TTC & Gender Swaying

This thread is for members who wish to discuss methods such as diet, intercourse timing and altering the vaginal environment in order to TTC a baby of a specific gender.
There is an article on the Shettles Method here if you want to find out more about intercourse timing and positions to maximise your chances of concieving a specific gender. In order to use some of the swaying methods you will need to have an understanding of charting your cycle. You can find an article about charting here or discuss it with others in our Charting Your Cycle Forum.
If you're experiencing feelings of gender dissappointment there is a discussion about this topic here and an article about it here

Some diet information can be found in HERE

More girl diet info HERE

Girl douche and tampon info HERE

Some Studies HERE

The previous thread can be found HERE.

Your moderators for this thread are:
Onyx - Admin
Olive - Senior Moderator
Lenny - Moderator
Muppity - Moderator
nothing2lose - Moderator

You can find their email addresses here.


Good Luck!!!

Copied from old thread - thanks Tanya

:

---

THE GIRL DIET

Daily recommended supps Calcium 800mg, Magnesium 300mg, Vitamin D (also cut out as much sodiuma and potasium - read your lables)

Suppliments
Every day of the cycle
Calcium (1200 mg a day) take from af to O calcium in the cm helps to sway for a girl
Magnesium (250 mg a day)take from af to O Mag. in the cm helps to sway for a girl
Folic Acid (450 mcg a day)take all the time THIS DOES NOT SWAY! IT PREVENTS BIRTHDEFECTS AND PREVENTS MC
Acidilophis (2 a day) take from af to OThis is taken to lower pH. side effects: this is a funny supplment. Either it will lower your pH dramaticaly or you will raise it. It is different for different people
B6 (100 mg a day) Take all the time, but when you get a bfp you need to ween off slowly- if you take 100 this means the next week you take 80, then the next week 60 then 40, 20, 10 then stop. This is taken to raise progestrone and legthen luteal phase. Side efffects: When taken before O it may dealy O. It will also legthen your luteal phase
Chasteberry (Vitex) (500 mg a day) this has progestrone so you need to treat it the same as you would with b6
Tums (whenever you think about it- isn’t necessary to take this and calcium since it is the same thing)

Every day from AF to O
Cranberry (total of 1,500 to 10,000 mg a day if possible) take from af to O this is taken to lower pH side effect: cranberry can not be taken after O as it can cause mc. Cranberry is a blood thinner so if you already taking a blood thinner do not take this.
Lydia Pinkham (take from af to O) this is taken to raise progestrone and regulate cycles side effect: This will either make your cycles regural or screw them up

Before sex
Sudafed (or Claratin D, etc.) (a few hours before sex) this is taken to lower pH and dry up cm

Husband take
Cranberry (as much as he’ll take) side effect: blood thinner.. see above
Any of the other supplements you are taking if he’ll take them except Vitex or Lydia Pinkham.


Daily Fluid Intake Must be 2-2 1/2 litres (8-10 glasses) This is very important for proper calcium absorbtion

DIETARY GUIDELINES

Milk Products : Drink 750 ml milk daily. Include 2 milk products such as yoghurt & custard daily

Eggs: Allowed

Cheese: Small serves cottage cheese. 1 dessertspn of parmesan cheese twice a week

Drinks

Tea & Coffee: Basically forbidden but one cup only of either is acceptable. It must be very weak!

Mineral Water: Evian, Perrier (all other brands are too high in pot/sodium)

Wine: An Occassional drink allowed (150ml)

Meat (maximum 130g per day)

Lamb: 1 midloin chop(large) or 1 chump chop(medium) or 1 forequarter chop

Beef: 1 piece oyster blade (med) or 1/2 t-bone steak or 1pce eye fillet (2.5cm thick)

Pork: 1 butterfly steak or 1 midloin (med)

Chicken: 1 breast & meat from 1 drumstick

Fish: Must be cooked in a 'court bouillon' ie poached in 500ml water, a little wine & herbs.. discard liquid to serve...reduces natural salt content

Bread: Must be low salt content (less than 1%), white has less potassium, salt free crispbread or crackers

Pasta: Permitted without restriction if prepared without forbidden ingredients

Rice: brown or white permitted

Cereals: Semolina, Tapioca, Cous cous, Corn flour, plain wheat flour (not SR), puffed rice

Vegetables: Maximum allowance 150g daily

Allowed: fresh or frozen carrots, green beans, turnips, onion, leeks, peas, cucumbers, radishes, green/red peppers, cress, celery,eggplant, fresh asparagus

