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

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

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.

Hmm, not sure, with both pregnancies, I've craved salt, at first I thought in both cases I was craving crisps or chips, but that's because both are usually very salty. Salt is apparently a normal craving, but it manifests itself as you thinking about unhealthy foods that are also high in salt. (I'm still really missing sushi at 38 weeks, I think that's the soy sauce I'm missing! Have told DH he has to bring lots to hospital, of course by that point I'll be past wanting it...)

With DS, I also craved spicy food (making stupidly hot curries) and pineapple. With this pregnancy, it's been more stodge and carbs I've wanted, specifically, yorkshire puddings - I don't think that's just me wanting to eat for two, because yorkshire puddings were something I could take or leave in the past, not particularly liked but not hated, would eat if on my plate and normally forget to make if I was doing roast beef.

Tomatoes, Tomato soup, Tomatoes, Tomato Juice, Tomatoes, Tomato Sauce and oh yes, more Tomatoes

Seriously, when I was pregnant, there wasnt a tomato that was safe north of the Tees, I used to go to the market in the morning and get a big bag and sit and munch through them all day and still crave - that went on for months.

I also had dreadful indigestion by the end and DS had loads of hair. Wonder if they are connected? (she asks in a totally non scientific way)

I had a "craving" for sugary foods during my second pregnancy and ate them. The day before my ds was born I weighed 16.5 stone (6 stone heavier than my normal weight). I knew I had pigged out and tried to cut down near the end but it left me tired and drained.
My ds was born with a rare condition that required very high levels of iv sugars. I really did crave it - I was supplying him with huge levels during pregnancy and most of my weight gain was fluid. I lost 4 stone within a week. Nearly everyone I met told me I was being a pig. Other women might need salty foods if they have sweated a lot.

Real cravings for "junk" food do exist and biologically we all crave salt, fat and sugar anyway. Pregnancy may just reduce our ability to fight against them.

Blonde - is that right, salt is due to sweating? That makes sense actually! (And I have been more sweaty in both pregnancies, gosh I'm so classy)

Dontmindifido - I also craved spicy food throughout my pregancy with ds. Now eat much more spicy food then I ever did before, it's completely changed my taste buds.

On a separate note I also now can't stomach white wine. It used to be my drink of choice but more than 1 small glass makes me feel really poorly now. How does that happen? And why, oh why was it wine?!

Hang on OP, weren't you a man on the cat hating thread ?

Blondefriend - Oooh, after having DS I stopped being able to drink G&Ts without being very ill - I could have far more units of alcohol in wine or beer and not be anywhere near as ill, but just 2 G&Ts and I'd be like death warmed up the following morning. I always loved G&T. Still, hopefully I'll be 'reset' after having DC2!

I've craved chocolate for quite a while this pg, it really is a real craving as I normally don't like the stuff at all. I'm a savoury person, have never been in to sweet foods. I don't take added sugar in anything and would rather take my chances with Aspartme than drink sugary drinks etc.

For example - I love making cakes but I wouldn't eat them as they are too sweet for my liking, I would much rather eat some cheese and bread.

Can't get enough of the stuff this time though.

Last time it was soap though so I am actually pretty thankful it's something 'normal' this time!

APanic how interesting! Yeah cooled Granny Smiths - I would have walked over spikes to get to them! I wonder what it is that made green apples so ravenousness-inducing.

And I don't think I have eaten more than two in the months since giving birth! After having seven a day fir a while when pregnant (madness!)

Good luck and congrats on your pregnancy!

I had a craving for soap and sponges when pregnant with DS's 1&2 but a craving for sweet stuff with DD, maybe it's a gender thing.

I used to sit in the bath with a bar of pears soap and a fresh sponge....I would chew the sponge like a mad woman, oh the shame.

I very very rarely eat chocolate, and then only a small bit of the 85% stuff. I had an easter egg that I had to chuck out just before Xmas last year! But when I was pg with DC6 I craved milk chocolate, the 85% stuff made me feel ill, but I coudlnt get enough milk chocolate.

So just because something is crap doesnt mean it isnt a genuine craving.

When I was having DC3 however, I craved the smell of petrol and white spirit, neither of which I could smell due to them being solvents! I was going crazy for the smell sometimes!

Bloody hell!
When you've had HG and been hospitalised 3times before you are 15wks then if you're willing to try absolutely anything you crave because you are so desperate for something to stay down.

I craved Lilt. Aldo bananas, pineapples and coconuts. None of which I like.

I could also eat wayyyyyy more sugar than I could normally hold down.

Cucumber. I would literally buy a cucumber, get to the car, peel the cellophane off and eat it like a banana.

Full fat milk, which I like anyway but not to the tune of 2-3 pints a day.

Ice, especially ice that had been in diet coke.

McDonalds.

Apples.

The smell of the lime flavoured Radox hand wash. I would wash my hands then sit and sniff them for ages.

These were all things I adored during my first pregnancy and so far during this one (24 weeks) that I'm a bit nonchalant about normally.

So if you crave 'junk' food, it's not a real craving?

