to think I won't survive the next 9 months on one cuppa a day!!! :O

[Archemedes]

I've found out that apparently now during pregancy you arent supposed to have any caffiene but if you do one cup a day! :O

I mean I overcame smoking in my first pregnancy and havent smoked since but tea?? its a lifeline I have a v. hyperactive toddler who wakes up at 7 doesnt nap and goes to bed at 7.30/8pm.

I can't survive on one cuppa a day ....just had one and i'm eyeing up the kettle again blindfold me chop hands of

AIBU to think most people will struggle with this.

I found that difficult - it was weird feeling a bit naughty by having a cup of tea! As soon as DD was born I drank loads

decaff tea and really, bollocks to most of the you can't have stuff, really. If the foods on the list in any way regularly caused food poisoning they would be banned. Its actually less obvious stuff that is more likely to cause you a problem like chicken left on a buffet for ages or reheated stuff.

whats supposed to happen then to the baby? the advice changes so regularly that it does make you wonder if they know what they are talking about. i had caffiene with all of mine...i'm curious as to what they have wrong with them as a result.

personally i think you'd go loopy if you followed all the guidelines. best to stick to just the key ones.

Salad is one food that is commonly responsible for food poisoning but funnily enough we are not told to dodge salad during pregnancy.

I've had to drastically cut down on caffeine for other reasons - and I loved drinking tea

The best decaff alternative I've found is Dragonfly Redbush Earl Grey tea (from Waitrose and health food shops). Really worth a try

I used to drink rather a lot of tea in early pregnancy, but then suddenly became intolerant of milk, made me feel ill all day. So, I went from having about 4/5 teas a day to one black coffee (can't drink tea black) a day which helped, even though it was coffee

Definetly try decaff tea.

I must say, the only thing I stopped eating/drinking during pg was Pate. Everything else 'norty' was just drastically reduced. Oh, and you can have runny eggs, as long as they are Lion stamped, as its solmonella that's the risk, and Lion stamped are checked for that.

SALmonella

M&S decaf - trust me - it's been nearly three years since my son was born and I still choose the decaf over the normal!

I've never heard of this one before.

I'm sure i drank quite a lot of tea.
It's funny how things change through the years re pregnancy etc

pregnancy guidelines should be called suck the joy out of life

I switched to decaf tea and have never gone back to caffeinated.

Decaf tea definitely - after my first pregnancy I switched to decaf and can honestly say I can't tell the difference.

I tried to go off caffeine when I was pregnant and I got such horrendous headaches that I just couldn't do it. My name is Cailin and I'm a caffeinaholic :(
I had one cup of coffee a day and a couple of cups of tea. As dangers go I don't think it's a huge one.

I also had headaches from hell when giving up caffeine

I've switched too. To me Yorkshire de-caff tea tastes just the same as the regular stuff and in all honesty after the initial few days of feeling a little groggy I've had far more energy since cutting out the caffeine and sleep much better than before.

In both pg I cut down to 3 cups of tea a day. One when I got to work, one mid morning, one mid afternoon afternoon. They became the structure of my day

In first pg I cut out everything I was supposed to. In second, I considered eating anything an acheivement, so I ate anything I fancied when I did fancy something (rarely). At one poinbt all I fancies was prawn sandwhiches. In the week or two that I suspect I was pg, but had not yet POAS, I went to a buffet party and ate a huge chunk of stilton, because I knew I shoudlt once I'd POAS.

Both my DC (3, 20 weeks) are fine. Apart from hyperemisis both pg fine despite advanced years (37, 40).

This morning had one cuppa and 3 glasses of water

I've gone from fishbowl mug to a large cup

still need to get that cup size down.

little yaaaay.

I never heard of cutting out tea ?? I had four normal children drinking tea in abundance !!

To those wondering why pg women are now advised to cut down on caffeine it's because there was a study that found a significant increase in the risk of miscarriage in women who had over 200mg of caffeine per day. Not sure if it referred to all trimesters though.

You can still have at least two cups of tea a day though. I drink red bush with milk in it, which makes it seem more tea like. As I drink it as much for the having a sit down and a bit of a relax benefits as I do for the caffeine this works for me. Although I can't drink tea past five even when I'm not pregnant as it keeps me up at night!

Generally, I take it that the guidelines are just guidelines and not rules, so I try and find out why and then act according to my own risk thresholds. I also seem to be much more relaxed about such things this time than I was last time.

This is the study, if any of you are interested www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378%2807%2902025-X/fulltext

Twinings Redbush is great. I mainline caffeine when marking exams, and the Redbush helps with cutting down the caffeine but still tastes like tea.

I had some espresso cups, and would have 3 regular coffees each day in those cups, was enough to keep me awake but not enough to be damaging

My doctor told me it was his opinion that de-caff coffee was worse for you than small amounts of the real stuff.

I believe caffeine inhibits iron absorption, and as I tend towards low iron levels anyway, I did go decaf with tea and coffee. I didn't stress too much if it wasn't available, but where possible I avoided caffeine. I find Tetleys decaf is good, but Typhoo was just awful. Kenco decaf for the coffee, for me.

I did switch back after DD was born, but even having my last cuppa at lunch time I found really affected my sleep, so I've stayed with the decaf.

Decaff is apparently full of chemicals

I ate smoked salmon, prawns, peanuts, and drank tea and coffee

DS is fine