caffeine and artifical sweetners in pregnancy

[Poohbearsmom]

Hi
I know caffeine should be kept to a minimum (one cup of coffee/two tea a day isnt it?) but in very early pg is it harmful?
I was also wondering about artificial sweetners are they safe to use when pg?
Tia xxx

Caffeine should be kept to a minimum. Although current guidance is that a small amount (1 Starbucks, 2-3 cups of tea) is okay, an American study suggested that even small amounts might increase your risk of miscarriage - it's only slight but IMO that's enough to keep it to an occasional treat, not an everyday occurrence.

Personally, I avoid sweeteners anyway as I can't tolerate them (except saccharin). I wouldn't have too much of them whatever when pregnant - aspartame and sorbitol in particular aren't good for anyone in high amounts.

Thanks japrimel your right even a slight risk is enough to put me off a coffee!
I wonder about decaf as iv read it still has caffeine in it just low amounts? How many decafs are ok then i wonder??

Thanks japrimel your right even a slight risk is enough to put me off a coffee!
I wonder about decaf as iv read it still has caffeine in it just low amounts? How many decafs are ok then i wonder??

I spoke to my GP about coffee and she said the NHS guidelines were 2 cups of instant a day and that I could drink as much decaff a day as I liked as long as i didn't drink other caffinated drinks such as coke, redbull etc. I drink coffee when I am out in Cafe Nero etc and always ask for 1 shot instead of the standard 2 shots.

Thanks Hevster good to know decaf is grand

But coffee tastes foul at the moment - for me anyway. I wonder if decaf tastes as mingin...?

I generally drink tea like its running water so am down to 2 cups a day and feel that this is fairly okay for me. I tried decaf tea and hated it so didn't really try hard enough to adapt to it. I would say all things in moderation and if your not happy with a bit of cafine try and cut it out completely. Don't forget cafine in chocolate too...so much to remember

i avoid aspartame and caffiene at all times - i honestly couldnt tell the difference between caffiene free and standard coffee at first.

caffiene gives me tummy craps - suffered for years before i knew what was doing it - someone made a coffee cake at work and even the tiny bit in the cake set me off - yet chocolate doesnt - Kerazy

You can even get caffiene free filter coffee now....

and i spelt caffeine wrong in that post a zillion times - i think

is it not I before E?

NHS guidlines on caffeine are up to 200mg per day, which isn't much. It's basically one proper coffee and one cup of tea, or three cups of tea. And you can't have chocolate on top of that

I'd avoid artificial sweetners, simply because they are chemicals and you don't know what they do. If you have to have sweet coffee/tea, as long as you're not drinking huge amounts, just shift over to sugar for your pregnancy -- it's about 25 calories per teaspoon.

I before E except after C -- and then there are all those weird exceptions, like weird. . . and caffeine.

HUMPH - i'll never remember that beanlet

really with you on the sweetners, yuck.

OP - you probably do but remember the sweetners are in diet drinks too

Sweeteners are in a lot of things these days, like most sports drinks, non-diet drinks, some foods... It's a nightmare never being able to have them (I'm intolerant).

Anyone else gone off chocolate?

Thanks guys
theres sweetners in so many things esp all the diet stuff but like beanlet said tis a chemical and we dont really want to be eatin buckets of chemicals! I use hermasetas in my coffee and drink sugar free squash and sure its in so many things!! Agh... I saw a thread over on health bout sweetners yonks ago must go have a look for it (didnt look at the time as was/am dieting and didnt want to read anything which might scare the crap outa me ) really had never occured to me bout caffeine being in chocolate! Thanks for tellin me

I normally have about 7 or 8 cups of tea a day and tried having none but it was too hard. I bought decaf tea bags (Waitrose Essentials range) and I think they taste fine. I'd rather save my caffeine intake to have as chocolate than tea!

Caffeine apparently impacts birth weight. Whilst I wouldn't advise it at all... A GP friend of mine told me that she didn't track her caffeine at all with DD1 - perfectly normal healthy baby. Was really careful with DD2 and had a whopper (also perfectly healthy). She said that I could probably ignore the advice within reason though this is a little like smoking to have a smaller baby I suppose.