how much notice to do pay to what you can and can't eat guidelines?

[carriedababi]

went out for a meal with dh and dd on sat night to celebrate pregnancy.

i do have one glass of lemonade spirtzer, so had a bit of wine in it.

also made the choice ot eat a prawn toast and butterfly king prawn, only one little tiny bit of each.

then realised the chicken satay had [peanuts on it]

so on my first night of know broke 3 rules, 1 unwittingly the satay

anyway we've been goingto this restaurant regulary for 10 years and have never been ill ever asfetr going there.

and i can't really see how half a glass of ine can be bad for you.
yet i did feel quite guilty

we had the food shooping from sainsburys sun am, and i didnt eat the prawns dh on sun as there those precooked things

anyway how much notice do you take to the guidelines?

sorry OP that wasn't an attack on you! twas an attack on the bloody people who put those labels on the bottles, they can all sod off as far as I'm concerned while I pour myself a lovely glass of red!

I don't eat pate(Don't like it) or drink(Not for me). I've had runny eggs and various salads.

i pretty much ignore.

Something that always strikes me when it comes to advice on child rearing and diet and other things too is this:

nothing at all has changed.

All that's changed is the advice. If it's OK to eat peanuts whilst pregnant now then it always was. And if it wasn't OK then it still isn't.

I think the best thing to do is read the advice, think about it yourself and do what seems to make sense to you.

as you've since discovered, you've broken absolutely no "rules."

I basically eat everything - the risks are so minuscule.

I cut back on caffeine in the first trimester but now at 32 weeks probably regularly bang up against the 200mg limit given as official advice by the NHS. I have a daily latte, sometimes a weak cup of tea and sometimes a diet coke too.

I hate pate so that's no loss! I do eat cold shellfish and sushi all the time ... (though never uncooked shellfish.) I'm also not a big fan of brie and other smelly soft cheese so am happy to avoid those.

I avoid raw fish and raw meat, however I know I drink too much Coke, usually about 2 cans a day, sometimes 3 (I'm having a really hard time staying awake during the day), and I enjoy about 2 & a half to 3 glasses of wine every week or 2 (filled to the brim with ice as well, so pretty watered down) since I was 16 weeks.

I don't eat pate or drink at all and make my steaks medium rather than mooing. I also don't eat runny eggs unless they are from my chooks. I'm not a fan of brie etc so it doesn't really register.

I don't drink caffeinated drinks regularly anyway because I'm quite sensitive to it and sounds as though I've been mainlining espresso after one white filter coffee.

they say you should eat nuts now, though ,so that's not a broken rule.

I'm vegetarian, so most of the rules don't apply to me.

I hate the mouldy cheese rule - I like brie, and DH keeps finding recipes with rinded goats' cheese in!
I was annoyed by the pate one, because it includes veggie pate even though there can't be a risk with it!

I'm not sure how much alcohol i'm haivng - i'll have a shandy once or twice a week, or a glass of wine.
I didn't have a drink this weekend when my parents visited, but i did have sips of the others' (sip of DH's beer, sip m+d's wine)

oh yes! runny eggs.
tough! I'm not having solid yolks for anyone. And i told that to my midwife.
i did follow up with that they were my own chickens that laid them and that I know they've been vaccinated against all prevalent diseases, inc salmonella.
midwife said it was mainly the salmonella they worry about.

I don't drink coke or coffee, anyway.
I have tea, but I cut down on that ages ago because I failed the iron test for Blood donating a couple of years ago.
I have chocoalte, but again, not much ,because I jsut don't really eat chocolate.
But I did have hot chocolate instead of tea, and last time I had a bloood test at the MW, my hb was low. (but I think the blood was taken before the hot chocolate.)
I jsut went back to trying to remember to take the preg vitamin tablets.

Its funny how things change and what different people believe, friends who have babies were suprised I was eating Philadelphia soft cheese, I had to explain that soft ripened cheeses and blue cheeses were what was supposed to be avoided, which I dont like anyway.

My sister told me not to drink tonic water as she did the whole way through her 12 weeks of morning sickness, but I have read that you would have to drink an awful lot of tonic water to be poisoned with quinine.

I was also surprised when i read that you could eat smoked salmon.

I would avoid raw prawns and seafood but would eat them cooked, I eat eggs and aim to have them hard boiled, but if they are slightly soft I don't worry. But I have also avoided deli meats like salami and chorizo.

I have avoided pate, but definitely havent avoided peanuts, I love peanut butter on toast!

I have just kind of thought, if you had a sensitive stomach, what would you avoid, and what smells like it could make you sick, so that was my thinking on things like cheese and raw food.

I havent really been interested in alcohol, but have had a glass of champagne and glass of wine at a wedding, and some bubbly at a hen party, if i take a notion for a wee glass of wine some Friday evening, I will have it.

Tea wise I have tried not to over do it, only because I notice I feel worse if i have drank lots of tea all day. I have stopped drinking green tea, only because in the begining I had read somewhere that it prevents folate from being absorbed into the body, so I didnt want it to affect folic acid supplement, and I havent got back into drinking it. I didnt really research it, it was one article and it wasnt a big sacrifice, so i just did it and forgot about it. It could be totally proven false, but it was just an idea so i followed it.

Most of it is myth...