Potatoes Not to be eaten more than 3 times per week

Fruit: maximum allowance 150g daily

May be fresh frozen or canned...small apple 110g, pear (med) 170g, raspberries 1/2 cup 50g, strawberries large 15-20g each

Tinned ONLY (not fresh) & without syrup...pineapple, plums,peaches

Nuts: unsalted walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, peanuts

Sweet Foods

Jams: Not more than once a day, only one desertspn

Sugar/Honey:Restrict as much as possible as too much sugar interferes with calcium absorbtion

Concession: 1 orange & 1 lemon per week

Herbs: Allspice, aniseed, bay leaves, cloves, chives, chervil, chilli,coriander,cilantro,cumin, garlic, horseradish,juniper,marjoram, mint, paprika, parsley,saffron, sage, thyme, tumeric

Miscellaneous: Vegetable oils, pepper, spices, mustard, gelatine, homemade sauces without salt or forbidden ingredients

Cooking Tips: Do not use a salt substitute...everything must be cooked without salt. Onions, garlic, pepper & spices can be used to improve the flavour of food.

FORBIDDEN FOODS

Drinks: coffee, tea,chocolate, mineral waters(except those permitted), cordial, fresh or tinned juice, fizzy drinks, wine, beer, cola, cider, liqueurs, apertifs

Meat: all smallgoods including smoked meats

Fish: fish fingers, smoked, dried or salted fish, tinned fish,shellfish, prawns,anchovies, caviar

Cheese:all forbidden (high salt)

Bread/ pastries: white, wholemeal, rye bread, milk loaf, fruit loaf, crispbreads, croissants, buns,bought biscuits, cakes, icecream, quiches, pizzas

Fresh fruit: Pineapples, plums, peaches, apricots, cherries, bananas, oranges,melons, lemons, grapefruit, redcurrants, grapes, fruit juices

Dried fruit: apricots, dates, figs, raisins, chestnuts, sultanas, prunes, coconut, currants

Vegetables: sweet corn, flat leaf continental parsley,spinach, cabbage, mushrooms, endive, avocado, fennel, raw tomatoes, soya beans,pumpkin, split peas,broad beans, lentils, haricot beans

Sweets: chocolates, lollies

Salt: of any description

Chemical raising agents, bicarb soda, effervescent drugs

Soups from sachet or tins, stock cubes

Tomato paste, sauce, bottled mayonnaise or other sauces

Tinned fresh or frozen ready made meal

Jelly

Salted or slightly salted butter or margarine

Olives, gherkins, marinades, pickles, popcorn

UNDERSTANDING YOUR DIET

It is important that you understand the principles which form the basis of this diet. Essentially it requires you to eat foods that are rich in calcium & magnesium but low in potassium & sodium. This must be strictly adhered to if you are to gain maximum benefit from it.

Why are these restrictions necessary?

Tea,Coffee & Alcohol

Each cup of tea or coffee causes you to lose calcium from your body. Alcohol with its diuretic effect also causes the kidneys to excrete more calcium than they would normally

Chocolate: This is very high in potassium & contains oxalates which bind with calcium & make it unusable

Wheat Bran: This contains phytates which also rob the body of calcium. For eg., for every 100g of bran that is eaten the body loses 350 mg calcium

Meat: Restricted because of its high protein content. If you eat more than 120g protein a day you begin to enter a dietary range where the protein will cause calcium loss.

Sugar: Heavy intake of sugar will cause you to lose calcium through excess excretion. It is recommended that you keep your sugar intake to less than 60 g per day

Important Facts To Note

Always drink 8-10 glasses of water per day. It is important to drink this amount as it will help the body to dissolve & to absorb the increased calcium that is being taken in, whether from food or supplements. Calcium cannot be absorbed well or excreted safely without water.

Do not attempt this diet if you suffer from poor kidney function .This could result in kidney stones due to the increased calcium intake.

Commence the diet & mineral supplements 6 -10 weeks before a planned conception.

It must be stressed that the diet should only be undertaken with careful medical or naturopath supervision. It is recommended to have a check up before starting & to continue regular check ups whilst on the diet to ensure that excessive electrolyte imbalance is avoided.

This diet was extracted from "the girl diet", an e-book purchased from Sue Roebuck, a natural fertility naturopath in Australia.

