the emotional adjustment she has had to make.

Radhika, who has always been known for her openness and honesty, explained how unprepared she felt for the drastic changes pregnancy brings. “I also never looked into what pregnancy means or what happens when you’re pregnant. There’s so much sacredness attached to pregnancy that nobody tells you the truth because pregnancy is very hard,” she said.

Describing the physical and psychological preparation as overwhelming, she commented on the subjective nature of pregnancy, where some people experience it more easily than others, but for her, it has been an exhausting journey.

Actress Shares Pregnancy Struggles

In an industry where motherhood is often idealized and portrayed as a blissful experience, Radhika’s honesty about her struggles brings a refreshing perspective. Her words offer a candid look at the realities many women face but seldom share, especially in the public eye. Her experience underscores that pregnancy can be a deeply personal and difficult experience, fraught with unexpected challenges.

Radhika Apte’s journey, marked by resilience and unfiltered honesty, is a testament to her strength as she navigates the ups and downs of pregnancy. As she prepares for motherhood, her story serves as a reminder that it’s okay to acknowledge and voice the hardships of this life-altering phase.

Hidden Challenges During Pregnancy

Many women like Apte, face hidden struggles during pregnancy, including insomnia, morning sickness, and heightened anxiety. These challenges, often overlooked, make pregnancy a demanding journey both physically and emotionally.

Insomnia: Especially common in the third trimester, insomnia can leave pregnant women exhausted, impacting their mental and physical well-being.

Nausea and Constipation: Hormonal shifts lead to digestive issues like nausea and constipation, often worsened by dietary restrictions.

Emotional Stress: Anxiety around childbirth and lifestyle changes can cause heightened emotional distress.

Physical Aches: Increased body weight and posture changes often lead to back pain and body aches.

Pregnancy can be a very difficult time for women. They are not only providing for themselves but also working on building a new being. This only drains them of their energy but also costs them their health. There is a delicate balance between keeping themselves healthy, and making sure their unborn child remains unharmed.

What many people do not know is that even small things like gaining weight during pregnancy, or being overweight before the pregnancy, could be the reason why their children could be suffering from health issues.

A new study reveals that children born to women who are obese face a greater chance of being hospitalized due to a severe infection. This risk is particularly pronounced in early life and continues into adolescence.

Risk Across Childhood

Babies under one year old had a 41% higher chance of being hospitalized for an infection if their mom was very obese during pregnancy. This was reported by researchers on June 3 in the journal BMJ Medicine. The study also found that this increased risk lasts into childhood and even the teen years, with kids aged 5 to 15 being 53% more likely to need hospital care for an infection.

The research team noted that most of these extra hospital stays were for breathing issues, stomach problems, and common viral infections. They stressed that these findings show how important it is to help women get and stay at a healthy weight before they get pregnant.

Growing Problem and What the Study Found

The number of pregnant women who are obese has almost doubled in recent decades. It went from less than 9% in the 1990s to over 16% in the 2010s. To look into the possible health risks for children when moms are obese during pregnancy, researchers studied 9,540 births in Bradford, U.K., between March 2007 and December 2010. They found that about 56% of the mothers in this study were overweight or obese during their pregnancy.

The results clearly showed that moms with severe obesity (a body mass index, or BMI, of 35 or higher) had children with a higher chance of getting infections. (BMI is a way to guess how much body fat a person has based on their height and weight.)

What's Causing the Risk?

Interestingly, some things often linked to obesity during pregnancy weren't as big of a factor as expected. For example, pre-term birth (babies born early) only explained 7% of the link between a mom's obesity and childhood infections. However, C-section birth explained a larger 21% of the risk, and the child being obese by ages 4 or 5 explained 26%. This suggests that dealing with C-section rates or childhood obesity could help lower kids' infection risk.

Researchers think that a mom's obesity during pregnancy might affect a child's inflammation, genes, how their body uses food, and their gut bacteria. Any of these could impact the child's developing immune system, making them more likely to get infections.

Why a Healthy Weight Before Pregnancy Matters

The study concludes that doctors should encourage women who are able to have children to reach and keep a healthy weight. The researchers pointed out that pregnancy is a great time to make lasting healthy changes to one's lifestyle. So, supporting women during pregnancy and after birth to make healthier food and lifestyle choices could help both the mom's health and her child's weight, possibly lowering their risk of infections.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is conducting a comprehensive review of infant formula ingredients. It was initiated under the guidance of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as part of his "Make America Healthy Again" agenda, pledging to overhaul the U.S. food supply.

Behind this action is a mounting concern: although infant formula is still a staple for scores of American families, the science and nutritional criteria used to produce it have not materially changed since 1998. With changing worldwide research on infant nutrition and increasingly anxious parents worrying about contaminants, additives, and ingredient disclosure, this review could not be more timely.

Roughly 75% of U.S. infants are dependent on formula for the first six months, and for nearly 40%, it is the exclusive source of nutrition, as the CDC reports. In spite of world campaigns promoting exclusive breastfeeding, infant formula has emerged as a lifeline for parents who are unable—or unwilling—to breastfeed because of medical concerns, work schedules, or personal preference.

Formula is made to imitate breast milk of human women and usually comes from cow milk or soy. According to present FDA guidelines, every infant formula product is required to have 30 nutrients essential for infants in specific proportions. Yet, the technology of infants' digestion and nutrition requirements has progressed immensely, leading experts to wonder if the standards are yet sufficient.

Why Is The Government's Pushing for Nutritional Transparency?

