Help! I ate a medium burger 😭

[Fate88]

I’m freaking out, my husband and I ordered some burgers from burger 1, I ordered mine well done and my husband got his medium and I accidentally took two or three bites of his burger thinking it was mine and now I’m panicking. Have I just hurt my baby. It was pink. I’m terrified, please please please if this or something similar has happened to you and your baby has turned out ok please let me know. I asked the nurse at my clinic and she and a doctor said that there is no need to test for toxoplasmosis because it’s very unlikely that I would get it by a undercooked hamburger, but how can I enjoy the rest of my pregnancy when there is a chance that my child could be unwell and it’s all my fault. I’m 25 weeks today 😭😭😭

5 days past and no food poisoning= you are fine

[quote IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]@Feather12, when I was pg with DS 14 years ago, peanuts were not advised in pregnancy, as it was thought this could reduce nut allergies in children.

This advice had changed 3 years later when I had dd.[/quote]
I've never heard that before. I had my children in the late 80's and it wasn't a thing then. Daughter had hers a few years ago and not a thing then. When was this?

After extensive googling the advice to avoid peanuts in pregnancy changed in 2009. Before that you were advised to avoid them and after that you were OK to have them as there wasn't enough evidence to show avoiding them helped prevent peanut allergies

I wonder when it started. If it was before the end of the 80's then I knew nothing about it. I think the only things we had to avoid were alcohol and soft cheese?

5 days past and no food poisoning= you are fine

Does toxoplasmosis always have symptoms? I thought many people who had it were not aware.

I've never heard that before. I had my children in the late 80's and it wasn't a thing then. Daughter had hers a few years ago and not a thing then. When was this?

I was pregnant with my first child in 2003, the advice then was to avoid peanuts especially if their was a history of allergies and I think it included hay fever and eczema. I think the guidance then changed in 2008, not long before I was pregnant again.

Raw meat is only dangerous because it can give you listeria. Youd have had it by now.

I did this exact same thing in pregnancy except I ate 80% of the burger I was about 23 weeks pregnant with DC1. They came out fine!

Raw meat is only dangerous because it can give you listeria. Youd have had it by now.

That’s not true. Toxoplasmosis and salmonella are also risks, there may be others too.

OP, I'm in my 60s. None of this guidance existed when I was pregnant. I had the occasional glad of wine. I ate everything. Rare steaks and burgers, soft cheese, you name it. As did everyone in my generation and earlier. Virtually every person you see older than 35 survived their mother eating these things regularly. And older people will have survived their mothers smoking too. Mine was a chain smoker (still is) yet here I am, a normal retired professional with no health issues or disabilities.

saraclara

Lots of things happened years ago, doesn’t mean they were right or the best thing. It’s only right that pregnant women are given as much info as possible on the knowledge we have at the time.
It reminds me of my MIL justifying not putting my niece in a car seat a few years ago aged 2, because they didn’t back in her day and her children didn’t die. 🙄

Honestly the biggest risk to your baby is worrying so much. I ate what I wanted within moderation and had a very healthy happy baby. Honestly I don't get such anxiety over food. I've never even heard or read of anyone that's lost a baby or impacted them based on food. Chill and enjoy your pregnancy x

My eldest is 12 and the advice had just changed from avoid nuts to eat nuts in pregnancy. Advice does change as knowledge changes.

@saraclara

OP, I'm in my 60s. None of this guidance existed when I was pregnant. I had the occasional glad of wine. I ate everything. Rare steaks and burgers, soft cheese, you name it. As did everyone in my generation and earlier. Virtually every person you see older than 35 survived their mother eating these things regularly. And older people will have survived their mothers smoking too. Mine was a chain smoker (still is) yet here I am, a normal retired professional with no health issues or disabilities.

We’re not worried about the people that survived though

Everyone in the world today has survived literally every dangerous or harmful thing they’ve come across. Doesn’t mean the world is totally safe and risk free.

@BuyDirt

Other women telling you they were ok because they ate undercooked meat, doesn’t really mean anything because they didn’t eat the meat you ate. But, the chances are, you’ll be fine. You’ve most likely had toxoplasmosis at some point before anyway.

Yes, I read that most of us have had it at some time- especially as children. How would one know?

One thing that really annoys me is people who don’t pick up dog poo and dispose of the bags responsibly, especially where children play.
Old poo is far more dangerous than fresh.

There is so much patriarchal nonsense with the food we're told we can't eat in pregnancy. With a horrid undertone of "if something goes wrong, it's your fault".

The Emily Oster book aims to contextualise the actual risk of - say - raw egg / rare steak / sushi and usually it's a million to one chance of something bad happening.

That still may not be an acceptable risk for some.

But what is the risk of car journeys / crossing the road? Do we tell pregnant women to avoid leaving the house? But most accidents happen in the home!

Women are constantly asked to put up with this nonsense and/or blamed for miscarriage which is almost never because of something they've eaten.

