Help! I've eaten unpasturised ice cream.

[Ilovebean]

Can anyone help. I've eaten 3 scoops of ice cream from a restaurant. It wasn't until after I found out it was unpasturised. I'm 21 weeks pregnant and I'm panicking. Can anyone advise what to do? I've called 111 but they were no help and told me to make a drs appointment.

[namechangeagaininnit]

You'll be fine!

[Artandco]

It's fine. The eu/ uk has very strict rules on dairy standards. Unpasterised milk/ cheese/ ice cream are fine

[Marne]

You will be fine, I craved 'mr whippy' when I was pg with dd1, I ate quite a lot of it and was fine

Pregnant women are told to stay away from these things because there a slightly higher chance of food poisoning from unpasteurised foods.

[firstbaby01]

I'm 21 weeks and have eaten it at least three times a week and only found out last week your not meant to! I'm fine so far

[akachan]

I think the only reason to avoid it is food poisoning risk. If you'd caught food poisoning you'd definitely know!

[kally195]

As everyone above has said, you will be fine. The reason they advise pregnant women to avoid unpasteurised foods is because of the risk of listeria bacteria, which can lead to listeriosis and may (may - not will) cause listeriosis related problems in pregnancy. Pregnant women are more at risk of developing listeriosis than the rest of the population.

To put this risk in perspective, in 2011 there were 149 confirmed cases of listeriosis in the UK, 16% of which were pregnancy related. So during 2011, 23 pregnant women were diagnosed with listeria. Not all of these women will have recieved any treatment, as often it resolves itself.

If you feel better avoiding risk foods, then do. But please don't beat yourself up if you either accidentally consume stuff the NHS recommends we avoid, or make an informed choice to eat it.