I had all kinds, some for non food items [that I wanted to eat/drink] salt and vinegar crisps was a big one, often Id just lick/suck the flavouring off.

In both pregnancies I had cravings for oranges. I don't normally eat oranges as I doubt like them. I was eating 7-10 a day. Is that allowe as a of craving?
I also don't eat crisps, but craved ready salted in my 2n pregnancy. After dd2 was born I discovered I have a problem that means I didn't absorb salt properly. Therefore I was craving salt (a mineral) am I allowed that as a pg craving or was I just comfort eating?

I agree completely with Heffalump. Who the hell are you (any of you) to decide what's a craving and what isn't? If you are pregnant, and you crave something, it's a pregnancy craving, obviously. It doesn't not count just because YOU like that food. Pica is not the same as food cravings so that's irrelevant. Stop being such a judgy pants and mind your own business. Knob.

YABU. And I think a bit judgey too. I got the impression that you think women who are pregnant are using it as an excuse to throw sensible eating to the wind and indulge themselves whereas the purists are crunching coal.

With DD1 I craved plain yogurt and tart apples. Anything sour or bitter, really. It meant I could leave my daily ration in the fridge at work and be sure nobody would touch it

With DS it was crisps, cheese puffs, Italian salami, blue cheese, camembert and French bread, all foods I could take or leave before. With the other DDs, it was chocolate all the way.

Sometimes the things you crave tell you about deficiencies you are experiencing and you can adjust your diet to include those nutrients in a healthy way. I had anemia with the last three DCs, especially with DD4, the youngest. There is iron in chocolate.

I don't know what the DS cravings told about me but I had been eating a very healthy diet when I got pregnant as I had had my gallbladder removed a few months previously. Maybe it was the salts mentioned above. With DD1 I worked in a very climate controlled environment but I was a sahm when DS was born and home was superhot in winter due to residential heating regulations where I lived and lack of AC in summer when DS was born.

Strong smells made me sick as a newt, esp smells of raw meat or fish but also the detergent aisle and strong perfumes and the smell of Ford Mustang exhaust. I could identify different makes and brands of car by their exhaust smell. I couldn't go grocery shopping or out in the car without a barf bag.

With DC1 I craved crunchy cereal with ice cold milk. I existed for months on pretty much that alone. I also started craving things I hadn't even tasted before, namely peanut butter (the idea had previously put me off it) but the urge to eat it was so so strong. I still love it now though.

DC2 I craved proper chips from the chip shop with both fruity and Chinese curry sauce. It was all I could think about, spent hours battling with myself over whether to get it etc. I limited myself to once a week but that was because I was too scared of the cholesterol. It was a constant battle of wills with myself. DC2 has been a massive curry fan since weaning and will eat it above everything else.

It's not comparative. I'm in the middle of my second HG pregnancy, and I have vomited at least ten times a day since 5wks (25wk now so that's a lot of vomit and for 8 weeks of that it was more like 20 times). But I wouldn't dismiss people with a more 'normal' level of sickness or nausea as not having 'proper' sickness just because they weren't as sick as me. Your pica is extreme cravings and probably feel awful as a craving for something like laundry powder can't be satiaied. But that doesn't mean that a woman with occasional strong desires (really all the word 'craving' means anyway) or occasional bouts f it isn't also having a craving. Stop being so precious. Your argument smacks of 'that's not a craving, now THIS is a CRAVING'. You sound like my grandad.

I low carb, I eat eggs every morning for breakfast. Couldn't stand them when pregnant
All I wanted was marmite. Now I usually like it but I don't usually eat it an inch thick on toast while drinking Bovril. Was salt, salt and more salt until it very suddenly changed to lime/lemon when even lemon juice wasn't sour enough
So I probably looked like I was eating piles of crap but the thought of eggs, veg or meat made me want to throw up

It is entirely possible to have a craving fro chips. I did - and for any form of potato you could mention too. How do I know it was a craving? I rarely ate potatoes before I was pregnant (and wouldn't now except DD loves them) and substituted them for my usual carbs of choice, pasta and rice. I didn't eat (much) more, or take in more calories, because of it, but it was definitely a craving. I had potatoes at almost every meal for about 6 months.

I think YABU but I can see what you mean.

I "craved" Nutella in my first pregnancy and Coke in my second. Both junk, but I do count them as cravings because they were so clearly caused by the pregnancies. With the Nutella, I ate about half a jar EVERY DAY between about 20wks and birth. As soon as the baby was out I went off it entirely. With the Coke, same thing, and especially bizarre for me because I never drink fizzy drinks - I am strictly a water drinker and have been since my teens. I hate the stuff and know it is awful for you. Which made the craving absolutely maddening. I limited it to one can with dinner 2-3 times a week. Again, as soon as the baby was out, the craving went.

I had a similar thing with breastfeeding and Maltesers. I swear! Happened both times, lasted for six months whilst exclusively breastfeeding, vanished as soon as solids were introduced. But for those six months each time, I was a box-a-day girl . I later found out that barley malt is a galactogogue, am convinced that is at the root of it.

YABU