have been eating unpasturised cheese by mistake!!

[Nancy54]

arggg
I live in france and am 11 weeks pregnant and I've been eating a lot of a cheese called 'comté' because i thought i was ok and have just realised today that it's unpasturiised!

Does anyone one know what the chances of getting listeria are? how do you know if you've got it?

**i thought IT was ok (not i!)

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Listeriosis/Pages/Symptoms.aspx

Nancy - Oh yum, yum, yum - very jealous, my 5 year plan is to be sitting in France with some comte and a glass of red! (I am sure the reality is like that all of the time - no work or chores etc, just the lovely stuff...!!)

Anyway, I am sure all will be fine - I have accidentally taken Senakot, which is apparently a no (but what is one supposed to do - it had been DAYS!), and also been told feta is off the menu, which I had been indulging in.

The guidance lists are so long, and we are supposed to magically know what we should and shouldn't be munching on. I think as long as you are sticking to whatever list you might be using as much as possible, it'll be OK.

I am still having guilt pangs about the rather headonistic few weeks before I found out, but done now...

And another thing....prawns and peanuts - conflicting info on these - so I am just avoiding....

36, 11wks, #1

your chances of having contracted it are still really low, even though you have a higher risk in pregnancy than you do when you're not pregnant.

you should be ok. nothing you can do about it now, take comfort that it's not especially likely to have done you any harm and avoid the cheese from now on!

hi Nancy I conceived in France and had been eating a ripe old variety of cheeses and all sorts, including a vat of wine, never thought I would ever get pregnant so it was just what the doctor ordered for me! I think I'm fine, now 28 weeks and we came home at about 4 weeks I think. difficult to know but chances are you be just fine. where do you live?

Do you feel ill?

No?

Then you're probably fine.

Nothing you could do about it now anyway.

I love Comte.

One of my best friends is French and she snorts with derision at the very idea of giving up cheese....as I believe most French women do. I know there is a risk but if you are generally healthy I would imagine it would be very low.

We lived abroad (Turkey) when I found out I was preg with DD1. I had been messing about with a stray kitten and got myself into a flap thinking I had Toxoplasmosis. Happily all was well. But stick to Dairylea/'La Vache qui rire' for now!

thanks everyone!!
nice to be reassured and to learn that other people have accidently eaten 'forbidden' things!!!
I actually told the midwife about it this afternoon and she said it should be ok but just stop eating it now! so hopefully ok!

god, it's a bloody mine field, especially before you can tell anyone why you are not eating certain things!!

yes mopswerver, i'll definitely be sticking to 'vache qui rit' from now on!

and yes like surfmama, now i think of it i must have eaten loads of camenbert, brie esque type things before i found out! in answer to your question, i live in nancy in lorraine - not the most exotic part of france but lovely.

not sure if the french women steer clear of all these things actually - can't really discuss it with anyone as haven't annonced the pregnancy yet - roll on 12 week scan!!!

yeah don't worry, I practically live on forbidden things and have had a 100% normal pregnancy up to now (40wks). Raw milk, prawns, peanuts, soft yolks - you name it, I eat it. pasteurisation's only been around for 100yrs or so, and not pasteurising only started causing problems when we a) started living in filth and b) started raising cows in filth and processing the produce in similar conditions. I'd imagine the French take scrupulous care of their lovely cheese thesedays and always have! bon apetit!

I am a gooey cheese lover and so paid more than a little interest to the risk of catching listeria from eating all those yummy vacherins, camemberts etc during pregnancy. I can give you some figures for the UK. In 2010 there were 156 cases of listeria. 2/3 of cases were in the over 60s (ie most in people not of child bearing age) and only 8% had an identifiable food source. (ie in most cases no-one knew how the person got listeria). The risk of catching listeria is therefore tiny. I'm not a statistician but based on the UK poulation (approx 60 million) the risk is less than 1 in 385 000. Considering that the risk of dying in a car crash on UK roads is 1 in approx 17 500 and we don't generally think twice about jumping in the car when pregnant (and certainly the list of pregnancy dos and don'ts doesn't say avoid cars) I have been enjoying all cheese throughout my pregnancy.

I suspect you will be absolutely fine.

You'd probably do more harm stressing about it tbh.

Not that I would advocate ANY of this but when my granny was pregnant both times she carried on with her 20 a day (it wasn't discouraged in those days), drank a pint of guinness at lunch, a glass of red with dinner and had a brandy before going to bed. and she had two strapping healthy babies who grew up and had other healthy babies in turn.

I've never eaten Comte, but it looks like hard cheese to me. So it should be safe! In theory, hard cheeses are safe from listeria, because these are aged long enough to kill most of it.

There is always a risk of cross-contamination for any cheese or refrigerated product, regardless of whether it's being pasteurised or not. Don't worry too much, you can't stop eating everything.

Comte is a hard cheese. Therefore its pasteurization status is not so important. Listeria is higher risk with mould ripened cheeses such as Brie because they are soft and have a higher water content. Comte doesn't have much water content for the listeria to grow in.

I would not just stick to La vache qui rit if you enjoy nice cheeses. Give the mould ripened ones in the style of Brie and Camembert a miss if you are worried. And the soft blues. But no reason to avoid any sort of hard cheese.

And you can also cook the cheeses and it is fine -- one of my pleasures is a brie omelette, and I've just been overcooking them a little to make sure all the cheese is "piping hot" before I eat. I can't wait until I can eat raw brie again!

Oops hadn't realised feta was off the menu, well op at 18 weeks I've been having it a few times a week all the way through

Feta isn't off the menu though..... Especially if it is pasteurized which most feta that you get prepackaged in supermarkets is.

Feta is listed as being ok. I've had loads of it and I know I googled it first