Eating eggs!!!

[MichC]

I know this is really trivial but what are the dangers of eating soft boiled or fried eggs? I am reall craving a soft boiled egg with soldiers!!!

I thought it was a risk of food poisining, but can it harm my baby??

I have to say I do from time to time go for a soft boiled egg but was told that if the eggs are marked with the red lion, they are safe (or safer).
Also I think that our mothers use to do it and we are normal (or maybe not...)

I quite regularly have a soft coddled egg - love them. I also use the lion mark ones, and although they are not risk free, I am happy to take the limited risk. I eat M&S prawn sandwiches too.

That said, I would probably feel and act differently if I'd ever had a miscarriage to similar problems.

The risk is from salmonella but I thought that our eggs in the UK are vaccinated against salmonella anyway. I still eat the occasional soft boiled egg

I've not eaten any soft-boiled eggs or runny eggs (and boy! am I missing poached eggs!) but that's just as I'd rather be on the safe-side.

I believe the risk is salmonella and that generally the risk is small, but I figuered maybe with a supressed immune sytem pregnant women may be more likely to get it than normal.

The NHS website says that whilst salmonella isn't nice for the mother it doesn't pose immediate risks for the baby.

More info www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/917.aspx?CategoryID=54&SubCategoryID=131

So glad to see this thread - have had a few guilty medium-soft eggs. Glad to see I'm not alone!

I still eat dippy eggs during pregnancy..in fact when I was preg with dd1 (19 years ago)..I lived on dippy eggs and also used to pop into marks and sparks on my way to college, buy a prawn curry, keep it in my bag all day and eat it(heated up obviously) when I got home..naturally I wouldnt recommend that! but DD1 was fine

hello I am bumping this thread because several pg friends keep telling me that a doctor was on BBC Breakfast news recently saying it was safe to eat soft-boiled eggs so long as they carry the lion mark. But i can find no record of this doc or this news item. The only thing I can find online is that that all lion eggs have been vaccinated against salmonella, which is quite reassuring. I am feeling quite risk-averse because I had a food poisoning scare last week, but equally I do not believe in avoiding things 'just in case'. I prefer to take the attitude: what are the risks? How great are the risks? Are they greater than getting run over by a milk float or hit by frozen aeroplane wee?
My NHS purple book says simply: do not eat raw or partially cooked eggs. Even with alcohol the book says 'don't drink but if you do choose to drink don't drink more than this...' but there seems to be no leeway on eggs. I tend to think the NHS advice is fairly measured and sane so I'm happy to follow it but why is a doctor appearing on the BBC saying it's okay? Anyone seen this mythical doctor?

www.nutritionandeggs.co.uk/page/current_advice

Sorry, with link this time: www.nutritionandeggs.co.uk/page/current_advice

thanks yummymango for this link, that is very handy. I notice that they won't say explicitly that you can eat runny eggs, it's more implied:
'At the time of the salmonella and eggs scare in 1988, the Department of Health recommended that recipes for uncooked dishes involved the use of raw eggs should be avoided, and that lightly cooked eggs should not be served to vulnerable groups ? ie infants, pregnant women, elderly and debilitated people.

This advice, however, pre-dates the introduction of the British Lion food safety scheme in 1998. Since then salmonella has been virtually eliminated from British Lion eggs.'

I'm reading this as: 'The government haven't changed their advice but we (the egg people) think that they should'

there was also a figure to say that the FSA tested 28,000 eggs and found no salmonella. But nobody will say it's okay. A**e-covering?

Does anyone else feel like you have to be like Inspector Bleeding Morse to make any kind of informed decision in pregnancy?

I'm more haggard than Morse but yes you're right.

My eminently sensible midwife always said that she would fear nothing from a lion-marked egg and tbh I wasn't about to spend 9 months in a bubble. Not when bagged salad is riddled with food poisoning risk and nobody's umming and aahing about it in droves.

I love a sensible health professional! My GP was very relaxed about everything about cheese and pate and thought 1-2 units of alcohol as previously advised was fine (in fact I think he said there was no evidence a unit a day was harmful). But I saw my midwife for the first time yesterday and she said I wouldn't risk drinking at all. And then she said, which is the first time I've heard anyone admit this, because we don't know the effects
I was glad that she added this as nobody's ever explained the reason why they changed the health advice on drinking. If they just said 'look we don't know, we don't have all the answers' I would sort of respect that.

sorry! everything EXCEPT cheese and pate.

All hens in the UK are vaccinated against salmonella.
Provided the eggs carry the lion stamp they should be fine.
I have loved runny (yolky) poached eggs for all my pgs, but did check this out. each to their own i suppose. Some abstain from any alcohol but eat runny eggs!!! some the other way round.

I would be more worried about eating unwashed salad.....!!

PS runny poached eggs have been my saving grace from the nausea during this pg!!!

I would love an egg....but the three or four times I have had one, I've been very sick a couple hours later. So I've just started avoiding them now. Can't wait til after aug so I can have them again.
But yes as other ladies have said, I've only picked lions marked ones.