Caffeine confusion

[yumcrumbs]

I'm pregnant with my first baby and am completely confused about caffeine made from plunger coffee and whether I am consuming too much or being paranoid about it!

I make my coffee in a coffee plunger with 1 tablespoon of caffeinated and 1 tablespoon of decaf to make 2 mugs of coffee (normally would use 2 tablespoons of caffeinated).

I know it says to have no more than one mug of coffee/ 200mg caffeine, but that surely depends on wether you use 1 tablespoon, 2 tablespoons or more to make it!

I've heard varying info about this - some sites day that 1 tablespoon of ground coffee = 100-140mg caffeine or more and others say that 1 tablespoon = only 30 mg of caffeine.

I'm afraid to say I feel quite low if I don't have any coffee at all but would rein it in if I was going over the limit.

I'm not sure I'm much help. I quit cold turkey the moment I found out I was expecting (later than most ) because I scared myself witless reading articles on caffeine and placental blood flow... BUT having said that, I know plenty of people who have had it during pregnancy and have gone on to have healthy babies etc.

I am a tea drinker and was quite panicked at the thought of going decaf, simply because I used to get through 6+ mugs a day, but when it came down to it I didn't actually notice (and I'm sure the odd headache I had was hormonal rather than caffeine!).

I can recommend a REALLY nice Swiss-Water-decaf ground coffe made by Taylor's of Harrogate (it's reasonable at £3 per bag) available in most supermarkets:

taylorscoffee.co.uk/reduced-caffeine/decaffe/

and for tea, you can't beat the CO2-decaf Clipper Organic decaf which is the best the bunch :) Now to try giving up on the sweet things...

When I got to about 8 weeks the smell of coffee made me boak so much that I nearly threw up in starbucks so this was less of an issue for me. I wouldn't worry too much about how strong you are making it but just stick to a cup a day and you will be well within the allowance

I think there's a differenc e between filter coffee and instant, which may account for the differences on websites you're seeing?

Hey there yumcrumbs, I'm in the same boat and this is my first time too. Tbh I have a little worry every time I make my morning cup of coffee. I like it strong and its usually about a scoop and a half per cup. I just make sure I drink it after I have food in my stomach and then I go decaf everything for the rest of the day. So in short, I kind of think I'm having my full wack in one go (and its more likely to be the higher amount of caffeine).

Contact the company whose coffee you are using, they will easily tell you the caffeine content. Otherwise try the website Caffeine Informer which includes a lot of brands.

I think I read somewhere that instant is about 100mg, filter coffee either 120 or 140mg? Basically you can probably drink 2 cups of filter coffee a day. But pps idea of checking the caffeine content for that brand seems the most sensible idea to me!

I'd say one cup like that per day is fine.

I drank one strong (really quite strong filter) coffee a day when I was pregnant with dd1. She is now a perfectly healthy slightly manic and hyper 2.6yo.

Hiya yumcrumbs NHS says 200mg a day. So apparently that is 2 cups of instant coffee (assuming they are made with 1tsp of coffee), they said 140mg is a mug of filter coffee. tbh I think I'd switch to instant just because it seems easier to keep track of. But I guess with the coffee you're making (half and half) I'd assume that each mug was about 70mg (as it's half usual strength?) so you could have 2 mugs in a day. Hope that helps, there is far too much maths in it for my liking :) so as I say I would switch to instant or just run this by your midwife to check.

www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/limit-caffeine-during-pregnancy.aspx?CategoryID=54&SubCategoryID=130

It's Taylor's decaf. It's decaffeinated using the water process rather then chemical process, so healthier

Thanks everyone. It doesn't help that I'm rubbish at maths and a bit silly about over thinking things!

I think I'm probably fine but it's a bit tricky to keep a track of so I attempted to trick my brain this morning with decaf plunger coffee which took the edge off for a while. And now I'm having an instant coffee. As Neuroticfox suggests it is much easier to keep a track of. There is a nice decaf coffee that Planet Organic by the way do that doesn't taste horrible and they extract the caffeine using water extraction which is much better for you than chemical methods apparently…