Foods to avoid - how strictly do you / did you stick to the guidelines?

[floraflora]

V. early days of pregnancy no.2. Last time I stuck rigidly to the guidelines of what foods to avoid, in a bit of a swotty, good-girl kind of way. This time I feel a little more rebellious. Until I did a test I was swigging sweet sherry left over from Christmas and devouring blue cheese.
The French and Italians don't seem to worry too much, are we just a nation of girl swots who like to obey rules?

First pregnancy a glass of wine twice a week without failure I really missed it!!!! simetimes I had 3 whilst on holiday I had a small glass every evenign with my 3 course dinner (I spoke to the MW about this and she said it was as long as it wasn't a bottle a night!) I really craved brie and peanut butter but avoided!

This time I have had less wine, don't fancy it, and now the guidelines have changed on nuts, and I've had a peanut butter a little, but don't fancy it as much as last time! I've also had swordfish, and brie (today actually) and a dippy egg! I think its a bit over kill these days with the guidelines!

Actually, the guidelines in France have changed recently but the doctors haven't really caught up to it yet.

When I was pregnant last year, midwives couldn't care less about some wine ( and not just an occasional glass), as long as I wasn't drinking half a bottle of vodka a day.

Food- again,I had foie gras, smoked salmon etc, but didn't eat mouldy cheeses.
Liver is fine- it's got a lot of vit.A, which could be harmful to the baby if consumed in huge quantities, but you can have it once in a while!

The most surprising thing, though, was my doctor saying that smoking less than 5 cigarettes a day is fine. Now, I would think she was wrong if not that in my first pregnancy my OB GYN in New York ( quite renowned) said the same thing. I guess, thinking being that it's a negligible amount of toxins relative to the everyday exposure to pollution, chemicals in food, cosmetics etc.

I am a first timer, and 18 weeks. i really panicked over the fact that I got tipsy one night when i would have been about 4 days pregnant. Since then I have drunk less than a glass of wine (a few sips) every 10-14 days or so, but today i am having a light beer as we got some really bad news and psychologically I just needed something to relax. i have not eaten mouldy cheeses, or oate, but generally ignore everything else. My overall diet is extremely healthy, and there is so much conflicting advice that I have an all things in moderation approach. Except for chocolate soy milk which i am craving. (And in some locations they certainly say avoid soy!)

My GP said to avoid alcohol like the plague. An obstetrician friend said up to 10 units a week is not a problem. At a recent party someone asked me if i drank at all, and I said the last time i had had any alcohol was a few sips of champagne on Xmas day, and one of the guests (who was drunk) got so angry with me that she actually told me I 'deserved' to harm my baby. Extrarodinary

I gave birth in 1986 and 1991 and I don't remember any guidelines about food much. Apart from liver due to the Vit A.

I lived on brie and cider mostly they were what I craved.

Excellent post midnightsun winnybella - my gp told me categorically at the beginning that I could not have any alcohol or cigarettes, but that other than that to continue as normal UNTIL I came back negative for toxoplasmosis. I never actually saw a midwife, but the information I got was from a website. There is a lot of confusion here though, everyone tells you something different. DH had a work dinner and one of his colleague's (pg) wives was shocked that I had a glass of champagne but didn't eat the foie gras amuse bouche!

Littledonkin - if you read the guidelines, nuts are fine, unless you have a history of allergies in your family.

I'm 12 weeks now and live in Brussels. I follow the guidelines with regard to toxo, because I don't have immunity and I know that it's not rare here (but no-one told me to move my cats out, as they are housebound and only eat dry pet food).

On my doctor's advice, I eat soft cheese, as long as it's pasteurised - she specifically told me to avoid buying directly from farmers etc, but supermarket stuff is fine. She didn't mention anything about eggs. She also told me that sushi is fine, and I've been indulging a lot as it's the only protein I can stomach. Well, that and foie gras last Saturday .

And I was told that the no peanut thing is nonsense, so...

Causes of autism

www.mumsnet.com

I think it's fair to say they don't have a clue.

The peanuts thing is completely unproven - it is possible that cutting them out causes allergy.

wrong link - obviously

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_autism

How much liver pate would one have to eat to OD on Vitamin A? I know that eating an entire polar bear's liver could kill an adult due to Vit A poisoning - something to do with the bears storing a lot in their liver due to their conditions.

Seriously... how many kilos of Brussels pate would you have to eat?

That's interesting Brettgirl. I also have no immunity to cytomegalovirus and get tested monthly for that too, but I had no idea it was a cause of autism.

I really must stay away from babies until mine is safely out ...

skihorse have a look at this. It seems that you don't have to eat tons of the stuff to increase the likelihood of a problem, but unless you eat it daily it should be ok.

