Keep accidentally eating the wrong food and drinking wine...

[completelyconfused]

I am around 4-5 weeks pregnant and since I found out 2 weeks ago keep forgetting I need to change what I eat! So far I have eaten sushi, gorgonzola and prawns (though some people say these are OK to eat?). I also drank 5 units of wine last week. I have resolved to do better from now on but am paranoid I have already turned my baby into a four-headed alien. Any thoughts/reassurance out there??

you shouldn't eat tuna at all?

shit, i'm supposedly 8 weeks and have eaten a couple of cans.

oh, well. i've probably miscarried again, anyhow.

you shouldn't eat tuna at all?

shit, i'm supposedly 8 weeks and have eaten a couple of cans.

oh, well. i've probably miscarried again, anyhow.

you can eat tuna, just not more than 2 cans a week or something.
www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/nutrition/foodsafety/tunaexpert/here

i'm going to ask you to clarify how i was abusive exactly...

Aitch

^ at screaming shitheads.^

Statements starting like that are hardly necessary think we are all adults and able to make up our own minds.

expatinscotland I should have said "as much" I practically lived off tuna.

okay, i'll await your apology when you go back, read it properly and see that i was yawning at madamez.

one of my dad's sisters got listeria when she was 6 months pregnant with her first.

this was back in the mid-70s.

the baby came early and she only lived about 2 hours.

It was not the yawn I objected to and I still think it was unnecessary it was the shitheads it maybe a term of endearment you use but not one I tend to blame my age and the hormones but I still think it is abusive.

chill out, kaz.

it's a website.

er... it wasn't my term, i was yawning at madamez's use of it in the first place. like i say, read the thread properly.

Thing is tho, and ive said it before on other threads-If you want to take risks then fine and dandy-its not until you loose a child, or have to live with a child with disability that your job as pregnant mum is put into perspective.
My Advice, dont drink, dont smoke, no drugs etc etc-its only 9 months of living to rule that could possibly affect the rest of yours and your baby's life.

I remember being pregnant for the first time 8 years ago and avoiding the 'foods' on the list. Did not want to take any chances. When I got pregnant last year I avoided those foods but was surprised to find more added to the list. Things like tuna, which I had eaten first time around, and coffee.

As for alcohol, with the first pregnancy I could not tolerate it (although I was 10 weeks when I found out) and had been very drunk the previous two weekends! Second pregnancy I drank about 3-4 glasses of wine per week.

well to some extent i think each to their own - but i also agree with the few who are saying it's only 9 months
is it really worth any sort of risk however small ??
and how guilty would you feel if anything was wrong with your baby

the cases are small but they do happen and like someone said the guidelines are there for a reason not to punish us.
seeing kerry katona smoking and drinking throughout her pregnancy makes me want to scream - so much that i don't watch that awful programme anymore!

kaz? have you read it yet?

I think everyone is entitled to make their own assessment of what level of risk they are prepared to take. It's also important to remember that quite a lot of pregnant women don't actually know they are pg for a good few weeks (not all pregnancies are planned) and most of them give birth to healthy babies. Sadly, no matter how careful and self-denying you are, there is no guarantee that your baby will be born NT and healthy, or indeed that your pregnancy will go to term.

of course, so calling people who come to a different risk assessment screaming shitheads isn't particularly helpful.
there are no guarantees, there are ways of minimising risk however. for me, not risking listeria is important because i know it nearly killed (and certainly damaged) my cousin's child. for other people, it will be something else.

By 'screaming shitheads' I really mean the sort of people who march up to PG women (who are complete straangers to them) and start lecturing them as well as the nuts who want to make it a crime to drink while PG.

lol, when does that actually happen?

Well Aitch, someone started sniping at me in a bar for smoking and drinking, some years ago. I looked at him blankly and he got a bit snitty about 'in your condition.' So I started to laugh, and he got crosser.

Ah, but here's the punchline. I wasn't pregnant. I am a chubby type with a fat tummy, and because I have a bad back I tend to stick my tummy out when tired (and indeed rub the small of my back.) At least Mr Officious Twat was so mortified that he bought me a drink...

sniping is not screaming, for starters, fatty.

Things is tho, could he have had cause to be concerned by the perceived drinking and smoking-other than the normal levels of concern-could he have a history where these things were big issues? Not one of us knows what goes on in others lives and what drives people to behave in certain ways, its like (well not at all really but ykwim) when i see someone speeding my initial reaction is to get mad, but then you never know, there loved one could have just been rushed to hospital etc etc
If that man accosted you (or any other person accosting any other person) for smoking or drinking during pregnancy think, 1 it is actually discouraged by the medical profession and 2 his/her child could have been killed/disabled by similar (or equally completely unrelated/natural) activities.

Noone can guarentee a healthy child, but why risk things, that we know we shouldnt risk? If god forbid you or someone you know lost a child, the grief is hard enough to bear on its on without the what ifs

I would agree with those people on here who are saying that it's only 9 months and that you have a very important role as 'life support' - why would you want to take any chances??!

My first baby was stillborn due to severe preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome. During that pregnancy I hadn't taken any chances at all with food/alcohol/second hand smoke, had eaten healthily (if rather a lot) but preeclampsia and HELLP have no known cause. I was told it begins at conception and is a process - nothing could have been done to prevent it.

Despite this, I knew I could be doing with losing some weight before trying again (comfort ate like mad after leaving hospital). I lost over 60lbs, then followed my "Eating well when you're expecting" book religiously. I again avoided everything that you should not have. I still had preeclampsia and HELLP, but this time 7 weeks later and DS was born at 31+3 but otherwise very healthy.

I know that had I been less careful (given my previous history and my spending months torturing myself about whether I could have been to blame somehow) I would have focused in on that and felt like I hadn't done all I could.

I will finish this post eventually, but just wanted to say that on behalf of those who have had their baby/babies die (myself included), it angers me that some people can take such a flippant view about your responsibilities towards the life you are carrying. While I was pg with DS1, my DP's mum would constantly tell me how it was all rubbish, that she had 5x double whiskeys every Friday night out during her pregnancy, smoked like a chimney etc etc. I was shocked at the time, but just feel anger towards her now. I know that what most of you are suggesting isn't quite the same, but you are still needlessly taking chances on something very precious.

Sorry to have gone on forever there...

alexandrapandasmum, so sorry for the loss of your first child. thank goodness it came later with your ds.

re: the screamers... tbvh that's what i thought of, madamez. i reckon that in Britain it'd be very unlikely for someone to come up to you without having some personal reason to.

Hi completely, don't worry about a thing. I didn't know I was pg with dd1 until I was nine weeks, as had a period (unusual but happens, it turns out). In those nine weeks I went to several weddings where I got drunk, smoked a bit (not usually a smoker but pissed) and then went on holiday to France where I drank haf a bottle every day, ate tons of runny cheese, pate, shellfish etc. What could I have done? I had no reason to think I was pg only after about 8 weeks I began to feel so woozy and off the booze I took a test. Even then, I forgot (yes, it CAN happen despite shocked reactions of so many above, we're not all perfect ) about sushi and ate some one evening. And guess what - dd1 is now three and in rude health. Of course once you know you're pg you shouldn't take risks but you really don't need to worry, tons of smokers, boozers, sushi eaters etc give birth to perfectly healthy babies, it's not worth beating yourself up over, really! And I still agree with the French etc that a glass of wine a day is fine, esp towards the end! Enjoy your pregnancy