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 😭😭😭

Undercooked meat is not inherently dangerous to babies. It simply carries a (slightly) higher risk of food poisoning.
Please read Expecting Better by Emily Oster to explain these food myths that have people tied up in knots about what they eat during pregnancy.

Also the nurse and doctor I talked to said they have never seen a case of toxoplasmosis in the past 15 and 10 years they have been working, so that helps alott I feel so much better. That goes to show I should try to find answers online and just talk to my doctors. I hate the internet

Thank you I will

I hate the internet

This. My DD had a hip click and when they found it my lovely nurse practitioner turned to me, right in the eye and said, "don't Google it, just don't". I didn't, it went away, DD is perfect.

Don't Google it, just trust your HCPs.

I just emailed the nurse at my clinic and she told me she will set up an appointment for me next week due to the amount of anxiety I’m having. Honestly this has been consuming my life.

That’s a really positive step. Well done for doing that.

When you get these thoughts, tell yourself it’s your anxiety making you think this way, rather than any actual large risk. Another pregnant woman would have done the same as you, thought ‘oh shit’ for a few seconds and then not given it another thought. The tiny amount of risk this poses does not deserve any more thought than that. Hopefully with some help, you will be able to think more clearly and get on top of it. Anxiety can be really debilitating so you’re doing the right thing asking for help. Good luck.

@Fate88, dsis lived in France and craved beef carpaccio in one of her pregnancies. Do that is what she ate, a lot (her dh worked in a restaurant, he used to bring it home for her). Despite virtually living on raw beef, she was fine, so was the baby.

@Thoosa

Why can’t you have m&m’s?

For 10-15 years it’s peanuts that were firmly forbidden.

I was pregnant in 99. The “anecdotal advice that peanut consumption may cause allergies” was refuted even then. When were you pregnant that this was even mentioned?

Try not to worry, some cultures carry on eating all the things we’re told to avoid! I would have thought a medium burger cooked in the U.K would be fine in any case.

I ate loads of peanuts, didn’t realise you aren’t meant to (though there’s some disagreement as to whether you should/shouldn’t). What’s wrong with a McFlurry - had those too.

Relax and enjoy your pregnancy, or speak to your MW if you are anxious.

A few work colleagues told me not to eat peanuts as I have allergies. I was told to avoid coke too.

Hi OP. I ate rare meat in both pregnancies, because I forgot you're not supposed to. I did a lot of research into this and read a lot of scientific studies. I can't remember all the detail but here is what I do remember:

Prevalence of toxoplasmosis in animals varies between animals and depends, amongst other things, on how well they are cared for. Not all meat has toxoplasmosis in it. In meat that does, freezing kills it. Your beef may have been frozen before it was cooked. If you eat toxoplasmosis infected meat, you won't necessarily catch toxoplasmosis. If you do, it won't necessarily pass to your baby. Transmission gets more likely the further along you are, but the risk to your baby also becomes less severe.

You might have had it before - many cat owners have caught it from their cats. If you have, you will be immune. I believe you can have a blood test to check for past infection. Present infection would take a few weeks to show on a blood test but would allow you to have treatment to reduce any risk to your baby.

After I read that I decided the risk from what I ate was vanishingly small and stopped worrying. Both my children are fine.

The high risk from burgers is due to potential ecoli.. Burgers are more risky because the mincing process transfers the e coli from the outer of the meat into the centre. If its not cooked thoroughly it won't be cooked off. Therefore rare burgers are a risk.
The good news is that if a business markets and sells their burgers rare they will have been approved to do so.
My advice is if you are served a burger rare send it back. If its marketed as rare you should be good to consume it. Never shy away from asking if they are registered to sell them. Generally pregnant women should avoid them but you should be fine given the time that has elapsed.
There is information on the FSA website.

Don’t worry OP, when I was very early pregnant and before we’d told anyone, my mum gave us pate and biscuits for a snack.,
I forgot I was pregnant, wolfed down a load and halfway through realised I shouldn’t be eating them. My mum realised what was going on as soon as I stopped! All was fine.

