13 weeks, is it OK to eat hot and spicy food?

[Shasha123]

I am 13 weeks pregnant and recently I have been eating hot and spicy food about 2 meals a day and sometimes 1. I read that at this stage baby eats what Mum does through placenta. But worried if its OK to continue eating hot and spicy food, as I like it a lot than others. Any suggestions please?

It's absolutely fine.

It's fine :)

I read that around 30-34 weeks the baby is starting to swallow amniotic fluid more and more so I've been eating spicy foods to get s/he used to it , although weirdly I've been craving Korean type spicy, rather than anything else… don't wamt the little one to take after daddy who can't cope with any spicy! Although who knows if it really makes a difference!

Also staying off the choc from now till Easter, both to spare our child the pain of being a chocoholic like me, and because I'm getting so 'round'!

I am so relieved. Thank you so much!

Spicy food is fine at any time if you like it. I love spicy food. The baby doesn't literally "eat what mum does" it means they get what you've taken in chemically via their bloodstream.

When you are breastfeeding, what you eat supposedly affects the flavour of your milk but the baby won't care and probably won't notice. I never let this stop me eating spicy food when breastfeeding. People living in countries where spicy food is the norm still do.

If you get heartburn/acid indigestion when you are heavily pregnant you might want to hold back on the spicy food.

Thanks very much for another good information.

At our antenatal classes the midwife said your child is less likely to be a fussy eater if breastfed and you have a varied diet because the milk will constantly taste different. She said it was a good thing so enjoy!

If you couldn't eat spiced food in pregnancy there would be some very hungry and bored pregnant Asian women I suspect.

Yes it's fine..afraid the less fussy due to eating diff foods while breastfeeding is a myth though..I ate pretty much every cuisine under the sun while feeding my two and they were both fussy little monkeys!

Unless it makes you nauseous or gives you heartburn, it shouldn't be a problem. I would get habanero salsa at Qdoba when I got too constipated, figured it was safer than chemical laxatives. Lots of women in Asia and Latin America have probably eaten spicy food during pregnancy for a very long time. My daughter from that pregnancy is going to be 2.5 next month. She's a picky eater, but her dad and I were too as kids (I still am). She never objected to the flavor of my milk when she was breastfeeding.

I ate hot and spicy food all through pregnancy and breastfeeding and the only negative result is that my 2.7 year old now steals all of my spicy samosas when he's finished his! I think it gives them a taste for it :-)