Please help- I am in a panic as I inadvertently ate blue cheese

[AC786]

Please help. I just ate a sandwich which had some blue cheese in it and I did not realise until I finished. I am in such a panic. I know that I am not meant to. Has anyone else eaten blue cheese in pregnancy?

Someone will be along to say they have & its fine but just to say, DON'T PANIC. It's not the blue cheese itself, its the risk that the blue cheese harbours a nasty bug. The risk is small but significant enough that you should avoid it, but it is unlikely to cause harm.

No one in France stops. The chance of a problem is minuscule.

Very low risk. Don't worry.

Yes millions and millions of people have eaten blue cheese in pregnancy. You would be exceptionally unlucky to get food poisoning from it. You are advised to avoid it because of the miniscule chance of a specific type of food poisoning associated with blue cheese, not because there is anything inherently harmful in the cheese itself.

No need to panic.

Don't worry. There are plenty people who don't find out they are pg til late and have been drinking/smoking/eating the wrong thing and most of those babies are fine. If you are that worried then call a midwife but its not likely that anything will happen :)

Cousin could stomach nothing but blue cheese and peanuts during 3 pregnancies, all fine, all in their 20's now, no allergies..... not advocating this ( no flaming pleeeeaase ) just saying chill x

Hard blue cheeses like stilton are now considered safe anyway so unless it was a soft blue cheese like st agur and then as people have said above the risk is miniscule.

The main worry with soft and mould ripened cheeses is Listeria which can cause birth defects. You could ask your GP for a blood test but I think it's a case of a very small risk of contracting it, but a high risk of complications if you do.
If you start to feel fluey at all, contact your GP or NHS Direct.

www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/917.aspx?CategoryID=54&SubCategoryID=130

For future panics reference :)

Now come on woman, get a grip

When I discoverd I was pregnant with DC2 I was on holiday in France a few years ago, eating blue cheese/goats cheese/any mad cheese from the market and feasting on salami, pate and wine. I asked the GP when I got back and they said not to worry at all. So I didn't. The baby is now a strapping 8 year old.

It's apocryphal that pregnant women in France continue to eat blue cheese - they are pretty observant of this. But the chances are minimal, worry not.

French women are just as neurotic as us. No blue cheese. No wine (not even champagne, imagine!), no coffee, no cats. Sorry to burst that bubble.

OP try not to worry, what's done is done. I too ate a tonne of blue cheese (the worst sort, according to this thread), plus loads of Parma ham, washed down with lashings and lashings of booze at the beginning of this pregnancy. I didn't know i was pregnant then, and there's nothing I can do about it now, so relax. You are not the only one to have done this - the chances that you'll have done any harm with one sandwich are very small indeed.

Tsk pretty disappointed with the French, surely it wasn't that long since I was there and I am sure I remember blue cheese, fags and wine as common pregnant lady fare. Those were the days:)

Wonder if they still have the funny post birth stuff and a liking for the post delivery girdle?

Pregnant woem have eaten blue cheese for years and come to no harm. It's only recently they've been advised not to.
We're living in a risk averse society

I m an old timer who ate absolutely everything in pregnancy, before the days when everything was deemed dangerous to eat. Gave birth to two perfectly healthy babies - panic ye not! You ll be fine.

I have never met a French woman who would decline a glass of wine during dinner-does that make you feel better, havingbath?

OP, you'll be fine, really.

Think it depends on the French woman to be honest, and maybe if they are in Paris or not - the only thing I have noticed pregnant French women stopping are cigarettes and sometimes wine. They do pay more attention to food hygiene though - washing fruit and veg much more carefully etc, and won't eat very very mature soft cheese etc.

Oh, and as an anectodal evidence, I ate blue cheese, smoked salmon, fois gras, drinked wine etc etc during both of my pregnancies and there's not much wrong with either of them.

havingabath they are still prescribed physio sessions post birth to get the pelvic floor back in shape - was that what you were referring to?

PetiteRaleuse, yes, most of them live in Paris.

If you can buy it in a supermarket, and it has been kept at the right temperature, it will be fine. That goes for pretty much anything.

Ignore all the scare stories.

PS I ate and drank everything in every pg.

I said that as they seem more fussy careful in Paris

Out here in the sticks people seem to eat everything but, as I said, pay attention to hygiene.

I had both DC in France and my obstetrician looked at me as though I'd flown in from Mars when I told her I'd given up soft and blue cheeses. Told me to keep drinking wine, but stop drinking tea

I ate fois gras tool