Can someone explain the runny eggs thing to me?

[Fishpond]

I love love love runny eggs - French toast, soft boiled, sunny side up, I'm going all gooey-eyed thinking about it.

Why is it off-limits (along with bloody everything else?) in pregnancy and what is the actual % risk? I might ignore it sometimes if it's ridiculously low. Am I already a horrible mother?

I thought it was salmonella. I had some last weekend(lion marked eggs).

I always took the view that I have manged 36 years without getting salmonella, tha chances of getting it whilst pg seemed rather slim. Same view applied to listeria re soft chesses and pates. i.e. I ignored all of the irrational food advice given to pg women. The only thig I avoided was raw seafood or any seafodd where the origin was a little suspect.

Have a look at this article

I love soft boiled eggs too. I avoided them with my 1st pregnancy but by my 2nd I thought the risk so small that I did eat them. I always made sure the eggs were good quality and fresh though. If they cracked in the pan I would throw them away, and I tended not to eat food where I wasn't sure about where the egg had come from.

As with all these things, it is up to you whether you want to risk it or not.

Lion marked eggs are vaccinated for salmonella. I have eaten them this pregnancy.

It is to do with salmonella which can be caught more easily by those with surpressed immune systems, like pregnant women. While salmonella doesn't cross the placental barrier (unlike listeria), it can make you very ill and very dehydrated and severe dehydration can lead to miscarriage.

However all lion marked eggs are from flocks immunised against salmonella so I've felt happy eating those this pregnancy (currently 36w).

I did, on my fourth pregnancy, without thinking, have a cooked breakfast at a hotel when about 7 weeks pregnant which included a fried egg. I ate it without thinking but then felt very ill later that day. I miscarried a few days later. Now the two are probably not linked (I am a recurrent miscarrier at around 8 weeks due to, as I now know after extensive testing, a chromonsonal deformity). However the guilt I felt was dreadful. Most catering eggs are imported and not lion marked.

The risk of getting salmonella from lion marked eggs is negilible. A Health Protection Agency report in 2004 found no salmonella in lion marked eggs.

Oh yes, duh about salmonella.

Well, I haven't managed to contract it yet in over two decades so I think I'll probably be okay for the next 8 months. Thanks ladies for entertaining the daft ramblings of a first-time pregnant woman!

It is salmonella. I choose to still eat runny fried eggs if they are british lion marked eggs. I don't eat any raw egg stuff and if I am eating runny eggs I ensure the whites are cooked through. This only applies to eggs that are being cooked for me I am cooking at home. I'd be more careful eating out probably.

X-post with Issy I'm so sorry about your loss. Must have been terrible for you thinking could be the egg Thank you for the link and the food for thought.

Whilst the risk is indeed very low there is a risk and like anything else you have to consider it. The way I look at it is I love 'dippy eggs and soldiers' and would absolutely love to have them for breakfast but I love my baby more. To deny myself the chance to eat some things I like for 9 months really doesn't seem that bad and I would feel very selfish if I hurt or killed my baby just for the sake of a little willpower even with low odds. However you are the mum and you should make your own decisions.

Soft boiled eggs and marmite soldiers were one of the few things I could comtemplate when I had morning sickness. I figured the risk of starvation outweighed the (miniscule) risk of salmonella.

Hope you don't travel in cars then heartmoonshadow. You could hurt or kill your baby.

Yes but there is a higher risk of crossing the road. Technically, I don't need to cross the road, I could stay at home under my duvet, but nobody judges me for leaving the house, do they??

I really really loathe the suggestion that people who exercise some common sense decisions about what to eat and what to avoid ( I am not talking about people making shit decisions like taking drugs) get the whole "oh surely you could do without it for 9 months, haven't you got any willpower" guilt trip.

I understand that you think my comment is harsh but at the end of the day I have said it is up to the individual mother. I just feel that 9 months of abstinence on medical advice is no big deal, even less really because you don't know for a few weeks (well most people). I am not judging poster just saying how I feel.

If the advice changed would they be ok then?

Medical advice has changed, both my midwife and consultant have said that it is perfectly safe to east lion marked eggs wth runny yolks or with raw egg white when making mousse etc.

The only time they advised me to be careful is when eating out or with farm eggs, that if you can't physically see the lion stamp on the egg yourself, make sure that they are fully cooked through.

Oh god, I didn't even know you weren't meant to eat runny eggs! I honestly thought they just had to be cooked properly, ie no watery bits

I have been eating lion marked eggs happily as i know i can't get salmonella from them.
Issystark "Most catering eggs are imported and not lion marked." I have had a couple of breakfasts in cafe's without thinking about it, won't be doing that again! Thanks for the post.

Yes but why not also abstain from car travel, public transport, being a pedestrian, cycling, using your laptop etc etc and so on for the nine months too. After all, if it is no biggie not to have a runny egg, it is surely no biggie not to drive your car, unless you are a selfish mummy.

I had a baby 10 weeks ago and my midwife said she would happily and confidently eat lion marked eggs cooked however I chose but to avoid non lion marked.

fish thanks, it was hard at the but it did teach me a lesson and I stick to lion-marked eggs for my egg and soldiers now and don't eat soft eggs outside the home.

You are not more likely to be involved in a road accident because you're pregnant so there's no point in modifying your behaviour on that score.

You are however more likely to contract listeriosis or salmonella if you eat high-risk foods when you're pregnant, thanks to your compromised immunity. It might be rare, but it absolutely is worth avoiding that heightened risk.

Basically to compare scoffing pate or raw brie with crossing the road is foolish imo.

Nobody was mentioning brie or paté! We were talking about eggs that have already been immunized against salmonella. If the eggs were not treated in this way, I would not eat them runny at all.

Actually, on a lighter note, I'm not convinced that being pregnant is a no bigger risk when driving. Pregnancy brain seems to be having a negative effect on my driving skills!

I appreciate that Kat, I was responding more to the "Hope you don't travel in cars then" comment upthread, and also the comment made by another poster regarding never having has salmonella or listeria in the past.

jenai, to make it clear, salmonella and listeria are not the same risk to the baby.

Listeriosis is harmful to the foetus as it crosses the placental barrier and can result in birth defects or stillbirth.

Salmonella, like much food poisoning, does not cross the placental barrier. It will make the mother sick - not fun when pregnant - but won't actively harm the baby unless you are so ill you end up hospitalised for severe dehydration, and even then the risk to baby is very small.

Exactly Issy. That's kind of my point (very badly made though sorry - am distracted).

People sometimes conflate the two it seems to me. And then people post things like Same view applied to listeria re soft chesses and pates. i.e. I ignored all of the irrational food advice given to pg women