junk food cravings - worried about effect on baby

[asparagusaddict]

throughout this pregnancy i have been craving junk food - when i had morning sickness it was the only stuff i could stomach, now at 26 weeks i still can't stop myself - pretty much every other day, as well as eating some healthy stuff i just can't resist things like toast with thick butter and jam, every kind of takeaway on that damned fillmybelly .com, the mac'd drive through and getting an armful of choccy bars in the weekly shop. i find myself baking huge chocolate cakes almost on autopilot. i never had any interest any of these kinds of foods before i got pg.

i have started trying really hard to just eat healthily this last few days but i'm worried that it is too late now and my baby will be a junk food addict, unable to control his blood sugar when he is born and be at risk of obesity in the future. this hadn't even occured to me before - i was just so obsessed with satisfying the craving.

i'm so worried now that i honestly believe i can change my ways for good for the rest of the pregnancy and breastfeeding but does anyone know if the damage will already have been done to my baby?

has anyone else had this problem? i am so disgusted with myself for getting such uncontrollable urges for such terrible food when it is so bad for a very much wanted precious baby. this just isn't like me at all

if anyone could offer any advice or reassurance i would really appreciate it. sorry for the long post, i'm just so worried and angry with myself about what i might have done.

I ate a lot of fish and chips and Domino pizza with my twin pregnancy-stodge to stop the hormone sickness and stop losing weight (twins do use them up!)really.
They are 5 now and eat green veg, aren't fat and all the rest of it.
If you're worried make sure you're having a pregnancy multi vit and go for wholemeal carbs, protein and lots of veg to fill you up.
If you're not weighing more than you should at this stage then perhaps your body really needs the extra calories.

thanks defineme, that is so good to hear your little ones are ok.

i'm taking pregnacare plus and have put on just over 2 stone so far, my midwife weighed me at my request last week and didn't seem too bothered. although she did tell me off at my booking appt for my bmi of 19 and said i wasn't eating enough, and that my ketones were too high. maybe i have subconsciously taken her advice to the extreme.

i just googled junk food in pregnancy and apparently the baby can taste what the mother eats in the amniotic fluid and gets a taste for it, god i feel so guilty.

it's as if a lightning bolt of reality check has just hit me in the last couple of days

You will be in charge of what your child eats-they won't be able to purchase stuff on their own for years and years-it will be fine I promise.

If your BMI was a bit low before maybe then this is the time to think 'I'm going to reach a happy medium with my diet- everything in moderation'. You are allowed stuff like takeaways-it just shouldn't make up the majority of your diet.

Let go of the guilt-stress hormones are far more dangerous to an unborn child than saturated fat.

You'll be ok, what's that motto 'keep calm and carry on'!

asparagusaddict (I'm loving the irony), I was also very slim before becoming pregnant and I now feel I'm eating like a horse! (20 weeks). I'm pretty sure it's the body taking on all the extra calories it needs. If we've been undereating before (and I'm sure I was) then we'll feel the difference even more keenly. Yes it would be great to always have healthy foods to hand when the urge strikes, but the fact is that junk food is more convenient and it tastes nicer! I can't believe that's all you're eating so I really don't think you need to worry too much (I'm not!)

oh gosh - I craved Pickled onion monster munch when I was PG with DS1, for the last 3 months of pg I was eating 6+ packs a day

He was absolutely fine..........and ironically (he's 9 now) HATES pickled onion monster munch

thank you all so much, i don't feel so bad now! it is true, i do eat some healthy stuff too (much asparagus, but usually the stuff in the tins so not sure how healthy that is!!), the 2 stone i have put on though is really obvious and i'm grossed out by my new bloated face and arms so i'm not sure how much my body really did need all the extra calories...

i do feel like this sudden guilt has totally demolished the cravings, i just hope baby will cope with me going cold turkey on the junk food!

tocattaandfudge, i love it that your DS hates pickled onion monster munch now!!

