How strict are you?

[VioletRain]

How strict are you with what you do and do not eat? I have friends who are annoyingly paranoid about every morsel which passes their lips, and others who have gone through their pregnancy not even realising that they weren't meant to eat peanuts etc.

Do you ask every cafe whether their mayo has unpasteurised egg in it? Do you strictly limit yourself to 2 portions of tuna per week? What about meats - do you eat sausage rolls, cold crispy bacon?

I'm interested to know what people's attitudes are ...

Thanks for that...

Hello VioletRain. I've been accused of being OTT by friends and family, but I only knew about the food avoidance thing because my sister's already had two DDs. Knew about peanut butter because I am really allergic to things. Didn't realise about soft goats cheese though until I saw the warning on the back of a Sainsbury packet! Everyone says 'babies have been born for thousands of years etc etc' but the fact is doctors know more now than they did then. It's no hardship avoiding blue cheese etc for a few months - might even make us healthier? xxx

I was very relaxed, i don't eat meat or fish anyway - but ate peanut butter, goats cheese, cooked brie/camenbert, bit of blue cheese, parmasan and 2 glasses of wine a week, all after the first 3 months. Think it's all very OTT, especially when someone declines a bit of parasan on their pasta

I think you only need to avoid peanuts if you have allergies in your family.

parmesan is not a risk, even if it's made using unpastuerised milk, as it is a hard cheese.

I think it is about finding a balance ... I would go mad (and be very stressed and unhappy) if I decided to stick by the list of off-limit foods and drink to the letter. I am a fairly fussy eater anyway so I would probably end up not eating very much at all!

Mabel and Myermay, I think people are particularly confused about cheeses. I've heard so many people say that they are fine becuase the only eat pasturised brie .

Violet, I totally agree it's about balance, and I hate this Americanised thing of 'if you have one glass of wine you will damage your baby'. My warning is just because I was so ill just this last weekend from eating slightly old unpasteurised cheese at 20 weeks, and in those moments of vomiting etc I was so fearful for the baby that it totally reversed my previous casual position on this issue (ate loads of raw milk stuff, sushi etc with DS1). So just saying, yes, be balanced but don't eat raw milk cheese because it really can be a bad idea!

I have not even bothered reading the list of banned foods. I think its way too long and I am just eating what I want. My son did not die from me eating potato salad.

I think it would be better for pregnant women to be told to eat certain food rather than negative statements. Ie. eat 5 portions of food and veg a day, or have a mixture of complex carbohydrates as well as tiny amount of simple carboydrates.

The human race has not always been able to be picky about food, yet we aren't extinct.

The list of banned food just grows and grows doesn't it? I have been relaxed with all three of mine. BUT with dd2 I got a vomitting bug TWICE. It was so unfair. I am pretty certain it wasn't anything I ate which just pissed me off more for being careful enough and still vomiting. The second time I was 35 weeks and the empty wretches gradually turned into uterine contractions - it was truely horrible. Fortunately it all died away though and she was born a few weeks later when I was feeling much better.

One of the women I work with gave me a prolonged and serious earful about eating a snickers bar once. Because of the peanuts in it, she said, I will give my child terrible allergies. Nobody in my family has any allergies BTW..

She made me feel like I had just jacked up on heroin in front of her.

The problem with the list of banned food is difficult to know what you truely have to avoid. Prehaps it would be better to group foods into high risk, medium risk and low risk.

.. That's a great idea Reallytired. And explain why certain foods are high-risk.

On another note - how much did people eat at 5 weeks, I cannot stop scoffing! Just had toast and marmite and wondering whether it is too early to have the chicken casserole I was saving for my lunch!!

Reallytired, I don't think any of them are high risk in terms of likeliness of infection, just high risk in terms of the damage done if you are the unlucky one who DOES get infected. Both listreria and toxo can cause death or severe deformaties in the baby I believe.

Any thing that I can hold down, does not cause loose motions, constipation, heart burn or rgas. Of course I would not eat the basic no-nos such as soft cheese, big fish...needless to say my third trimester diet is extremely boring. To spice things up I have to find other pleasures and hobbies.

