anyone gone over their caffeine limit?....

[SaraL77]

I'm feeling guilty, hence the thread- torn between guilt and a lifelong caffeine addiction!

I have been pretty good only having 2 small cups of coffee a day (have a Senseo coffee machine -each pod has around 70-90mg of caffeine)but recently it's crept up to those plus a cup of tea. (and sometimes some chocolate as well)

now, I know, rationally I'm probably not harming my baby - I eat healthily otherwise and do all the right things and avoid all the right things etc etc. My sister in law (is Dutch- they drink lots of coffee) said her doc said she could have up to 4 cups of coffee a day and so now I'm thinking it's just the UK's strict (and probably overly-cautious) 'reccomendations' that I shouldn't be worrying about.

I'm interested to hear opinions or similar coffee-lovers situations!

IMO unless you're really hammering it I wouldn't worry, especially if you're out of the first 12 weeks. Not sure if this is the same for breast feeding though.

This time and last time I'm drinking very little tea, just one cup a day as it just don't taste right, but coffee is still great. Unfortunately, like last time, I have an extremely intollerant bladder when it comes to caffine and if I have more than one cup off coffee a day I feel like I should just base myself on the loo.

Enjoy your coffee - in fact have one for me!

Chocolate has caffeine in it???? I was feeling good because I had been making sure I had no more than 4 cups of tea a day, but then today I read that it's actually 2 mugs (I think cup is misleading because those are titchy and no one actually uses them, just mugs), so I've been drinking up to 4 mugs of tea plus eating usual amount of chocolate. I can't do anything right!

currently 31 wks with 3rd preg and i would bath in the stuuff if i could! i have two giant cups a day and am far to tired lookin after 5yr ds and 19mnt dd to worry bout drinking to much coffee. Enjoy the few cups you have.coffee is my saviour!! i would just be a tired grumpy mummy without it xx

I'm sure you'll be fine - just don't go crazy and start drinking buckets of the stuff x

There's a limit?! Of course I knew about the limit, but there are far more important things to be concerned about. Unless you're downing Pro Plus and Red Bull I wouldn't worry, I really wouldn't.

What WriterofDreams said.

If I recall correctly (and sorry I cannot be arsed to look it up) all the research (and there is not a huge volume of it) is around women who drink very high amounts of coffee (like 6+ filter coffees a day) and there is some small but significant correlation to first trimester miscarriage and low birth weight. The studies IIRC in most cases looked at COFFEE consumption and not caffeine consumption and did not differentiate between caff and decaff.

There is also the question of associative factors (ie would women who drank very high amounts of coffee have other related factors that would affect their reproductive health).

There is also the interesting question that has been raised that women with viable pregnancies report aversion to caffeine as part of morning sickness. So would women who do not have viable pregnancies have less aversion to caffeine and drink more of it and it is a resulting factor rather than a cause. IE it might be that women who have miscarriages drink more caffeine rather than women who drink caffeine have more miscarriages. If you see what I mean.

I probably exceed guidelines on Double Decker consumption alone .

I've switched to decaff coffee at work and don't stress about it. I have friends in other countries who are given different guidelines so it's all a question of research and how cautious the medical service is in each country.

Golly, I had no idea there was a caffeine limit. Am 38 weeks with no 2 and have drunk my normal amounts of tea (about 3 pints a day) coffee and chocolate (have a thing for Nesquik at the moment...). Didn't do dd any harm, and I doubt it will do ds any!

I've done lot of digging on this topic and have found no evidence in support of the UK recommendations. Reason for the digging is that with DC1 I didn't even know I was pregnant, for the whole of the first trimester and part of the second. I thought my periods had stopped because of my sport, I was training for a body building contest. Long story short my caffeine intake daily was around 2000mg in preworkout supplements PLUS 4 or 5 cups of coffee PLUS one or two diet cokes and, I dunno, maybe a cup of tea, so I'd round that up to 3000mg or so. When I got my BFP I was so freaked out about what I'd done, especially considering the 200mg recommendation that I did some really deep digging into the issue and found there was no evidence to support it at all. That was just as well, as my lovely girl is now four and she didn't have any caffeine withdrawal or anything either! When I did find out I was pregnant I stopped the preworkout supplements, cancelled my contests and obstacle races though I did carry on with my daily gym until the birth. I'm really sorry to necrobump this thread but I wanted to share my experience in case others are worried. My best advice is to listen to your body and it'll tell you if something feels right or wrong, and typically we feel physically uncomfortable if we are doing something that might damage our babies. So to give an example - as well as gym and pre workout I used to sauna each day, but over the first trimester found I couldn't stay in the sauna longer than 5 minutes max rather than 15 or 20 as before. I didn't have any idea why until I found out I was pregnant, but I did listen to my body. So I'd also say that maybe the caffeine etc wasn't a problem for me, but if someone else takes it and feels sick or uncomfortable that might not suit them as well... our bodies are amazing and give us really good feedback and information. One size doesn't fit all, and a lot of the advice we are given is nonsense!