Please get the help you need for your anxiety otherwise it will potentially become out of control when the baby arrives. Post natal anxiety is a real thing and it can feel like your life is on hold for an indeterminate amount of time. I speak from experience and will absolutely be talking to the hospital's psychologist when I sign up for a maternity.

I'm on my third baby and I can honestly say this pregnancy in between nausea and sickness I've eaten everything mentioned on this thread and baby is thriving. I'm so excited to meet them already but will have to wait till August. In my first pregnancy I ate a few medium burgers and my beautiful girl is nearly 5 now and she's perfect in every way.

Don't let this consume you, baby and you will be fine. Do you know if you are immune to toxoplasmosis?

I’m still a nervous reck, I don’t think I’m immune because I never eat undercook meat and I always try to wash everything. We had steak a few weeks ago and I made sure it was dry as heck before I ate it. Should I ask for a test?? Uhh I hate feeling this way. The meat was also not frozen it was fresh from the market from what the guy at the burger place told me

@Fate88 read back what you told us your own midwife said. The chances of there actually being a bug are incredibly low.

Honestly all proportion goes out the window with pregnancy advice and it’s not helpful. We’re basically told to avoid anything with any chance of a teeny, tiny risk. No one lives like that at any other time.

Mmm, now thinking about the delicious rare roast beef sandwich I had with chips at ten weeks.

When I was as pregnant with dc1 rare meat was fine but peanuts weren't. For DC2 peanuts were fine but rare meat wasn't. It's really not worth worrying too much about the odd departure from the guidelines.

I would have to be really unlucky to get sick from two bites of a medium burger once during pregnancy.

Are you I'll? No? Then it's fine.

On another note your husband shouldn't eat medium burgers either. Only beef all in one piece can be eaten undercooked not mince where the centre has been exposed to the air.

@Fate88

I’m still a nervous reck, I don’t think I’m immune because I never eat undercook meat and I always try to wash everything. We had steak a few weeks ago and I made sure it was dry as heck before I ate it. Should I ask for a test?? Uhh I hate feeling this way. The meat was also not frozen it was fresh from the market from what the guy at the burger place told me

Why even bother eating a steak if you dry it out to leather first? Can't be enjoyable.

I had my kids in 2004 and 2007 and the NHS advice at the time was not to eat peanuts in case it caused a nut allergy

😭 Im gonna ask to be tested this is gonna drive me crazy for the next 3 months

@Fate88

😭 Im gonna ask to be tested this is gonna drive me crazy for the next 3 months

The problem is not those two mouthfuls of burger. The problem is your extreme anxiety. Any test is only going to tell you if you've ever had toxoplasmosis, not whether you had it in the last week.

When the worry about the burger is over, your anxiety will replace that with something else. Especially when the baby arrives.

How is your DH coping with your feelings right now? What advice is he giving you? It must be extremely difficult for him to have you panicking at every moment.

I thought I had a uti last week, cuz I was peeing Every 20 mins. ( I know I know the anxiety is bad) so I dragged poor hubby to urgent care for a test, everything came back normal and I was anxiety free for two days until I ate that burger. I had a traumatic D and c after my last miscarriage, they did the surgery without putting me under any pain meds. I’m still have ptsd from it. My husband tries his best to be supportive he doesn’t understand.

@Fate88

I’m still a nervous reck, I don’t think I’m immune because I never eat undercook meat and I always try to wash everything. We had steak a few weeks ago and I made sure it was dry as heck before I ate it. Should I ask for a test?? Uhh I hate feeling this way. The meat was also not frozen it was fresh from the market from what the guy at the burger place told me

If it was fresh from the market I would actually report it to the local council Environmental Health team. You can't serve rare burgers without the suppliers being approved. I still think you should be fine.

I have been doing a lot of reading about the studies that are done and the type of meat that is mostly affected is venison, pork, and lamb.
In the study not all the meat had toxoplasmosis of course. Venison seems to have the most risk. This had been helping