Is it ok to drink tonic water and if so how much?

[BrownPaperandString]

I'm 8 weeks pregnant and am out on the raz tonight so looking for yummy non alcoholic drinks and wondering if I can have tonic water because it has quinine in it.

[japhrimel]

I'd avoid it, but that's partly because most tonic water also has artifical sweeteners in and I don't tolerate them well.

Soda water and lime is a favourite of mine. Or the old staples of OJ & Lemonade or J2Os.

[CardiCorgi]

My doctor told me it was fine. With a decent wedge of lime and plenty of ice, I can almost fool myself into thinking that it's a G&T.

[oldmum42]

Quinine tablets are contra-indicated (ie not advised) during pregnancy unless the risk of malaria is very high, according to my DH's copy of the BNF (the doctors big book of drugs), but the tonic water has a lower, but still active, dose.

I know because he was reading up on it last week before telling me that the tonic water would be fine for me (to reduce night time cramps), but I'm 23 weeks preg, and I'm sure he said he'd not be happy for me to be drinking a lot of it if it was early in pregnancy - I think there's a risk of harm, but I'm not sure what that risk was.

Can you just stick to water/lemonade with a twist of lemon for a bit of taste?

[BrownPaperandString]

oh blast - i thought that might be the case. thanks so much for the info x

[LittleMissSnowShine]

Never knew that about tonic water either!! I haven't had much of it at all since I've been preg tho cos it's just not the same without the gin in it!!

[FourEyesGood]

I had loads during my last pregnancy (I was the same as you CardiCorgi; I pretended it had gin in it) - it didn't even occur to me that it might be harmful! Our boy (now aged 2) turned out absolutely fine, although he does have rather a penchant for cravats and walking sticks...

[Floopy21]

Tonic water nowadays has minimal quinnine in, you certainly can't compare it to malaria tablets. IMHO it would only be potentially dangerous if you drank litres & litres of the stuff.

[oldmum42]

Floopy - I agree - I did say Tonic water has a lot less than tablets, but if you drank several litres a day (quite easy in this weather!), that would mount up.

I'm drinking 1ltr a day - there's enough active ingredient (Quinnine Hydrocloride) in 1 litre to completely stop the awful night-time calf cramps I was having, so it's not that minimal, thankfully, as the cramping causing real problems.

I just thought it worth mentioning that dr.HD told me that cramps or not, he wouldn't want me taking that much tonic water (1 litre) every evening if I was still in the 1st trimester, as this when it's maybe risky.

Most people would only be having a glass now and again, not several glasses a day, so harm is probably very unlikely I know.

[beanlet]

There's so little quinine in tonic water that I can't imagine it being a problem, unless MAYBE you are drinking SEVERAL litres a day.

Anti-malarials are contra-indicated, sure, but over the last century they have had to keep increasing the active ingredient to ridiculous levels because mosquitos have become resistant. There really is virtually no relationship these days between tonic water and anti-malarials.