Giving up coffee & alcohol while TTC ?

[birdietimestwo]

Has anyone bothered giving up alcohol & coffee completely ? I've cut down but finding it hard to ditch that glass (sometimes two) of red wine in the evenings. Also hard to explain to friends why I'm not having more than one drink on a night out..
Similarly coffee - I'm not convinced that a cup or two a day will make much difference but some people seem to think you shouldn't be drinking it at all.

both are probably a good idea, unless you feel too stressed without! Plenty of people drink decaff anyway. But don't forget that your dh also should be looking at his diet.

gave up alcohol during each 2ww (and a bit before and a bit after iyswim - good thing too as I had a negative with DD and then a positive a few days later). Didn't give up coffee, might have cut down a bit. Once I knew I was pg, I switched to decaff first time round but tbh I couldn't face it most of the time anyway

No I'm not giving up either, I don't drink that much and TBH I really don't think the odd glass or two, or cup of coffee, will make much difference. Of all my friends who have got, or who are, pregnant, none of them suddenly started living a saintly totally restricted life in terms of what they ate and drank...there's plenty of that once you actually are pregnant! I think most people suggest that you can carry on as normal but if you are having problems trying to concieve then that would be the time to look at drastic diet changes! You want to enjoy TTC and as you don't know how long it will take why make yourself miserable by being too strict?

That's my thought on the matter anyway! :)

I don't think there's any need to give up coffee. The guidelines for being pregnant say less than 200mg caffeine a day, which is about 2 cups of coffee. I certainly haven't cut it out, but I have cut down.

As for alcohol, I'm not convinced that the current guidelines saying not to drink are based on any evidence. Again I'm cutting down, drinking less or not at all when just with HB and at home, but still having a glass of wine when out with others.

Well I got fed up with not getting knocked up (months...) and so this month I've had less tea (don't drink coffee) and NO alcohol (very hard as I like my friday 1/2 bottle of wine to share) and I've just this afternoon got a +ve!

Might be coincidence... might have helped?

No. Been TTC for over 18 months and life's too short. But then I drink 2-3 coffees or teas a day and at least 1 is weak instant, and only a couple glasses of wine a week. Actually I had 4 very small glasses last night which is the most I've drunk all year!

I figure I'm within any actual risk based limits.

Thanks everyone, that pretty much confirms what I thought. There's a lot of conflicting "advice" out there so a reality check helps. If I don't get pg within the next 3-6 months (secretly hoping for a pre-christmas bfp) I might try the saintly route. Great news Sofakitten, I may well be following your example in a few months' time !
Dp's diet is pretty good, and he's taking one of those multivit horse pills for men (whenever he remembers, which is about once a week, pht).

I've given up caffeine completely but not alcohol. I don't drink too much anyway, was paranoid when first started trying and cut back a lot but much more relaxed now! GP actually said she'd not recommend cutting out alcolhol completely unless I was drinking silly amounts and my acupuncturist said my glasses of wine were fine (although she did tell me to cut out the decaf coffee so now I'm strictly on herbal and fruit teas!). I agree with nocitrus that life's too short and the nightly odd glass of wine helps with the stress of 18 months trying.