Oh sweetie, this is the problem with this very risk averse NHS food advice, it makes people super scared. Honestly the chances of something happening as a result of eating a medium burger are incredibly slim. They give advice to try to reduce a negligible risk to almost zero. Imagine it’s like if you don’t wear a seatbelt to drive in a car park. It’s clearly safer to wear a seatbelt, but also 99% of people are driving at 5 miles an hour and if you crashed it would be a tiny bump. There is of course a tiny chance of some boy racer coming and smashing into you, but you’d be SO SO SO unlucky.

@busyeatingbiscuits

My eldest is 12 and the advice had just changed from avoid nuts to eat nuts in pregnancy. Advice does change as knowledge changes.

Snap. Mine is about to turn 12. (UK). My pregnancy craving was peanut butter on toast. Turns out the poor little sod does have an anaphylactic allergy to peanuts though. I was beside myself when I found out (we found out the hard way as you do). But he has anaphylactic allergies to other things as well, so just an allergy ridden little kid sadly.

But, when I was pg my best friend in Australia was also pregnant and they were told to avoid all deli meats like ham. That was definitely not the advice when I was pg here in the UK at the same time. Plus I ate blue cheese with abandon (which was against guidelines, but I somehow failed to realise it).

MIL was told to eat rare steak and drink Guiness when she was pg because she had iron issues.

You'd go mad trying to keep it all together really.

Sorry can someone clarify why they think Mcflurrys aren't allowed in pregnancy?

I can understand the guidance around consumption of nuts in pregnancy changed hence the confusion regarding this, but I'm still completely in the dark about mcflurrys...please enlighten me!

Oh and also- on the subject of toxoplasmosis, I was worried as we have cats and my midwife just waved her hand airily and said anyone who has had cats will most likely have been infected well before they ever got pregnant.

On the subject of smoking, my mother was a chain smoker and i have chronic asthma. Every now and then she wrings her hands about it, but I have never smoked a cigarette in my entire life and both my DCs have chronic asthma as well.

I think the best thing you can do is try and do your best. Avoid the obvious like smoking, drinking and drugs, but otherwise don't beat yourself up.

@Luckyelephant1

Sorry can someone clarify why they think Mcflurrys aren't allowed in pregnancy?

I can understand the guidance around consumption of nuts in pregnancy changed hence the confusion regarding this, but I'm still completely in the dark about mcflurrys...please enlighten me!

I seem to recall that when I was pg 12 years ago Mr Whippies were not supposed to be consumed. I am not a fan of icecream so it never affected me but I think there is a risk of listeria (?). So that might be why for McFlurries.

It's more about the machines so in McDonald's their McFlurry machines are cleaned regularly so little risk of bacterial contamination. A soft scoop ice cream machine in a van or other place may not have such a strict cleaning regime so may be more risky. The NHS does not actively warn against soft scoop ice cream.

Sorry can someone clarify why they think Mcflurrys aren't allowed in pregnancy?

Listeria risk from the machines i think. McDonald’s are shit hot on hygiene so I would think it’s ok? Ice cream vans not so much.

Hi, OP - I accidentally had undercooked lamb late in pregnancy, which is way more dangerous toxoplasmosis wise, and nothing happened.

I was anxious about it too as my mother had a friend whose child was born with toxoplasmosis decades ago. I envied my friend in France, where a monthly toxoplasmosis test is part of routine maternity care, but got nowhere trying to get a test in the UK.

But statistically it's really, really unlikely that you caught it from three bites of pink hamburger. Try to put it out of your mind - you'll have to learn to live with that sinking feeling of incalculable danger anyway, as a parent.

Please can everyone read Expecting Better by Emily Oster.
Great book but keep in mind that she is American so is contextualising risk relative to American food standards and pregnancy advice. Take eggs for example. In the US chickens aren’t routinely vaccinated against salmonella so she’s talking about the risk of eating American eggs. In the U.K. the risk is non existent because chickens are vaccinated. Similar deal with sushi, in the U.K. and Europe it has to be deep frozen so there is no risk, in the US this isn’t the case. So to read it as a Brit, she’s implying that risk exists where it does not for us. I’d still recommend the book but when it comes to foods stick to the NHS guidelines because they’re specific for U.K. foods.

Also OP, 3 bites of a cooked but still a bit pink burger won’t have caused baby any harm. Do talk to your midwife about anxiety. Good luck for the rest of your pregnancy.

Since when can’t you have peanut M&m’s?!

Early millennium. Very stern advice given on peanuts then. The point of the story was you can defy or forget official advice without disaster necessarily following.

And blue cheese like Stilton is fine anyway. So is nearly all cheese and even Brie and Camembert you can cook it.

You can’t cook it when you haven’t noticed you’re eating it.

Hell of a lot of unnecessary anxiety around foods and pregnancy, really.

I tend to agree. That’s why I was talking about how small the risk is, but I was posting to help someone who was panicking in the middle of the night, with that in mind. Not really posting for a policy debate.