Food poisoning in pregnancy

[Belkinsboo]

Hello,

I’m 18wks pregnant - my 10th pregnancy, all others have ended in miscarriage. Due to this, I am fairly neurotic....

I’ve just eaten a bowl of quorn bolognese that I made on Monday night - I refrigerated it and then brought it to work with me today and reheated it in the microwave.

I’m not sure I heated it enough - 2mins. I thought it was hot all the way though but now not sure. Googled food poisoning from reheated food and just read ‘miscarriage’ and ‘still birth’ and I’m now panicking.

I know I can’t change that I’ve eaten it, and I know there’s a danger involved. I’m just wondering if there’s anything I can do? Apart from learn to never do it again.... I’m just a panicky mess right now.

Yes calm down.

Completely understand the worry as I was the same - but you have no cause for fear

What we think of as food poisoning would likely make you ill in the same way as any other time - it won’t affect baby but you just need to avoid being dehydrated (as usual)

With some foods there is a tiny chance of listeriosis. It is really, really rare and known cases have been from things like prepacked sandwiches, even melons, so just as you’d probably not be worried about a Tesco sandwich you will be ok with your bolognese. Even if you did get it, and it’s SO rare and unlikely, the risk to baby is highest in first trimester (albeit at this stage it is less likely to cross placenta)

The other infection to be aware of is toxoplasmosis, but this predominantly affects meat (meat that is rare in the middle, or cured meats that have never been frozen)

It won’t be in Quorn!

So don’t worry 😊

Eg in th US there are approx 200 known listeriosis cases in pregnancy per year - out of nearly 4 million births. So extremely rare, and it doesn’t sound like something which would even harbour listeriosis

I think you are unlikely to get any kind of food poisoning anyway from what you described

Thank you SleepBU, that’s really helpful information. I realise how much I’m overreacting and should just ‘calm down’ (as suggested by BlueBug) but it’s so blinking difficult to. I’m usually pretty pragmatic about things but this has got me panicking.

Thank you again, really appreciate your response.