It's all ridiculously complicated. I go on the people I know who have had "diagnosed" food poisoning:
Father in law - listeriosis, blue cheese
Uncle - listeriosis, pate
Me - salmonella, chicken

Not a prepared salad in sight! Chicken is never mentioned as being likely to cause food poisoning, despite it having made me very ill. I think the shell fish is RAW shellfish, not cooked btw.

Interesting! I have a completely different take on this, because I'm not sure I agree about the "being relaxed" thing. I'm 39 weeks pg with DC3 and I can honestly say that I haven't found the "food rules" to be a huge hassle.

I don't need to eat blue cheese etc etc to feel relaxed! And no matter how relaxed I felt, if I actually did get one of those rare complications and harmed the baby, I'd never forgive myself.

I also think that it's human nature, when things go wrong, to look back and question if something you did was the cause, so I don't want to give myself any opportunities for regret iyswim.

Very interesting thread. I wonder what advice is given to women in France as they love they smelly cheese etc.

A lot of the brie and camenbert over here is pasturised so is ok. I've had a bit of a craving for blue cheese so I had brocoli and stilton soup which i think should be ok as its cooked.

Most shop bought mayo has pasturiesd egg so thats also ok.

I've also had a scrapping of pate on toast which i did feel abit guilt about.

But bacon sarnies if they are now off the menu is there any point in going on living !!!!!!!!!

It would be interesting to know if France has more disabled children than the UK.

My rule has been this: if the risk is that I will get sick, that's my choice. If the risk is that I may be immune, but it could harm the baby, I'm more cautious.

I did get food poisoning early on in pregnancy and let me tell you, 9 weeks pregnant with morning sickness and food poisoning are a pretty horrific combination. It was caused (I think) by undercooked chicken eaten in a dark restaurant in marrakech. For that reason I haven't eaten runny eggs, shellfish, no chicken unless I've cooked it, or anything else we all know can give you food poisoning.

For the baby's sake I've not eaten pate, or smelly cheeses or drunk more than the odd glass of celebratory champagne.

However, I have eaten peanut butter, unwashed salad and I love my morning skinny latte. I think people should be told the science behind the advice so that they can see who they are putting at risk.

On bagged salads, my DH works in the veg industry and is absolutely adamant (sp?) about washing them, and scrubbing the salad spinner, bowl, servers etc to the point of steriliation afterwards - because of the risks of listeria from it. And this comes from the man who will happily pick other veg straight from the field and eat it covered in soil and chemical residue from the sprayer that passed by 10 minutes before. Oh, and anything else with a listeria risk he also doesn't fuss about - so he has got some insider knowledge that I think's worth listening to.

On anything else, I've not been as good as I should have been or intended to, but go with the relaxed is good theory

HTH

If I'd known that the risk from bagged salads was of listeria infection rather than just "they might not have been washed well enough" then I would have avoided them.

It really is patronising to present women with a list of don'ts without any explanation of why and it happens a lot with all the guidelines once they've arrived too.

This is my 4th pregnancy, and I've gone from being a complete obsesive with my first to now being quite laid back! The only things I avoid are soft cheeses and pate, and I limit my coffee intake to around 3 cups of instant a day (avoided it completely in my first pregnancy and was miserable!) I deliberatley eat peanuts as there is no evidence to show they do any harm and actually some research to show that moderate amounts can help prevent allergies (and I love crunchy nut cornflakes!)I also think the odd glass of wine is fine -I was reading something earlier this week suggesting that low amounts of alcohol intake in pregnancy has a positive effect on boy's behaviour!
Really, just be sensible and calm about it - that's much better for your baby than getting all stressed. Must say i've never ever heard of having to avoid sausage rolls in pregnancy

Zoejeanne - do you know why the risk of listeria from bagged salads so high? I'm interested.

The caffeine thing really irritates me, I know so many smug mummies who don't drink coffee and say "oh no, I gave up when I was pregnant with little x" and look at me like I'm mainlining crack when i drink my cup (am not pg even!)

As another poster said you're allowed several cups a day. I only ever had one, because any more makes me edgy, but was made to feel so guilty for it.

Then again maybe my children wouldn't be such 'mares if I'd avoided it . How will we ever know?

In terms of caffiene it has never even been mentioned to me - at my booking in appointment the pregnant midwife was supping a cup of tea!

I always drink decaf coffee anyway, (not smug, it just doesn't agree with me). I still have cups of tea however. I think with caffiene it's just about moderation isn't it?