Suppliments
Every day of the cycle
Calcium (1200 mg a day)
Magnesium (250 mg a day)
Acidilophis (2 a day)
B6 (100 mg a day) Take all the time, but when you get a bfp you need to ween off slowly- if you take 100 this means the next week you take 80, then the next week 60 then 40, 20, 10 then stop. This is taken to raise progestrone and legthen luteal phase. Side efffects: When taken before O it may dealy O. It will also legthen your luteal phase
Chasteberry (Vitex) (500 mg a day) this has progestrone so you need to treat it the same as you would with b6
Cranberry (total of 1,500 to 10,000 mg a day if possible) cranberry can not be taken after O as it can cause mc.

Before sex
Sudafed (a few hours before sex) this is taken to lower pH and dry up cm

Husband take
Cranberry

Thanks to the girls at in-gender for this info

---

Hi everyone! Haven't posted in a forum thread since my last one was born... its nice to be back!!! I have three little boys and my husband and I are deciding whether or not to try for the illusive girl!! So while we decide, and I'm pretty sure the outcome will be that we will try, I need to get my body ready for conceiving (hopefully!!) by eating all the right foods and making my body a girl temple!! I would love to share my journey with you and I would love it if we can help each other out along the way!! In terms of diet etc, I want this to conception to be as relaxed as possible... I was a little bit manic with the others with timing and ovulation etc!! So I'm going to take ALL my supplements, drink HEAPS of milk, cut out salt and minimize my tea drinking and meat eating! Does that all sound about right? Anything else I really should be doing without having to go TOO overboard!!?

Note to add, I'm still breastfeeding a 15 month old and there's no sign of AF so I have no idea if or when I'm ovulating! Will just get my intake of the right foods right first and sort all that "technical stuff" out later!! :)

Chat soon

Well we've decided to start TTC next month so I'm about to try and attempt the girl diet, am about to sit down and do some research and make a shopping list. Has anyone seen a natropath to help with ttc? I have really long cycles so am thinking of trying one out to see if this helps shorten them a little. I have ordered some PH strips off ebay so they should arrive any day now.
LeeLoo - sounds like you're on the right track - well at least I hope you are as i'm pretty much going to do the same! Goodluck : )

We are also TTC starting this month and trying for a girl.... i'm so confused as to which method to use.... O+12 or Shettles Method?

I tried O+12 and here I am!! :-). I'll be trying Shettles this time O+12 was too tricky for me in terms of accuracy of ovulation etc!!

Hi, I am not new to gender swaying having tried a 2 day cut off, supplements, low PH, no O, etc which resulted in my gorgeous DS2. We arent really swaying anymore because we started TTC in July last year I have had two consecutive losses and now I just want to be pg, and girl timing methods make it more difficult to get pg at all. However we are doing the diet (losely) by having more dairy, and less potatoes, tomatoes and bananas, and Im also taking few supplements, but that is it really. I hope its enough to get me a daughter!

Is there somewhere you can download an eating plan, like they have for weightloss diets? Like a day to day planner? Might be easier to follow iykwim!?

:

---

Is there somewhere you can download an eating plan, like they have for weightloss diets? Like a day to day planner? Might be easier to follow iykwim!?

---

Hi leeloo and everyone else!
I haven't seen a free meal plan. A-gender can do a personalized meal plan for you if you want to cough up some cash.
I bought the Silver Plan recently - it is general info, not a personalised plan. We are ttc a girl too! I have been taking cranberry tabs and I have checked the ph of my CM. The info I have says timing is less important than having a girl friendly environment - ie. acidic CM, acidic sperm.

I thought my enviroment was girl friendly but then, with all three, dtd too close to ovulation.... so I'm going more for the timing this time... as far away from ovulation as I can possibly go!! :)
Ash - Did you think the A-Gender plan was worth the money? Their site looks really nice!!
Hello to everyone else!! :hello:

Leeloo, timing has worked for us, so I am reluctant to abandon it as a method. I figure getting my CM as acidic as possible can't hurt (in the short term at least).
I was a bit cashed up a few weeks back so I didn't mind spending the money on the girl plan. The info is very comprehensive.

I'm reluctant to change my diet too much. Happy to reduce salt (don't eat a lot anyway) and increase magnesium. I don't eat dairy. If we have another son, I will be over the moon. I would just love to have another daughter so that my daughter can have a sister. So, I'm not hugely emotionally invested in the outcome, if that makes sense.

So far I've come up with no coffee, no chocolate (though I have no idea how i'm gonna pull that one off!!) no salt.
Lots of milk, increase magnesium (thanks Ash!) Lots of Cranberry Juice!

