Caffeine - how much can you get away with

[Juicylucythe2nd]

Currently drinking about 3 cups of weak black tea a day (water just sees the teabag for a couple of seconds).

Don't drink coffee. The rest of the time I'm drinking water, peppermint tea or herbal (night-time) tea.

Can I get away with this, or should I cut out tea entirely. Last pg switched to decaff, but a friend told me that was worse than caffiene because of the chemicals used to extract the caffeine... Sadly pg ended in mc, but don't think it had anything to do with this.

Don't know if I could survive entirely without my tea , but would do it for my bean (currently 5weeks)

[Piffle]

2-3 cups of tea esp if it's weak are absolutely fine
I have 2 cups of quite strong tea
I also like jasmine tea

[incy]

I drank tea all the way through my last pregnancy as it was a craving of mine - couldn't stand coffee though - felt sick even at the smell. I think 3 cups of weak tea is fine - NHS guidelines are - '

It is also advisable to cut down on the amount of caffeine you consume. Caffeine affects the body?s absorption of iron, which is very important for the baby?s development. Although up to 300mg of caffeine a day is thought to be safe, a study is currently investigating whether there are links between excessive consumption of caffeine, miscarriage and low birth weight.

300mg is roughly equivalent to either:

3 mugs of instant coffee,
3 cups of brewed coffee,
six cups of tea,
eight cans of regular cola,

so looks like you are well within guidelines - but if you feel bad then give it up as you will only panic.

[TuttiFrutti]

Can you get away with it? Yes, absolutely. The baby will do best with no caffeine whatsoever, but it's a balancing act and you don't want to make your life a misery either.

I am not proud to admit I drink 3 cups of filter coffee every day, sometimes cappuccinos in Starbucks as well, and I'm 4 months pregnant. I've tried to give it up, but I found it too difficult and I reckon if you have to give up drinking alcohol and eating chocolate mousse, you've got to allow yourself a few pleasures in life.

A friend of mine is a nutritionist though and has written a study on the link betweeen caffeine and miscarriage, which makes me feel .

[HRHQueenOfQuotes]

if it's any consolation when I was pg with DS1 I didn't know that caffeine was 'bad'. And as we were skint (literally!) I ONLY drank black coffee, no sugar - for the first 4 months!

[carrotcake]

I drink 2 cups of quite strong tea in the morning, then have herbal for the rest of the day. I've given everything else up, I need a cup of tea in bed and one with my porridge!

[Flamesparrow]

I thought coke was higher than tea

[FillyjonktheBananaEater]

any chance of switching to eg rooibos?

Think decaf is ok. Think chemcials used to be bad but now its a mechanical rather than chemical extraction. I wouldn't quote me here though.

Think its highly unlikely to have much effect, though. I drank no caffeine with ds, with dd I was just fed up and had the odd tea. Ds had a heart murmer. Dd didn't. So.

[Seona1973]

this is from the food standards agency and takes into account caffeine in chocolate as well as tea and coffee.

You should limit the amount of caffeine you have each day, but you don't need to cut it out completely. Caffeine occurs naturally in a range of foods, such as coffee, tea and chocolate, and it's also added to some soft drinks and 'energy' drinks.

It's important not to have more than 300mg a day. This is because high levels of caffeine can result in babies having a low birth weight, or even miscarriage.

Each of these contains roughly 300mg of caffeine:

• 3 mugs of instant coffee (100mg each)
  
• 4 cups of instant coffee (75mg each)
  
• 3 cups of brewed coffee (100mg each)
  
• 6 cups of tea (50mg each)
  
• 8 cans of cola (up to 40mg each)
  
• 4 cans of 'energy' drink (up to 80mg each)
  
• 8 (50g) bars of plain chocolate (up to 50mg each). Caffeine in milk chocolate is about halfthat of plain chocolate
  
  So if you eat a bar of plain chocolate and drink 3 cups of tea, a can of cola and a cup of instant coffee in a day, you'll have reached your 300mg limit.
  
  Remember that caffeine is also found in certain cold and flu remedies, so always check with your GP or another health professional before taking any of these

[mustrunmore]

ds1... drank none at all.
ds2... got very severe gastric thing at 4 months, and drank flat coke as it was the only thing that wouldstay down. Got terrible cravings for it, and drank literally 2 litres a day every day ds2 came out very jittery, which they said was an infection, but I'm sure it was withdrawl symptoms

[Flamesparrow]

I don't remember you drinking flat coke!! Was I just asleep for the entire pregnancy??

[BettySpaghetti]

I completely went off coffee in the first half of both my pregnancies -couldn't even smell it without heaving. Normally I love it so it was quite handy to go off it and not have to monitor my in-take.

Instead I had about 1-2 cups of tea (Earl Grey) a day. Towards the end of the pregnancies, when I could face it, I added a cup of coffee a day .

[mustrunmore]

Dunno Flame. I wasnt online much that weekend! i got the thing first, then my Mum (on a weekend visit), then dh. It was a right house of misery!

I was perfect with my diet etc with ds1, and a shambles with ds2 (but he eats much better than ds1 ever did!0

[foundintranslation]

I drank roughly 2 cups of (quite strong) tea a day with ds (sometimes substituting one for a latte). He was fine. The miscarriage risk only rises when caffeine levels/day are in excess of 300mg.

[dollyp]

I'd stick with the weak tea. Doesn't sound if you're having too much. In an ideal world, we'd all have no caffeine, booze, shellfish, rare meat etc etc but I think you need to take your comfort into account as well.

FWIW, I missed this first time round, and drank tea by the gallon after 14 weeks. DD was huge (nearly 10lbs[shock}) so I trust that it didn't affect her size too greatly.