Too many Diet Cokes - worried

[wondering7777]

I was out for dinner and drinks with friends this evening and was on the soft drinks. However, I’ve just been counting up my drinks and realised I’ve had four cans of Diet Coke over the course of the evening. I know it’s not a good idea to have too much due to the caffeine, and am now really worried that I could have harmed the baby. I’m 21 weeks pregnant. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking!

Im no medic but I very much doubt that one evening of too much caffeine will cause any harm. Perhaps if it was a very regular thing it might. Try not to worry & just Cut back caffeine in the coming weeks. Congrats & all the best.

I think there’s about 42mg if caffeine in 1 Diet Coke can and you’re allowed up to 200mg a day so you should be fine!

Nah that’s fine, it’s about 160mg which is under your limit.

Thanks all. Woke up at 4am feeling ill (bloated and gassy) and could feel the baby moving about quite a bit. I think I’ll stick to orange juice next time

Diet Coke is in general very bad for you. Far worse than normal coke.

Not to do with being pregnant, but cutting out artificial sweeteners is always a good idea.

There is no actual proof that artificial sweeteners are bad for you.
Just a lot of scaremongering and hearsay.

Is diet coke really very bad for you or are you just making stuff up?

Your baby will be fine. Prolonged excess caffeine can affect birth weight so one night with 4 cans of diet coke will do nothing bad

As a one of I’m sure you’re fine.

For future, there’s caffeine free Diet Coke which you can buy from the shops, I switched to it when we were TTC and have stayed on it now I’m pregnant. I don’t drink stacks of the stuff (I know it’s terrible for you but it’s such a weakness of mine and the only artificial stuff I really have) but I have it so that if I want to have a couple of mugs of regular tea then I don’t need to worry about having overdone it on the caffeine front.

Also Diet Coke is one of the few things that settles my stomach when I’m nauseous so for that reason alone I’m not cutting it any time soon

Yeah, I’ve seen the caffeine free stuff but it was only diet or full fat in the pub! I honestly don’t know what I was thinking (I obviously wasn’t thinking!) but thanks for putting my mind at rest. I’m feeling much better now as well.

I've been living off diet coke/coke zero since being pregnant. Especially when on nights out I'll have a good few drinks of it in one night. As said before you're allowed around 4-5 cans a day before it goes over the daily caffiene limit.

Dont worry about sweeteners either . People seem to be fixated with avoiding sweeteners in soft drinks but its actually in a multitude of food (eg yoghurts, canned goods) but noone panics about that!!!

I love Diet Coke currently 35 weeks pregnant if that makes you feel any better.

According to the NHS guidelines you can have up to 5 cans a day, every day, and still be under there recommended caffeine guidelines. Your fine :) www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/pregnancy/should-i-limit-caffeine-during-pregnancy/

Also, artificial sweeteners are one of the most widely researched additives and the research shows they are perfectly safe so please don't scaremonger www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/are-sweeteners-safe/

*you're

@elvis4nuts there is increasing evidence for the link between increased cancers (most specifically) brain tumours) with intake of artificial sweetener; one, aspartame is mentioned in this one. I've read 4 papers on it, but here is one.
I went from drinking it all the time, to not touching the stuff (in food or drink).

https://watermark.silverchair.com/55-11-1115.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhWErcy7Dm3ZLL9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAm0wggJpBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggJaMIICVgIBADCCAk8GCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMPAlXIO0gYtL3gSnAgEQgIICIK9vV7OcA7PTpikbybZtbo9J5deY5a8k52uoVwR1RPDeobIV86kWJFYJWs8qsFmCRiizIn3nwjeCu0C8Gbr1mBGd8re0QfZz5l6YK60HRpfBr-U30Eeqp-NUSySGHRFMPKYl-DngABJatUgXNoR7FZbERnbkiLRXPp6oxta5JpeGJp64pAXo9SDkRGcxedMzewf3loDRntgQhavTLiC2nvrt1kMFbNKpKyWaPX1-PJySWJ33Lr70vG7LDoaYBmXPfX6HURsSLHVHu-xHkFzydtykSVXbkJsXFU4fqYFY3cv0WYRH18DKLggzFG8jNPUMRLUuGXivXXS0o7oV41iiA6m2fdxEOxRM-l5lvj1-LjwDiNCLIbt5NRbJcT87U9snKeRRxFbx0yaC4B385gazHNq2nA5FLlK5nrqVA8imE5R7BuVMx7zsjhJRSH0nYpW89Ha2fxw5x10RaE3WqfapUnRSYpKKw1tHDXLdGYPnlMK3j5LEzEGnERzpjEmMnlgjW7AhGaTWQJ9v4YN07tFZXf5i5hqfAFA5LwqzSIU-u1CzPlHz6-BnTejgFfr-3Uy6KyKA3rwNiaXyMnOCf43eWAOkNpKbcSU30eHZpTOUmwC0Xmhs50YLRTyECgJwiy-MDuVFbkVMM-hxPd7box-55MZXuandwbHNW2ZV890LH5CwkZhffERWSRamfds69laJMB6nL40_h6bVYebwxQk

Your link doesn't work

@wondering7777 please don't worry, 4 cans of Diet Coke is within the limits for a day. I don't drink tea or coffee but the evil Diet Coke is my favourite. Also the fear or caffeine appears to be restricted growth, I didn't go mad but I didn't always count religiously and my boy was a very health size. So long as you're not downing espressos all day try not to panic. Also the caffeine free wasn't quite right, couldn't put my finger on what but there was something I didn't like about it.

There is absolutely nothing to worry about at all. The caffeine stuff is largely scaremongering anyway you'd have to drink a lot of caffeine to harm a baby. Normal tea drinking etc is fine but energy drinks strong coffee is to be avoided. There is hardly any caffeine in Diet Coke anyway.

elvis4nuts there is increasing evidence for the link between increased cancers (most specifically) brain tumours) with intake of artificial sweetener; one, aspartame is mentioned in this one. I've read 4 papers on it, but here is one.
I went from drinking it all the time, to not touching the stuff (in food or drink).

Perhaps but there has been lots of evidence for years about the dangers of sugar. Bizarrely enough as it's 'natural' no one seems to care.

Sugar leads to diabetes which causes heart attacks etc. It leads to obesity which causes cancer.

Ultimately unless we all only drink water (which most people prefer not to) our choices are suboptimal.