Worrying myself sick about having eaten liver and pate before i knew i was pregnant - anything i can do?

[whattheheck]

didn't realise i was pregnant until 5 weeks (now 10 weeks) - a bit of a surprise - reckon had eaten chicken livers at least 3 times and pate 3-4 times (we had a lot in the house). Really worried. Is this the worst time to have eaten it? Will any defects show up in the 12 wk scan or not til 20 weeks? Anything I can do - havent touched it since

You're fine. The reason is because of the possibility of you getting listeria and you would have been ill long ago so relax

You can stop worrying. You and the baby will be fine!

thankyou scary but isn't there a prob with too much vit A though too?

I don't know, but if it is any consolation, i drunk my own body weight in Sambucca when i was 4weeks pg (didn't know of course) and was really worried. Also ate chocolate mousse made with raw eggs loads in that week. The Dr was really unconcerned about the whole thing.

I think it has something to do with risk of Listeria and that it can cause mc if you get it, but i think you become very ill from listeria anyway.

When my mum was pg with me she ate liver and bacon at least once a week to help with her iron levels and i'm ok (sort of )

Dont panic,Scary is right,you are fine.In France they eat all the stuff we in UK are told not to through whole pregnancy and they think we are crazy with our Food cutbacks.

agree with floaty, the french eat it all the way through their pregnancies. they think we are very odd. please don't worry.

peanuts are now safe - see the food standards agency website. Hooray!

Two days before I found out I was pregnant I was totally smashed out of my head - and had been for three days previously - and slid down a banister. Not to mention the amount of soft boiled eggs, pate (OH MY GWAD I miss Pate!!!) brie, goats cheese and basically everything else I'd eaten.

I'm due in two and a half weeks.

Congratulations, and seriously, don't panic. When I asked my midwife she said to me, "Oh sweetheart, do you have any idea how many people are pissed in those first few weeks?!"

Stop worrying or even thinking about it further? I ate liver in each pregnancy, not a lot but was served it at someone's house and no reason to say no.

No point in worrying now about listeria as you'd know, and re: vit A well I think you'd have to eat a lot of it to cause a problem.

Oh, and remember that they used to advice eating liver a while ago

My science is a bit hazy, but am fairly sure that at that stage the embryo is still floating around and not even recieving nutrition from you (I am right aren't I? The placenta doesn't form until about 6 weeks?) so there'd be no chance of anything passing from you to the baby anyway.

thank you for all reassurance, it's just that i ate a lot of pate in the couple of weeks before conception (My dad turned up with some delicious stuff and of course I wasn't expecting to get pregnant...) Fear I have lots of vit A stored in me as a result as well as the liver I was eating once a week (am weird person who likes it)
Know there is nothing I could have done - wasn't planned pregnancy - but is really preying on my mind.

Forget about the pate - it's about the risk of listeria and if you'd had that, you would know.

Info on vit A

here

Quote from the link

"Signs of toxicity usually appear only after sustained daily intakes exceeding 50,000 IU in adults. These doses are more than 10 times higher than the RDA and usually cannot be obtained from foods, except by the ingesting large amounts of liver or fish liver oils which are especially rich in vitamin A."

So really, don't worry! It does say "sustained daily intake". Even if you had ingested "large amounts" of liver any risk would still only be very small.

thank you so much for that doggie....much appreciated

You're welcome. Hope you enjoy your pregnancy!

Hi, can you please give any details about your baby? I am in the same situation and worried sick. Since your comments has been a few years I will really appreciate it if you could give me some reassurance.

Just wanted to add, our parents' generation got told to eat plenty of liver during pregnancy for the iron! The advice to avoid it is really quite new. That might make you feel better.

Thanks for replying, my mum also said the same thing but I just can’t help it.

Sadly I am in the exact same situation too...ate 200g of liver (I know! :(( ) at 5 weeks before I found out that I was pregnant.
I am really upset and am really regretting that.. Have been frantically reading up on dose and effect on vitamin A in early pregnancy :(
I am hoping that you will be able to give me some reassurance..

It makes me very cross that good and conscientous people like the OP can work themselves up into a frenzy about something with pretty minimal risks, so much so that neighbouring countries have no such qualms about eating them. Pregancy has become if anything over-monitored (and by busybodies without any medical knowledge), another excuse to make women feel bad and steeped in moral and medical paranoia. I think we have lost the plot and any ability to assess or weigh risk.

Hello. I just did the same!! 🥺 would someone who had gone through this reassure me? Thanks

Hi I have done the same and I am so worried. Since this is an old post how did it go? Hope everything went good
can you let me know, maybe this will help my worries.

Hi i have eaten the whole plate of barbecued liver yesterday while im 29th weeks pregnant. I didn't know its bad for pregnancy.... now I'm too scared. Is everything gonna be ok? Plz help