Food poisoning during pregnancy

[gameoverat35]

I am 13 weeks pregnant and have been unwell with flu-like symptoms (which eased after day 3) and watery diarrhoea for 4 days - no let up in sight. I think it has been caused by some slightly undercooked chicken but can only guess.
The reason for my post is that I saw my GP yesterday who seemed unconcerned and told me to keep drinking water. From everything I can see online I should be worried about certain types of bacterial infection, yet my GP isn't interested in testing to see what I have. Is this normal?
I'm obviously worried about harming baby, but GP says it should be fine. This seems to contradict what I read online / the advise about what foods to avoid when pregnant...why bang on about avoiding certain foods if a bout of food poisoning is "fine". I'm confused. Anyone else experienced similar?

Sorry I have no idea. Only thing i can suggest is calling your midwife. She might be able to offer better advice/reassurance than your go. Hope you're feeling better soon

It is far far more likely that you have a viral infection than bacterial or 'food poisoning'. Food poisoning is actually quite uncommon, although most people try to attribute their symptoms to something they have eaten.

Hope you get better soon btw

Thanks justa, lady.

At first I assumed it must be viral. However I'm certain my husband or 18 month old would have caught it by now. It's been 6 days since I went down with symptoms but they are still fine. My 18 month old and I share every cold going. (None of us have shared a bathroom though luckily).

The good news is that the diarrhoea has stopped I think, but it went on for 4-5 days which seems a long time when I compare with other bouts of "food poisoning" I've had in my life. The most similar experience (also no vomiting) was when I was in Cuba and caught a parasitic infection, but even that only went on for 2-3 days.

I have a scan this week so I guess will find out then if the baby is still alive.
My concern is that listeria/salmonella are pitched by some online sources as being terrible for the unborn baby. But if I don't know what infection I've had, how can it be treated (presumably antibiotics)...i thought that salmonella can stay in your blood stream for a while. In fact I had food poisoning 10 years ago - from a microwave meal - and my GP at that time tested a stool sample. I wasn't pregnant at the time.

I left a message for my midwife team but suspect they will refer me to my GP.

I can only assume that there's nothing that can be done at this stage, or that the NHS don't fund these kinds of tests anymore because it's not worth their while / it makes no difference to outcome. I'm sure I can get a test privately if it worries me enough over the next few days...

I am no expert but I think you would probably know if you had food poisoning, especially salmonella. It would likely be horrific,

I am currently 27 weeks pregnant but got severe food poisoning when 16 weeks and ended up on a drip in hospital ( what was worse was I was in menorca).
Not once was anyone concerned about the baby- I just needed to keep up fluids and baby is absolutely fine so don't panic too much. Again- drs in hospital and midwife when I returned to the UK weren't concerned so don't panic with dr google. Hope u feel better soon!

I had food poisoning (not while pregnant) and it was indeed horrific, and short lived. About 2-3 hours after eating the 'poisoned' food I couldn't leave the bathroom and was uncontrollably throwing up and had awful diarrhoea. I thought I was dying. Those symptoms had passed by morning but I felt rung out for two days. I think when there's something bad in your body, it goes on a full on offensive to get rid of it ASAP and in a pretty violent way so doubt it would continue for 4 days! Having had food poisoning, I'd say that if you only think you have it, you don't. If you have it, you know beyond all doubt!

I hope this reassures you a little. I'm sorry you're pootly, your symptoms don't sound fun at all. Definitely go back to your doc or speak to midwife if you're still worried, but I'm sure it's more likely a virus (and I don't think you can catch a virus which could be why your family haven't caught it? Although I'm not 100% sure on that).

Fell better soon.

Feel*

I had a nasty stomach bug once and the diarrhoea lasted for ten days, had bad cramps, was sick and it was the worst thing I have had, some types of bugs can go on for a while

Hey, I agree with the posters above- I had a stomach bug early in this pregnancy and had diarrhoea for a week. Doctor did test by stool sample in the end, but I know it was a bug as my mum then caught it. At no point was anyone concerned about the baby- doc just prescribed some dialoryte (dunno how to spell it!) to keep my fluids up. I hope u feel better soon xxx

Thanks Cisforcat, very reassuring and glad it turned out OK for you. My GP seemed only concerned about my hydration levels. My temp didn't get above 38 so also OK.

Jeez, didn't mean to start a debate about / receive lectures on "food poisoning" verses "stomach bugs". As someone says above, you can generally deduce what kind of gastroenteritis you have depending on what you've eaten / who else is infected etc. Pretty sure a virus would have infected my 18 month old by now. Having had norovirus (from oysters) over a weekend a few years ago, I still managed to infect half my team at work despite taking 3 days off work and being fully recovered before returning to the office. It's a virus and its caught from food, so, derrr, is it food poisoning or a virus?
And who is to say that I didn't feel like I was "dying"? I don't think that's a great way of diagnosing what I had. But yes, it wasn't severe enough to be hospitalised. But then when I had campylobacter 10 years ago I wasn't hospitalised either. Severity of these things can range from mild to death!

I should have known that posting on Mumsnet would draw me into some pointless mindless debate about nothingness.

For the record, it was certainly not my intention to 'lecture' on food poisoning vs. stomach bugs. Having suffered from anxiety during my pregnancy, my post was designed to try and reassure u rather than lecture, as I know that I would be considerably more worried about food poisoning than I would be about a tummy bug- probably because my mind would leap to worst case scenario ie. Listeria or toxoplasmosis - but that's just me.
I think it's a bit unfair to attack people who took the time to try and reassure you- in future, if you don't want honest opinions from people, don't ask the question.