Lamb slow cooked…realised there was plastic. HELP !

[Soscared9482828]

Hi,

Im dying of anxiety. I’m just over 8 weeks pregnant with my rainbow baby.

My husband cooked a lovely Sunday dinner for us today. Slow cooked lamb. He hadnt realised that the plastic end was still on the bone of the meat. so it had been in there with the meat cooking.

I had 3 mouthfuls of the meat when he realised the plastic end had fallen off in the roasting dish, whilst making some gravy. Nothing smelled chemically so neither of us had noticed.

I’ve tried to make myself sick but couldn’t get the lamb up. I’m in absolute bits worrying that I’ll have done something to my unborn child. That the fumes will have now penetrated the meat and the worst thing will now happen.

I guess I’m looking for reassurance. Anything go stop me spiralling.

thanks 😢😢😢😢😢

Don't try and make yourself sick.

It's a one off. It is very unlikely to affect your baby.

Don’t worry. We put plastic in the microwave all the time when cooking. I’ve slow cooker gammon a few times and forgotten about the wrapping. Your poor husband must be terrified. It will be ok. X

Do not make yourself sick
the likelihood of anything happening is miniscule
Worrying after a loss is normal, but this sort of anxiety will become debilitating
would you talk to your GP or Midwife about support ?

So I'm picking up that you may have some anxiety, so I mean this with the best will in the world. This would not be a thought that would go through my mind more than to have a good laugh at my oh being a shit cook. If it tastes fine, that's a win as a shard of food grade plastic boiled in lamb juice will do as much harm to you and your baby as the gravy itself. Nada. Please don't traumatise yourself

This is totally fine, a minor accident, I bet loads of people do it! Please stop worrying.

God don’t worry at all. And don’t make yourself sick. Unfortunately and unavoidable our bodies are full of micro plastics nowadays

Honestly you'll be fine. You'll be doing more damage to your health by stressing over it

Thank you all for responding so quickly as I really needed to hear that reassurance.

Im clearly extremely anxious of losing this baby,
and if it were over something as stupid as this, it would kill me.

I was Googling for reassurance and it just made me feel worse.

Would you say my reaction to this has been extreme?

I think I may seek some counselling through work as I have gone from 0-100 and am struggling to come back down 😢😢😢😢

thank you all so much for taking the time to try and help me x

Yes your reaction is extreme

I cooked turkey with the plastic bag still up his ass,only realised when carving it. Three months on and we are all still here...

Yes, your reaction is extreme.

Mine would have been a bit of taking the piss out of my dh I think.

Plastic is everywhere when it comes to food. And drinks.

This made me laugh a bit…which is nice considering I’m otherwise on edge mess. thank you.

I don’t think I’m going to die or anything, I’m worried more about the chemicals from the plastic leaking into the meat and then causing me to miscarry this baby as I’m only 8 weeks.

Like I said before I only had 3-4 mouthfuls of lamb before we realised.

I guess I’m struggling to see that my anxiety is disproportionate to the risk and am wanting others to help me fix the way my brain is seeing this at the moment.

The plastic is food safe - the lamb has been packed up with it for several days before cooking.
I'd probably leave the gravy (but then it's not my favourite part of a roast dinner anyway!), but would have no issue with eating the lamb.
I'd say your reaction is on the extreme end. We'd have laughed, plucked the plastic out, and carried on eating dinner in this house.

@SpringOfContentment

Im not sure my post is clear now. The plastic had been in with the meat slow cooking for 5 hours.

Would you still feel ok after that too? X

Plastic wrap near food is food safe.

If it wasn’t and it somehow put dangerous substances into the meat, it would have tasted foul. (Chemicals are not inherently bad things anyway, many are very good, we need chemicals to be alive)

If it did leak enough noxious substance into the meat to be dangerous, and it was tasteless, it had a nice bath in stomach acid immediately on entering your body.

Your body didn’t feel nauseous or recognise any problems with the meat and wanted to hold on to the nutrients in it.

If the food safe plastic did have enough noxious substances in it to hurt you, and your body didn’t notice, and it got past your whole digestive system without triggering vomiting or diarrhoea, and it made you ill, somehow, there is still no reason to suspect that that could trigger a miscarriage or problem with your baby in any way.

I understand pregnancy after loss but the thing you need to concentrate on here is your anxiety, please seek some support for this.

@Soscared9482828 your post is perfectly clear. The plastic is food safe. I cook with plastic spoons.
Yes, we'd have eaten the lamb after a small piece of plastic had been left on, and dropped into the cooking juices for the duration of the cooking time.

Am awful lot of plastic is used in commercial cooking all the time. It is very low risk in all honesty.

My MIL accidentally cooked a gammon in its plastic sleeve once (something I've done numerous times and I think you might actually be meant to leave it on to keep shape whilst cooking). She somehow thinks it caused her husband's cardiovascular problems forty years later. I think you can probably see that a) it didn't and b) this is a very sad, anxiety driven fixation.

Please be kind to yourself. There's an awful lot of stuff to worry about in pregnancy, and no end of voices telling you x y z will harm baby. MANY of these voices stand to gain financially by fear mongering to people at their most vulnerable.

Eat adequate amounts of decent food
Don't smoke if you can possibly manage it
Sleep, rest and exercise as well as you are able
Attend medical appointments and follow their advice.

Drive carefully

If you do these things NOBODY can say you are risking your baby in ANY WAY. Everything else is just noise you can shut out of your head.

Im not sure my post is clear now.

Your post is clear.

@SpringOfContentment is saying that the food grade plastic was already in with the lamb for days and days anyway before your dh cooked it.

Thank you for your very logical response.

Im here in tears as your post and others have been really helpful in giving me some relief and also sad that my anxiety has gotten to this point.

Honestly, thank you everyone for taking the time to respond to me xx

Im here in tears as all of your posts have been really helpful in giving me some perspective (and relief) Im also sad that my anxiety has gotten to this point.

Honestly, thank you everyone for taking the time to respond to me xx

Another one here saying it wouldn't bother me at all. I ate a Turkey that had been roasted for hours with a plastic bag full of giblets in when I was pregnant and a slow cooked brisket that DH had left the plastic nappy thing it comes sitting on under it.