Sorry sayanything - I didn't post that to worry people, just to point out that everyone is in a risk group whatever they do.

sayanthing Thanks for the link. It would be interesting to know how much Vit A/liver an actual supermarket pate contains. On saying that though, I don't give a monkey's - if I want a bit of pate I'll have it!

Don't apologise Brettgirl - it's good to know.

I've never heard of CMV - what is it?

Belgium has the same guidelines as France and pregnant women are tested for toxoplasmosis regularly. The fact is that due to eating habits in Belgium, the occurence of toxoplasmosis is much higher.
During my first pregnancy I was tested every month and tested negative for toxoplasmosis.
When I was first pregnant this time around I convinced my GP to test for toxoplasmosis (he was very reluctant to do so). A few weeks (weeks!!!) I got a panicking call from my GP saying I tested positive and it looked like it might have been a recent infection. Another set of tests and 3 extra weeks of waiting later (I even went back to Belgium to get the test done more quickly) I found out that there is a 95% probability that I caught the infection just before conception. But there is still a 5% chance that I caught it during...
So my message is: be careful with raw meats, smoked meats, etc. It is possible to catch it and the consequences can be horrible (MC, severe disabilities, blindness).
On the up-side : I now don't have to watch what I eat so much!!

I do drink coffee and have an occasional glass of wine. I do stay away from soft cheeses, raw eggs, smoked salmon and shellfood.

I avoided unpasteurised cheeses and pate because of listeria but that's it.

BTW did you know you can ask your GP to organise a blood test to find out if you've ever had toxoplasmosis in the past and therefore have immunity to it. If you have got immunity you don't have to avoid the things to do with that.

I also know someone who suffered MC due to E Coli

flyingcloud

don't mean to be picky - but you said "Regardless of toxo status the guidelines here also say no soft, mould-ripened cheese (pasteurised makes no difference when it's mould-ripened), no blue cheese, no goat's cheese, no raw fish, no deli meats such as pate, no smoked meats or fish."

re: smoked meats or fish - This is not what I understand from the FSA website - that you linked to... Taken from the same site:

Can I eat cold meats and smoked salmon when I'm pregnant?
Some countries advise pregnant women not to eat cold meats or smoked fish because of the risk of listeria. In the UK, we don't advise women to avoid these products because the risk is very low. The risk of listeria is much higher with cheeses such as Camembert, Brie or chevre (a type of goats' cheese), and others that have a similar rind, or pâté, which you shouldn't eat during pregnancy. However, if you are concerned, you might also choose to avoid cold meats and smoked fish while you are pregnant.

Sorry if someone else mentioned this already - I haven't read the whole thread

To the OP - I am following the FSA guidelines - probably because I had a miscarriage last time I was pregnant and the constant worry that it was something I had done (although I did stick to the food guidelines). But I couldn't take the guilt...

Longtalljosie here is one of the studies linking mother's alcohol consumption to autism,

findarticles.com/p/news-articles/scotland-on-sunday-edinburgh/mi_7924/is_2007_Nov_18/expert-links-au tism-mothers-drinking/ai_n34802376/

but as brettgirl rightly says, there are hundreds of suggested causes of autism and the medical world is far from having the answers.

My point was simply from our own experience I'd rather try to avoid giving myself any reason to be paranoid that something I ate or drinking had caused an mc or a long-term problem etc. Like I said, I'm paranoid though -full respect to those who are more relaxed!

Well I'm a veggie and hate any cheese apart from feta and small amounts of cheddar but what I do love and have been craving is vegetable pate (Moroccan chickpea pate to be precise) and have been eating copius amounts on thick white toast (YUM).

I have recently read that the advice concerning pate includes vegetable ones (Dammit). Anyone know why this is ? Only thing I can think of would be the veggies may not have been washed properly and are raw. Surely not the case with big name brands?

Also we got a kitten less than two months before I got pregnant (on the proviso that DH would NOT be cleaning out the litter tray - my cat/my poop!) and when I found out about the pregnancy DH said that he and DD (13) would do it. Of course they have not been either they forget/DH working late/DD said no way is she handling poop etc, so I have been doing it with rubber gloves. I have to do it twice a day because a few times the kitten has stood in it and got it on the floor (boak) even though it's a masshoosive tray!

Can I ask my midwife to test me for toxo just in case?

bigmomma as far as I know it is because of the risk of listeria in all pate including veggie ones (obv in liver pate there is also the vit a thing.)

Havent read whole thread, but in both pregnancies, have followed guidelines to the letter tbh. I am one of those people who would feel unbelievably guilty if something happened, so my view is that nine months is no time at all and better safe than sorry.

I think out of everything, I really only missed the occasional alcoholic drink. But having said that, am not a big drinker, so wasnt that big a deal either.

iggypiggy apologies for not being clearer - I was discussing the guidelines in France, where those things are banned, but then I linked to the FSA guidelines as there seemed to be a bit of misinformation circulating on the thread!

Here are the French guidelines - in French!