Runny eggs are fine in the UK, its cause of the salmonella risk but all commercial hens are vaccinated against salmonella by law since the 80s. Didnt know that with my first pregnancy, very happy to know this time. Therefore mayonnaise (inc homemade) is also fine. And shop bought is pasteurised anyway.

Blue/mould-ripened cheeses are fine if cooked.

Peanuts/any nuts/sesame/random other "allergy" foods are all fine so long as you and DH arent allergic.

Sushi is fine as legally all fish has to be frozen before serving in sushi restaurants in the UK, killing any bacteria.

Shellfish, veggie pate all the "listeria" ones, fine if you have prepared or trust the restaurant/wherever.

Caffeine, not banned, should just be minimised
Same for alcohol

Rare meat. Beef or lamb are fine, so long as the outside is sealed properly.

Retinol (vit A, pate, liver) bad in high amounts but not a tiny amount.
I have ordered pate with my shopping today as a treat. [hgrin]

The caffiene thing is bloody killing me! Chocolate -yeah fine, I go off it completely when pregnant... but a lack of diet coke, cups of tea, nice Costa coffees - have knocked it back to the bare minimum but I'm a tired, caffiene deprived grouch!

Risked a half-small-glass of cider the other day - boy did it taste good, and any rumours I had my nose shoved up against the bottle of red wine I was using for cooking trying to get high off the wine fumes are a vicious vicious lie (hubby was killing himself laughing at me).

Deli meats and stuff - if it's supermarket shrink wrapped - fair game I figure... prawns and shellfish are vile anyway, peanuts - if I eat them I eat them but they're not something I go hunting out anyway.

Runny eggs - fuck off I just want a dippy egg and toast soldiers now - have no car for the day to get to the shop and buy eggs and always have to google up how long to boil them for anyway since it's rare I eat 'em!

I have eaten everything during my pregnancy, ONE TIME.
Fois GRAS and champagne for Xmas
I could not resist some urges like blue cheese, chopped liver or sushi or oyster.
It's all a calculated risk.Ie:
Super fresh oysters in Paris
Chopped liver from a strict kosher kitchen
All post 6 months.

Just had some peanut butter on toast.

Quite feel like fois gras thanks to laptopwieldingharpy.

The only thing I avoid is raw eggs,oysters, raw meat/fish and farmer's market type cheeses.
I have a glass of wine once a week and blue cheese when I fancy it.
Common sense rules me thinks.

there has been so much to show that caffeine under the 200mg daily limit - and possibly quite a lot higher - has no effect, so no one should be depriving themselves of chocolate and tea - though of course everyone is entitled to make their own choices!

Coffee Amount Caffeine
coffee, generic brewed 8 oz 102-200 mg
coffee, Starbucks brewed 16 oz (grande) 330 mg
caffé latte or cappuccino, Starbucks 16 oz (grande) 150 mg
caffé latte or cappuccino, Starbucks 12 oz (tall) 75 mg
espresso, Starbucks 1 oz (1 shot ) 75 mg
espresso, generic 1 oz (1 shot) 30-90 mg
coffee, generic instant 8 oz 27-173 mg
coffee, generic decaffeinated 8 oz 3-26 mg

Tea Amount Caffeine
black tea, brewed 8 oz 40-120 mg
green tea, brewed 8 oz 30-50 mg
black tea, decaffeinated 8 oz 2 mg
Starbucks Tazo Chai Tea latte 16 oz (grande) 100 mg
Nestea 12 oz 26 mg
Snapple 16 oz 42 mg
Lipton Brisk iced tea 12 oz 10 mg

Soft drinks Amount Caffeine
Coke 12 oz 35 mg

Desserts Amount Caffeine
dark chocolate 1.45-oz bar 31 mg
milk chocolate 1.45-oz bar 11 mg
coffee ice cream or frozen yogurt 8 oz 50-60 mg
hot cocoa 8 oz 3-13 mg

Mmm, I just ate my pate on ryvita. Heaven [hgrin]

The advice does seem to be so different around the world. I asked about seafood when I was pregnant with DD1, the midwife looked very confused and asked "What would you eat?".

I was also told to freeze Serrano ham first then it would be OK.

I just tried to be sensible, when I questioned about pate here, Spain, again they all looked very confused.

I am taking less and less notice the more pregnant I am. I was quite careful up until 12 weeks- not a drop of booze (after I found out I was pg, quite a lot consumed in first couple of weeks when I didn't know!). No caffeine- totally went off tea anyway so very easy.

Now I have:
1-2 glasses of wine a week (or a beer, or G&T- whatever I fancy)
1 can of diet coke a day (still off tea)
Rare Steaks- only when cooked myself from decent meat and making sure outside is well cooked.
Runny eggs- could not do it any other way
Prawns and other shellfish
Sushi
Deli meats that are pre packed- ie packet parma ham etc
Nuts- any kind

Only things I avoid much, much to my own sadness:
Pate ( I so want a massive slice of duck and orange!!
Brie and associated mould ripened cheese.
I am much more careful about eating things within sell by date etc as I have a history of easily poisoning myself, but a rather maverick attitude to eating anything that looks and smells ok- I never learn!
I will be eating lots of stilton at Xmas as apparently that's ok now!

All common sense I think.