Thats my plan so far... will keep adding to that as time goes on!! :)

Leelo, your plan sounds great. I think if you put everything into your sway you'll at least be able to say that you gave it your best shot. No regrets.

Ash - Your sway sounds pretty good too. I think its great that you arent too invested in whether you get another boy or girl. I think if I had a girl next then I'd love to give her a sister too. I loved having sisters growing up so I understand where you are coming from, especially as I always wanted two little girls of my own.

Id love to sway hardcore but I just want a baby so bad and DH is really getting tired of the diet. My m/cs have really changed my headspace but at the same time I do really want (need) a daughter of my own. I guess you ladies understand.

Hi everyone :hello:

leeloo here I am hehehe I'm keen to be a girl temple too but am just not that confident in being acidic. I can't wait to test my cm around o time to see how much work I'll need to do. Did you sway for your other pregnancies?

Hi boo I say a chinese herbal medicine guy after having 3 x mc's in 09. One month after starting his herbs and haveing acupuncture we were pg with DS :) I also have the ebay test strips, can't wait to use them... might see if I can test dh later on today

GabberQueen I know...... It's so hard to know what to do!!! I asked my OB when I was pg withi DS and he said the science tells us that femal sperm live longer and prefer acidic environments so I think I'll give that a go.

Diamond Girl, The chinese herbal medicine guy we see said that being acidic should relaly be enough to sway for a girl. He thinks it's as high as an 80 chance, don't know where he gest that from though.

Ash hello my lovely :) Did you sway for your other bubs? Or did you just do timing? as that enough to get the gender you wanted? It took us 16 cycles to get DS so we werer doing it all the time and especially right on O day. We prefered a boy 1st anyway and I'm sure we are both alkaline so really it was all lined up for a boy. If you did timing for your DD how many days before O day did you dtd?

I think I'll cdeuck down to the healthfood store today and get cranberry tablets and start taking them and giving them to DH! I'll also pick up magnesium and calcium and start loading up on it :)

Hi there,

I kind of swayed the last one.. I tried to sway with my second, but in the end just wanted another baby more than I wanted a girl! My last one I put a bit more effort into it but I stuffed up my O+12 which is really hard to get right and probably risking looking back, especially if you are alkaline as I think I must be! I'm going to do Shettles this time, as far from ovulation as I can

Cherished, I don't know when I'm ovulating yet as I don't have AF though I can see a difference in CM so I might just test it when i see it!

If I'm alkaline on the day we dtd, would that up the chances for a girl... how easy is it to swing the acidity to alkaline balance?

Leeloo - can i ask how you test your cm? I brought some urine strips of ebay with that pretty much tell me the same thing? I haven't seen any meal plans as such but came across a forum the other night that girls had posted what they would generally eat in one day which didn't really amount to much! I've just started drinking LOTS of milk and trying to follow an diebetic type diet, low salt etc etc, along with the vitamins (if you shake me I swear you hear a rattling sound lol)

Cherished - i'm booked in to see a natruopath on Wednesday so will see what she has to say. I brought a book off of ebay called "how to choose the sex of your baby the natural way" it pretty much says that timing is more important than diet, everyone has different opinions don't they??

Howdy leeloo if you are alkaline on the day you dtd that ups your chances for a boy not a girl. My chinese herbalist says that most people hover around the neutral mark and that is why loads of couples have a mixed gender family and he said that being acidic when you DTD is the most important thing and if you are trying to sway than try to stay acidic until Ovulation to give the girl swimmers the best chance. Mind you he has 3 (or 4) BOYS!! I asked him why they didn't change their eating to sway for a girl and he said that they just thought it would happen do to the swinging effect of the acidic/alkaline balance.

Well I have an UPDATE: I tested dh today and he is as ALKALINE as you can get with a reading of 9! :o NOT good for our girl ttc :boohoo: I honestly thought he/we would be alkaline due to our diet. I imagine that I will be pretty alkaline also so we will be a great case study if we end up with a GIRL :stork-girl:

Boo we posted at the same time ;) Yep everyone has different opinions! But my OB did say that both timing and acidic/alkaline pay a big part so why not do both I say!

Hi all,
My DF and I have decided when we are able to TTC again that we would like to get a boy if we can.
Has anyone tried specifically for a boy before or is that just what everyone got and are now trying for a girl? :lol:

DF would love a boy and currently we are only wanting one child (bet that will change a few years down the track :lol:) I would love a boy for my first too.

Any tips? I will probably start preparing for the Shettles method but would love to know of any other things I can do to assist a blue bundle :)