to laugh at my friends helpful comments...

[peanutMD]

I found out I wad pregnant a few Wells ago and I'm just starting to tell some of my choose friends and atleast 3 people (1 of whom has 5 children) have tools he that the biggest thing they have missed in pregnancy is Philadelphia, when I asked why I was told because you're not allowed soft cheeses or you can poison the baby!

Now obviously I didn't just laugh in their face but I did point out that it wasn't cheese spread they meant it was a minimal risk from eating cheeses such as brie but again I was tools no I'm sure I was tools not to eat soft cheese to which I did have to stifle a giggle.

:o

Sorry for grammar and spelling errors my predictive text is a bit crap Anne I keep forgetting to edit

Sorry, peanut, but your predictive text has made me ROFL

I'm sure you're correct about Philadelphia being OK - it's unpasteurised (sp?) soft cheeses that are risky, I think.

:o I'll let you away with, I really do need to find or how to switch it off though... Our actually read what I've written before I send lol

I sent dp a message a few Weeks ago asking if he could take a day off work to go to cadonas (theme park in Aberdeen) he replied "??", I thought its not that hard to understand fgs then re-read...

Turns out that cadonas want in my phones dictionary and the closest word it got was 'vaginas' :o

When I was pregnant with DC2 a (very young) work colleague was horrified to see me eating a home made salad with carrots and cucumber in it because she was convinced that pregnant women weren't allowed to eat anything beginning with C!!

Lmao Frizzy!

Another friend who is pregnant will absolutely not eat any form of mayo even though I've explained that its home made stuff because of the tiny risk that you may get salmonella from raw eggs.. Not the fact that the baby will be damaged by mayo :o

I was fairly paranoid about food when pregnant but a colleague was even worse. She wouldn't eat hellmans type mayo but it's only real mayo with raw eggs that's to be avoided

I was the opposite - not paranoid at all really and did get fed up of the constant advice I got, especially when i knew it was wrong. But it's all given with the best intentions I guess!

IIRC none if the 'banned foods' are actually bad for you or the baby its stuff that has teeny, tiny risk of food poisoning that you wouldn't normally even think about.

The mayonnaise thing is pretty daft but at least they've only got some wires crossed but 'Anything beginning with C'?? I can't even work out why anyone would think that makes sense. Chocolate and cauliflower suddenly become dangerous while pregnant?

I know!! She was utterly convinced that when her aunt was pregnant she hadn't had anything beginning with C - so much so that she rang the aunt, and when she got off the phone she said "oh no sorry, my aunt said it's not when you are pregnant, it's when you are BREASTFEEDING"!

That's barmy!

peanut - some foods are about protecting the baby. Like avoiding shark and too much tuna, which can contain high levels of mercury (yay for sea pollution...). And listeria can induce early labour and make the baby ill ... at least I think it's listeria. The problem with unpasturised milk is definitely what it can do to baby as well as mum either way. Jodi Picoult wrote about it so it must be true!

Haha frizzy I think that's worse, I cannot fathom how someone could think that?!

the only possible thing could be they have been tools not to overload in vitamin c.. But without the vitamin part :o

I didnt pay much attention at what food i ate when pregnant however i would avoid raw eggs(but then again im allergic to eggs).

Peanut can i ask is cadonnas any good these days? My dd wants to go sometime when she is on holiday & i havent been in years.

I've not actually been there yet but my brother goes with his friend and says out is quite good but not brilliant.

Then again he is 17 so enthusiasm is not his string point :o

I'm rofl at predictive text (my DH would probably drive home if I sent him that text!!)

I'm also laughing at your funny friend. Un-pregnancy related but I did actually LOL at a friend who, when I said penguins are funny birds (in relation to a documentary) said innocently, 'are penguins birds then?'
Thing is she loves penguins, & her sister even sponsored one for her birthday!

Some things have to be avoided due to food poisoning (eg raw meat) others due to things they contain (eg pâté contains alot of Vit A which is bad). You can't eat any cheese with mould, including the blandest pasteurised supermarket Brie, due to risk of listeria.

Apparently pregnancy diminishes immune system (so your body won't reject the baby which is 50% someone else's genes) which makes stuff more risky.

Heres to post pregnancy meal of steak, homemade mayo, pâté & cake mixture!

In France virtually nothing is forbidden! I've seen pregnant women tucking into steak tartare (ie, totally raw meat topped with a raw egg) and my ILs insisted that a piece of camembert every day would provide calcium for the baby! (DH was also weaned on bread and camembert!)
The one thing they are big on though is toxoplasmosis. I tested negative for this every pregnancy and so was told to wash my salad veg in vinegar! A midwife even rolled her eyes at me and told me disdainfully that only foreigners are toxo negative because French women are more sensible about cooking meat (ie, rare/ raw!)
No. 1 rule if pregnancy -take all advice with a generous pinch of salt!

I was in codonas on Saturday...Rambos for the little one who had a party. It hasn't changed.

If the weather holds, you'd probably get a good enough day out there if you have your second mortgage arranged already .

Oh and after my DC1 I had my mother bring in a pate sarnie. It stank to high heaven and I enjoyed every bite.

I ate a few of the things your not supposed to second time round. I had a prawn craving so I ate bagloads of those.

loopy actually the French health authorities' advice is much the same as the advice here - it may be though that more French women (and midwives) choose to ignore it

The French midwife's view on toxo negative is not true, I've been eating rare meat all my life and had cats and am still toxo negative - it's actually quite hard to catch toxo outside of pregnancy which means very few people are positive/immune. Sooo looking forward to a rare steak once DC arrives.

Dappy prawns are allowed as long as they are fresh and properly cooked.

I think advice got silly, and now it's getting more in proportion. You can even have Stilton now, according to the NHS. That was definitely off the list 2 years ago.

Thanks for the cadonnas info (sorry for small hijack of thread).

If some people can eat polish/stones/leather(stories iv heard) when pregnant i doubt a little bit of raw eggs or any other forbidden food will do much harm.

minipie I had M&S frozen cooked ones and not served hot, as was the advice 4 years ago, but defrosted and with whoops mayonnaise.

Not going to be a 3rd DC so I'm not up to speed with the current advice.

My MW told me I couldn't eat potato skins. She had no reason for this.

Same one told me coke would make my breast milk fizzy.

Different but a midwife told me that too many ultrasound scans could damage the baby's hearing.

It is amazing some of the bullshit they come away with