Caffeine - are you limiting it?

[Sarahjct]

Hi all

Having been told early on that I should only have 300mg of caffeine per day I've been really good and cut down from about 10 mugs to 3 mugs of tea per day.

But I'm off on maternity leave on Friday (I'm 34 weeks) and the thought of being at home, all day throughout December, in the cold and only being able to have such a piddly amount of tea is torturous.

From what I can see, this is fairly new advice as my SIL didn't cut out tea at all with her 2 year old DD.

So, should I throw caution to the wind or hang in there?

Switch to "Redbush Tea" - it's caffeine free, and still makes a tasty cuppa.

Think pg do a caffeine-free tea as well?? Caffeine has been associated with early mc, not something you need to worry about now but I'd still take the advice you were given if I were you
enjoy your maternity leave

I thnk you'll be ok at 34 weeks, aslong as you dont sit there emptying coffee granules into your mouth straight out of the jar.

I think at 34 weeks, the worst the caffeine will do is make your baby's heart race - not sure how that will affect the baby's well-being or development.

tetley caffeine free is nice and strong

Hi everyone

Thanks, I've tried the decaf versions - even Tetley which is my bag of choice but it just tastes like floor sweepings to me! I guess I'll just have to suffer with three mugs of builders' tea.

Was hoping everyone would say that, at 34 weeks it wasn't worth worrying about!

NHS website advice on caffeine intake

Caffeine

You should limit the amount of caffeine you have each day. Caffeine affects the way your body absorbs iron, which is very important for your babys development. High levels of caffeine can result in a baby having a low birth weight, or even miscarriage.

Caffeine occurs naturally in a range of foods, such as coffee, tea and chocolate, and it's also added to some soft drinks and 'energy' drinks. It's important not to have more than 300mg of caffeine a day. 300mg is roughly equivalent to either:

3 mugs of instant coffee,
3 cups of brewed coffee,
six cups of tea,
eight cans of regular cola, or
eight standard bars of chocolate.
Further information:

I don't think you need to worry too much. If your baby's not small, you can have six cups of tea a day.

When i had a water infection, I got told to cut out caffein all together so it might be because of that.

I have just had someone make a nice cup of filter coffee for me

Another vote for redbush tea. I drink it anyway as I can't take caffine after about 5pm. With milk it tastes very like normal tea. It is really nice.

peppermint tea is really refreshing and its caffeine free

i discovered that it helped with the morning (all day) sickness too

I need tea. I'm 39 weeks pg with a 16m dd and would be in state without it. I try to keep it below the reccommended 6 cups a day (less if I eat lots of choc) but I couldn't cope on 3 - that wouldn't get me past 9.30.

I think I probably was the same when pg with dd, and she's turned out okay though she can say "cup of tea" which may or may not be evidence of the seriousness of my tea habit.

Instinct says that decaff has probably been more messed with and therefore should be avoided, but I don't really know.. Peppermint tea is nice though.

One of my dd's first words was 'tea' too

I am drinking about 4 cups I think a day. I got into fruit teas (I know, weird right ) in the morning when I was so sick last time. I'd say you'll be ok on 6-8 (if that's what you usually have), just make sure you drink lots of water as well!

when you say cups though, do you mean those flowery little cups or proper mugs? I figured that 6 cups was about 3 mugs. Six mugs I could just about scrape by on. I'm 2 days in and it's hard. There are far more hours in the day than cups of tea!

I have limited caffeine by just upping the milk dilution so that I have the taste/warmth but less caffeine...