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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think that having a desire for crap like crisps and choc is NOT a pregnancy craving?

133 replies

NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 30/05/2013 15:41

I think the idea of cravings has been distorted. I have 2 DC and both times had full-on Pica. That's the need to eat weird things which aren't really food...also the need to smell certain things.
Mine were ice, smelling flash cleaner with bleach and coal.

THAT is a pregnancy craving. Fancying more Walkers than usual is not a craving.

Neither is a desire to gannet pies and cakes.

OP posts:
Original poster
NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 30/05/2013 15:42

Oh and I also had more desire for cripsts and chocolate but they were NOT cravings. Just seeking comfort.

OP posts:
DryCounty79 · 30/05/2013 15:44

I used to sniff Tippex Blush

But I never had any other cravings. In fact, I ate less and lost weight whilst pregnant. Although I did become addicted to sausage sandwiches and brown sauce....

HeffalumpTheFlump · 30/05/2013 15:45

Wow judge other women much?!

Pica is actually something completely different from 'normal' pregnancy cravings.

Any point to this post other than to piss people off? Who are you to decide what women can and can't crave during pregnancy?

TiggerWearsATriteSmile · 30/05/2013 15:47

I agree.
It's used as an excuse to eat for two.
Same people will be wondering why they can't lose all this "baby" weight.

OrangeMochaFrappucino · 30/05/2013 15:48

If you suffer badly from nausea there may be only certain foods you can stomach - something salty like crisps and crackers are quite common so it may not exactly be a craving as much as what will stay down! I had a fortnight where the only things I could contemplate eating were Granny Smiths and ciabatta. Everything else kicked off the vomiting cycle. I also went off water and only wanted to drink full-fat Coke, of which I allowed myself half a can once a week (shared with dh on a Friday). Pregnancy isn't an excuse for a bad diet but if you really suffer from sickness it's hard to maintain an ideal one.

2rebecca · 30/05/2013 15:48

I ate loads of black pudding sandwiches (and put on 3 stones!) It isn't weird like coal but was unusual for me.

HollyBerryBush · 30/05/2013 15:49

Chocolate has cocoa bean in, a source of iron. So the craving is easily sated by something else, steak or rich green veg in meals.

Crisps could be lack of salt mineral.

what is 'pica' - another syndrome I've never heard of?

MrsTerryPratchett · 30/05/2013 15:50

I have had pica since childhood so I know what you are saying. However, I ate tonnes of chocolate and sweets in pregnancy. I don't eat anything like that normally. Seriously, no biscuits in our house. It was a pregnancy craving, not just an excuse.

Original poster
NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 30/05/2013 15:50

Flump how am I judging? I said myself that I also comfort ate! I am just pointing out the difference. 2Rebecca that does sound like a proper craving though as it was a food which was majorly rich in Iron. Which is often driving a craving....a real one that is...a need for iron or some mineral.

OP posts:
okthen · 30/05/2013 15:50

Yanbu. Fair enough if you want to stuff your face (and especially fair enough if you have sickness which only hangover food will cure)- but it seems convenient that so many 'cravings' are for icecream and crisps!

Personally I think pregnancy cravings are a bit...what's the pregnancy version of PFB?

TallyGrenshall · 30/05/2013 15:50

It would be a pregnancy craving if they are things you don't normally eat.

I craved crappy cheap chocolate milkshakes when I was pregnant, like Yazoo but cheaper. And McD's.

You couldn't pay me to eat/drink them before or since

FobblyWoof · 30/05/2013 15:51

There's definitely a wide range of things between pica and just fancying something occasionally.

I think sometimes the craving side of pregnancy has been distorted because people look too much into what they/others are eating.

But no I don't agree that crisps and chocolate can't be a craving. If someone wants some crisps just as much as you wanted bleach and it's something they had as much ore-pregnancy then how is that not a craving?

MrsTerryPratchett · 30/05/2013 15:51

Pica very common in children.

Original poster
NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 30/05/2013 15:51

HOlly Pica is a very recognised condition. It's where people...including children are driven to eat non foodstuffs. Chalk, stones, sand...as a child I ate mud as often as I could get it and now I am ok but while pregnant, as I said, I liked ice and coal.

OP posts:
OHforDUCKScake · 30/05/2013 15:51

I loved loved loved the smell of flash cleaner. Both pregnancies.

And sponges, soaped up, chewed or rubbed over my face.

And a constant need for extra strong mints.

thebody · 30/05/2013 15:52

Mint sauce on everything even beans.

Original poster
NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 30/05/2013 15:52

Okthen PFP? Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 30/05/2013 15:52

Duck did you get the need for powdery substances too? I wanted refresher sweets a lot.

OP posts:
purrpurr · 30/05/2013 15:53

Have to agree. I had strong 'wants' for yummy foods during pregnancy but that was either for comfort or because salty food stayed down so much easier. When I got to 37 weeks I suddenly found furniture polish and the smell of my new car absolutely irresistible, my mouth would water like crazy. I came close to licking my car quite a few times. That lasted until I had my dd 11 days ago - now the car smells a bit like feet to me, certainly not appetising!

Original poster
NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 30/05/2013 15:53

*duck8 am very amused at thought of you chewing mints, rubbing sponges on your face and having a good snort of Flash!

OP posts:
somewherewest · 30/05/2013 15:54

Who are you to decide what women can and can't crave during pregnancy?

Yep. Pregnancy is fecking grim. We're entitled to a bit of comfort eating Grin

Seriously, I had a strong urge to eat heavy, fatty food in the second half of pregnancy. It might have been comfort eating, or it might have been my naturally stick thin body building up reserves for breastfeeding etc.
I gained three stone but lost it all again within six months and am now back to looking like a stick insect on a crash diet.

Original poster
NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 30/05/2013 15:54

Purrpurr that's it! Mouth watering and wanting so badly to eat something you know you can't! I would search and nsearch for a food which had the taste of flash! I couldn't find it of course...nor could I eat Flash....

OP posts:
Original poster
NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 30/05/2013 15:55

Somewhere I'm not saying anyone shouldn't indulge...I certainly did....loved chips and crisps while pregnant....but they were not cravings. Just a strong desire for comfort.

OP posts:
MrsLyman · 30/05/2013 15:57

YABU

DS1 I could not get enough fizzy orange, it's not something I normally drink.

DS2 I just wanted refreshers, in non-pregnant life I don't mind them but I certainly don't eat them at a rate of 2 packets or more a day and get panicky when I run out.

Both crap food stuffs but to be honest if I was going to have a 'fake' craving I would have much prefered some nice ice cream.

somewherewest · 30/05/2013 15:59

Same people will be wondering why they can't lose all this "baby" weight

Who says we have to lose all the baby weight anyway? I hate the unrealistic expectations surrounding women's bodies post-birth.