McDonald's ice cream

[sorintinkerbell]

Can anyone clear up if mummies to be are allowed McDonald's ice cream or milkshakes....seems to be a grey area.

If midwifes are saying it's best to avoid then that's not the NHS saying it's fine, is it?

Mr Whippy van? Prob not. McDonald's, go for it.

I worked in macdonalds for a while. They have a draconian cleaning regime. I ate their milkshakes and ice cream while pregnant. I didn't from ice cream vans though

The probability of getting listeria is very small justus but the consequences can be catastrophic for pregnant women. Lots of things carry a small listeria risk: lettuce, smoked salmon, Parma ham, Brie. AFAIK none of them carry a specific health warning apart from the “wash first” warning on salad (which I personally wouldn’t rely on).

I agree with @LKRJM. The machines are cleaned regularly and a bag of mix usually doesn't last long. Go at a busy time if you're worried.

Has anyone read Expecting Better by Emily Oster? It's a book about pregnancy written by an economist who looks at all the data associated with risks during pregnancy and breaks it down. I can't remember if she mentions soft ice cream specifically but she does look at the data on listeria and iirc the last outbreaks an therefore the highest risks were from fruit and vegetables and after that a particular soft cheese. The NHS son't advise pregnancy women to avoid those! I would highly recommend the book.

If midwifes are saying it's best to avoid then that's not the NHS saying it's fine, is it?

Sounds like they are giving personal opinions rather than what the NHS website says. Doesn't mean they are correct

Imnsureni checked Mcdonalds website it's pasteurized so it fine.

You could get bad bacteria off anything you eat if something isn't cleaned...

My midwife told me to avoid soft serve ice cream like McFlurry and Mr Whippy etc in case there's "bacteria in the machines".

Next day I went out and had a McFlurry!

Listeria really isn't common in the UK at all and there's actually articles out there which say that a lot of this advice has hardly any scientific basis behind it at all.

Honestly some of the advice seems really bloody stupid to me!

I had to check on here as my midwife told me something that was contrary to what the NHS website said...I took the view that the NHS were more likely to have their website fully up to date than each and every member of staff remembering all the changes in guidance off by heart (that's no criticism of the midwife, she's been ace and it's only a minor point) so I went by the website and confirmation on here.

I'm not saying this about icecream, but I do have more faith generally in some midwives than the NHS website. NHS website will be policy, procedure, jumping through hoops before it's printed, check, recheck etc whereas midwives may have more first hand experience of things.
When I had dd the NHS still advised against soft boiled eggs, but my midwife told me about lion stamping and that it meant it was considered a low enough risk not to be concerned about. I went away and looked myself and her information was accurate even before the NHS website had been updated (runny eggs was still a sickness inducing thought during pregnancy though)

I asked this and I've found out it's perfectly fine. I've been craving the milkshakes and McFlurrys from there and had them throughout my pregnancy. 37 weeks and no issues whatsoever.

If it helps, my cousin is a manager in McDs and she said they've been using safe ingredients for years - just some midwives don't know that. But like others have noted; the NHS are aware of the change.

So enjoy!

Didn’t know this was a thing 😂 I had crazy amounts of McFlurrys during pregnancy soooo good