Secretary Kennedy's call to action comes as part of a comprehensive national effort to enhance the U.S. food supply chain. The review is happening in the face of increasing parental distrust and industry trends which indicate that existing rules might not be completely in accordance with recent worldwide research on infant feeding. This effort will take into consideration an array of factors, including:

• Nutrient content and bioavailability
• Incidence of contaminants such as heavy metals
• Variations in international nutritional standards
• Possible threats from added sugars and seed oils

There is a planned roundtable discussion where scientists, manufacturers, and policymakers will engage in a debate on infant formula in the U.S. The FDA currently invites public and expert comment until the September 11 deadline.

What Are The Ingredients in Infant Formula?

Although the current formula is deemed safe, scientists insist that modern science highlights new nutritional findings not necessarily captured by existing rules. The FDA's 30-list of essential nutrients has not changed much since the 90s—even though studies on breast milk composition have dramatically changed.

Some of the main issues under consideration are:

Iron Content: American formulas generally have more iron content than European ones. Iron is crucial but, like too much of anything, could have unexpected side effects, so a rethinking may be in order.

DHA and HMOs: Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are recent additions designed to make formula as much like human milk as possible. Yet these are not necessary in every product.

Added Sugars: Corn syrup solids and glucose are common in certain formulas and can be responsible for early weight gain. Lactose, the natural sugar found in breast milk, is a better option.

Seed Oils: Widely maligned by health activists, seed oils are nevertheless essential to matching the fatty acid profile of breast milk, according to experts.

Bridget Young, an infant nutritionist at the University of Rochester, pressed the point to examine beyond ingredient labels to consider bioavailability—how well the body can absorb and utilize these foods.

Kennedy's bill also seems to be in response to lessons gleaned from the 2022 formula shortage, when contamination of an Abbott plant caused a national shortage. Parents frantically sought to get safe food into their babies, demonstrating how weak and undiversified the U.S. formula supply chain really is.

More compatibility with global standards, analysts contend, would have alleviated the shortage by facilitating faster importation of safe foreign-made brands. Kennedy's proposal seeks to avoid such disruptions by increasing regulatory leeway and strengthening safety protocols.

Should Parents Be Worried?

Some parents have in the last few years opted for European infant formulas, deeming them to be more healthy because of variations in ingredient listings and the degree of labeling transparency.

Though European and American recipes vary in iron levels or forms of sugar, neither is inherently superior. Each is constructed within a distinct regulatory and cultural context.

Rather than advocating for one over the other, Kennedy's report aims to take the best from both worlds merging U.S. regulation with evidence-driven international nutritional research.

What Parents Need to Know Before Buying Baby Formula

While no short-term changes are being implemented to the amount or type of infant formula available on retail shelves, the review is a significant departure from the manner in which the federal government plans to regulate the nutrition of babies.

The review will take a minimum of one year and will require coordination among government, industry, pediatric nutritionists, and consumers. Abrams cautions that this cannot be a cosmetic effort: "No shortcuts are possible. No one white paper or committee report will suffice."

For the moment, health professionals are assuring parents that infant formulas available today are still safe and nutritionally adequate. But the future could bring formulas that are not only safe but even more biologically relevant and designed to the most recent science regarding infant development.

Kids love copying their parents, whether it is because they wish to act like grown-up or just wish to feel connected to them. However, what we may not have realized is that the eating habits of our parents can unknowingly seep into our own lifestyle, especially our parents’.

A father's eating habits can have a big effect on what their children eat, even before those children are born, according to a new study. Men who ate healthy as teenagers were more likely to show good eating habits to their own kids and keep a close eye on what their children consumed. Habits like eating healthy, exercising and other healthy lifestyle choices are something one should teach their child. These findings were shared at a meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando, Florida.

Teen Habits Shape Future Dads

Researchers explained that fathers who ate healthier as teenagers were more likely to encourage positive food habits in their children. She noted that these fathers were better at modeling healthy eating—showing good dietary habits themselves—and monitoring how many unhealthy foods, like certain sweets and snacks, their children ate.

For this study, researchers looked at information from 669 men. These men had filled out questionnaires about their eating habits when they were teenagers. Years later, in 2021 and 2022, when they had children aged 1 to 6, researchers asked them about their kids' diets. The men in the study were initially part of a larger study in the 1990s and 2000s and had completed at least two diet surveys during their teen years.

The researchers used a common tool called the Healthy Eating Index to score how well the men ate. A higher score meant eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, and lean proteins. It also meant eating less refined grains, salt, added sugars, and unhealthy fats. This tool helped them clearly see the quality of the men's diets.

Teen Diet Quality Varied, with Clear Outcomes

The study found that as teenagers:

• About 44% of the men had a poor diet.
• Around 40% had their diet quality get worse over time.
• Only 16% had a diet that improved and became healthier as they grew up.

The results showed that men whose diets improved during their teenage years were 90% more likely to show healthy eating habits to their kids as fathers. They were also 60% more likely to keep an eye on what their children ate.

Healthier Next Generation

Because these fathers had healthier habits, their children were much more likely to eat the daily recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables. This difference was especially clear when compared to kids whose dads had unhealthy diets as teenagers.

The research highlighted that healthy eating habits developed during the teen years don't just help individuals, but also influence how they parent in the future, leading to better nutrition for the next generation. This finding is particularly important given the rising concerns about childhood obesity and poor diets. Investing in good nutrition for teenagers, including boys, can create long-lasting benefits that extend across many generations.