Listeria panic

[Jay185]

So I never get my toddler ice cream from the machine as I'm worried about contamination. But today at the park I bought him Mr Whippy style from the park cafe as they have a 5 star hygiene rating and are very popular. I'm 10 weeks pregnant and licked around his ice cream so it wouldn't fall around the sides and I regretted it straight away! It didn't taste that soft and creamy and tasted like it could have been defrosted and refrozen. I'm so worried now about my unborn child and my son. Is this a major listeria risk? I don't know what I was thinking when I never buy this in the first place, let alone when I'm pregnant. I wish I bought him one in a packet or their gelato 😩

You are massively overreacting op. Do you suffer with anxiety?

Soft serve ice cream isn't contraindicated in pregnancy so you'll be just fine. I imagine if they have a good hygiene rating that the machines will be cleaned regularly and the dairy will be pasteurised.

The risk is extremely low, this is an over reaction to simply licking around an ice cream.

I know it's hard but you need to find a way to manage the anxiety or it'll be a very long 9 months.

This happened to me the other day. I had a few spoons of my child’s sundae at Burger King. I had a little freak out about it as soft serve ice cream isn’t recommended to pregnant women in the country I live in. But I did some research online and the NHS don’t recommend avoiding soft serve ice cream. So I don’t think it’s a big risk at all.

Honestly, have you ever heard anyone getting sick after a mr whippy? Nah, it's totally fine.

You’ll be fine

OP I suffered badly with anxiety around this sort of thing while pregnant - my midwife recommended only using the NHS page about which foods to cut out, and look at absolutely nothing else. I followed her advice and it did reduce my anxiety and baby and I were just fine.

This is the page just in case: https://www.nhs.uk/pregnancy/keeping-well/foods-to-avoid/

Thanks everyone. Yeah I do have health anxiety and I hope I am overreacting but it's just the fact that it didn't taste creamy and rather more of a thawed texture like it had been refrozen and I know that's where danger lies as well.

What help are you having for the health anxiety?

The best advice I can give is to step away from Google - stick to the NHS guidance only (note - it's only guidance, there are no hard and fast rules. Even with the foods they recommend you avoid, the risks are extremely low).

What is the point in stressing about something that's already done? If you don't trust the ice cream just don't have it again rather than wasting this energy over something you can not go back and change.

Are you getting some help for your anxiety?

You'll be fine.

I ate a lot of soft serve in the summer I was pregnant!

I was exactly like this when pregnant. The hormones, over egging advice and my own general worry about my ability to be a good parent and manage to keep a living thing alive and safe all came together in an ugly tsunami of fretfulness and midnight Google searches about ridiculous things I'd 'done wrong' ..........

It's not uncommon but recognising the actual scales of risks (incredibly small) and just talking to a midwife helped. And dc are fine !

Listeria is very very rare, so please don't worry, soft serve is fine in pregnancy