Panicking about accidental caffeine consumption

[Ellebel]

I am absolutely devastated. I have just discovered that my partner has not been properly checking the coffee we keep in our freezer and has been filling up our coffee tins wrong. So through possibly my whole pregnancy (I am now 31 weeks) I have been drinking on average 3 cups of caffeine coffees a day thinking they are decaf, sometimes more.

Does anyone know if there is anything I can do now? Do I need to go to hospital to get checked for anything? Have I inevitably damaged my growing baby?

I am so upset and angry I’m not sure I can ever forgive him 😢 I have been so healthy and active throughout pregnant, tried so hard to do everything right, I have gestational diabetes so have had to be so restrictive with what I eat/ drink. He had literally one job, sort the coffee and make me cups.

Sorry for rant I am just furious.

Justifiable to be raging at him for not being more careful, but I'm sure all will be fine.

Tell your midwife at your next appointment, but the main risk from caffeine is low birth weight isn't it? Have you been monitored because of the GD? You probably have a feel for whether that's likely to be an issue at this stage. I drank plenty of caffeine and had two 9.5lbers

I'm sure all will be fine.

Caffeine wasn't even mentioned in my midwife appointments. My kids are teens now, I'd drink 3/4 cups of grade 4/5 strength ground coffee daily.
Both kids are fine (dd has SEN, but I think that's much more likely to be down to genetics, or possible the chemicals I was using before I realised I was pregnant!) ds is absolutely fine....despite me having awful beer cravings throughout my pregnancy (I'm teetotal and had been for years prior to having kids and years after....but I did have the odd shandy carrying ds, as the cravings were horrendous!)
I think the very highly concentrated caffeine drinks are probably best avoided (although I'm not sure is any research has been done on their consumption during pregnancy), but your average instant or ground coffee, I really would worry.

I drank 20/25 cups of strong coffee a day whilst pregnant and was absolutely fine. 3 cups a day isn't too much, don't quote me on that I can't remember how much you're allowed but I think you're fine.

With DC2 I drank 3 cups of coffee (was still being woken all night by DC1) and they were 9lbs and healthy. It's fine OP, don't worry!

Drank coffee (full caffeine) the whole way thru my pregnancy. DS is fine!

You'll be fine. With DD2 I was so knackered at being 40, pregnant and trying to manage a toddler that I probably had 2 or 3 cups a day.

I am ancient. Not drinking caffeine wasn't a thing when I was pregnant. I am completely sure that is well with you and your little one.

Tell your midwife your concerns but I would expect they may have noticed if there was any issues. It’s linked to issues such as low birth weight also but your midwife will have an estimate of babies weight and would raise any concerns.

for what it’s worth,
I drank over the caffeine limit for most of my pregnancy too. Also by mistake/not realising and baby was absolutely fine. Have you worked out the mg of caffeine your having per cup? The amount of caffeine depends on the type of coffee your drinking so might not be as bad as you think?

try not to worry but talk to your midwife ❤️

I honestly didn't think caffeine was bad in pregnancy. Obviously if you had ten red bulls a day it wouldn't be great. But a couple coffees should be fine. Lots of people go off coffee in pregnancy, but I don't think it's harmful.

I drank caffeine while I was pregnant once I could bear the smell of tea and coffee again.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't on the banned list of foods in 2008.

(mind you we were also told we could drink 1-2 units of alcohol, once or twice a week, this was in the NHS booklet we got at the booking in appt, and so used to go to the pub for a glass of wine after NCT).

I also ate rare steak, drank champagne on my 30th and ate prawns on holiday. And I know the exception doesn't prove the rule, but DD is 16 now and got 9x9s in her GCSEs this summer.

I'm pretty sure you will be ok OP.

I wouldn't worry about it tbh. The main risk with excessive caffeine consumption is miscarriage in the early weeks and that (still very minor additional risk) tends to kick in about 6-8 cups a days, not 3-4. I actually added caffeine during first trimester as it was the only thing that got rid of the horrible headaches I had both times. My midwife suggested it and it worked a treat!

Baby will be absolutely fine OP. I drank plenty of caffeine with DC2 (by that stage, I needed it!).

I totally get why you're upset though.

As an aside, if I had 3 caffeinared coffees a day I'd know all about it (shaking, palpitations, more anxious, peeing all the time). You must have a hugh caffeine threshold!

Okay first of all take a breath. Your language is quite big and catastrophising but I get you are upset.

No you don’t have to go to the hospital (what would they do anyway?), gestational has nothing to do with caffeine (I’ve had it twice so I speak with some experience) and you are allowed some caffeine. Stop drinking coffee now and all caffeine. You aren’t having chocolate so no caffeine there either.

You are having a baby with your partner and will come up against far more than caffeine in coffee, so yeah you can forgive him. I’m sure everything will be fine.

Please take a breath and get some fresher perspective and speak to your midwife next week. You can’t do anything right now anyway.

And if you are - stop google doom scrolling by self diagnosis and speak to a medical professional.

In the third trimester I drank a coffee a day, sometimes it was a latte from a coffee shop so it contained espresso. My baby is healthy. I can't remember what the max mg of caffeine is, but a latte was fine.

Now that is a lot

Smart thinking. Drinking this much coffee is good preparation for having a baby that doesn't sleep.

I didn’t know this was a thing. My kids are all late teens/early 20s now and I drank coffee all throughout my pregnancies and they were all massive (even the twins).

Don't worry OP.

Well my little one has slept through from 15 months and from threads I've seen on here that's pretty good so🤷

You'll be fine, baby will be fine, but you need to bollock your DP. He can't be this careless. You need to be able to trust him.

I cut out caffeine when pregnant with DD1. Was I going to do this when pregnant with DD2, and also having a toddler in tow? Absolutely not! DD2 had to be evicted, and was a whole pound heavier than her non caffeinated sister. 😂

Wow 😮 that is a lot of coffee

I would be in the loo all night 😂

Thank you all so much for your responses, I feel much better already. I am actually shocked I’ve been tolerating so much coffee, more than I drank pre pregnancy! I have actually had to go to the cardiac suite for an ECG due to raised heart rate at two midwife checks but I put this down to having a very difficult two year old and dying mother so under a huge amount of stress this pregnancy. Discovering this caffeine situation has tipped me over the edge! But sounds like all might be ok after all x

EXCESS caffeine is linked to first trimester miscarriage and low birth weight. I really wouldn't worry about it. Your caffeine consumption is pretty much in normal range and the guidance against caffeine is quite recent.

Edited to add that I'm sorry about your mum

Ah that's so tough. I lost a parent when I had a toddler and a baby, you're pulled in all directions.

Now I'm just glad you had coffee to try pull you through!

My 3 children are all grown up now but caffeine wasn't even a thing when I was pregnant. You and baby will be fine.