asparagus well done in having the will power to give up the junk food. In the early weeks I couldn't eat anything that wasn't white or fizzy, it was the only food I could stuff down my face to stop the nausea, not that it actually stopped it. I didn't put on a lot of weight up until the first maybe 24 weeks, now I have ballooned out big stylee. My pre pregancy size was a 12/14, and now my maternity clothes are size 18. Can't believe the weight has piled on but I haven't stuffed my face with that much junk (well sometimes), it's just I was very very hungry a lot of the time. Why deny these hungers? Anyways, good luck let us know how you get on. I seem to have developed a craving for cold fizzy full sugar juice, and I can't get enough of it. As others have confirmed their children are fine and healthy which is good to know

I lived on Domino's pizza, marmite toast (more toast than marmite) and chocolate when I was pg. DS is fine, and HATES pizza (weirdo)

My craving has been in the main... fruit, I have been swimming regularly throughout this pregnancy - I was overweight before BMI of 26.

I have still put on 3 stone!!!!

I'm now officially a short round person - nothing you can do about it, nothing you can do about your cravings. If you had a low BMI to beggin with then your body is preparing itself for all that making milk as well as making a baby.

There is enought to beat yourself up about in pregnancy/motherhood, and it would be far worse if you had been limiting your food intake. Defineme is right - stress hormones are much worse than junk food (homemade cake defo doesn't count ) - and imagine the stress of not giving into the cravings (I have been known to snack down on a big box of pre-prepared pinapple before we even get to the checkout and pay for an empty box)

Plus baby doesn't start tasting until I think 26 weeks. Don't try to hold off on the craving - maybe try to make the rest of your food ultra varied and healthy if that will make you feel better. Use wholemeal flour in the cakes and bake flapjack with seeds and dried fruit. Banoffee pie - with real bannanas (god there's that fruit again)or HM apple crumble with oaty crumble custard with skim milk - lots of calcium. Hot cocoa - make it with skim milk and if you like it have it with some dark chocolate. There are ways of making the junk a bit more saintly - not sure you have to but if it makes you feel better about eating it AND you take care of the cravings, why not!

Did you know there is scientific research out there that proves women who ate a portion of chocolate a day had happier babies!

Don't worry!! It's honestly ok, baby will take what it needs to grow well. Are you taking any supplements? I am taking Solgar pre-natal nutrients...in the first 12 weeks of my pregnancy I was so ill I ate absolute crap....supernoodles! YUK, rice pudding from cans, potato waffles, white sliced bread, chips, you get the picture. Couldn't face anything green or healthy. Now I eat what i fancy, I don't believe in restricting in pregnancy and I am eating a lot. i am hungry all the time. By the way in my first pregnancy it was the same, so hungry and my son is now 2 1/2 and eat a balanced, varied diet. Like all children, of course, he likes to have a biscuit and then and likes a salty taste. But for the first 18 months, I didn't allow him sugar at all. It's up to you! The only thing is that I did have a very large baby, 4.5kgs. And I don't know if that is due to eating or whether I just have big babies. After I'd had my son, 3 months later I went to see a nutritionist who put me on the straight and narrow; lots of brown rice and veg, with breast feeding I lost the weight. Only had the saggy belly left. Honestly, you will have so much more to worry about and feel guilty over, just enjoy your food whilst you're pregnant, i think it is one of the best bits about being pregnant!

Hi

In my first pregnancy I was the same, lots of unhealthy cravings. My daughter is now nearly six, really tall, healthy energetic body and a bit of a smarty pants!!! Don't worry too much, baby will be finexxxx

asparagusaddict, when I have a really unhealthy craving I make sure I eat healthy food, like fruit or veg before I go for the cookies, chocolates or whatever it is.

At least I don't feel so guilty (after all, I ate some good stuff) and there is less room left to gorge on bad stuff.

this is very normal your baby and body wants fat and sugar! and I cant see it harming baby, I have been eating like a trucker

me too have been wanting KFC, dominos and sweets

chill x

According to something I read on the internet (very reliable I know) it might mean you're expecting a girl. Don't know if this confirms what you know or not?