Tonic water while pregnant?

[Jordan86]

Hi, totally new to this and apologies for the slightly random question, but has anyone had any medical advice, from midwives or otherwise, about drinking tonic water during pregnancy? I’m 16 weeks with my first pregnancy and had been drinking tonic and bitter lemon as an alcohol alternative at the weekends and by chance found a post last night saying it shouldn’t be drunk while pregnant due to the quinine. It’s the first I’ve heard of this and I’m now panicking I’ve potentially caused some damage by drinking it! Thoughts welcome.. thanks!!

Nothing about tonic water on the list of food/drink to be avoided on the NHS website. If you're worried, stick to lemonaid and mention to your midwife at your next appointment.

Just hold the gin

Congrats on your pregnancy!

I couldn't tell you for definite but I've never heard that and I drank it during my pregnancy!

It's fine to drink and actually recommended for those who suffer with leg cramps during pregnancy! I had awful cramp that would wake me up in the night clutching at my calf. But a glass of tonic water sorted me out!

I also drank tonic water in pregnancy and it was fine.

Yes I've never heard otherwise and used to have it with ice and lemon and DH still asks if I'd like a "Ginless Wonder"! Enjoy.

I read the same thing when I was about 10 weeks and stopped drinking it .. kind of wish I hadn't now could have spent all this time pretending it had gin in there!

Thanks all! There’s so much info online it’s hard to know where to look and what to not worry about! Thanks for your comments, will mention it to my midwife next week too.

Quinnine can be a problem in pregnancy, but at overdose tablet doses, not tonic water doses. Think you'd need to drink hundreds of litres of the stuff for there to be an issue!