Foods to avoid during pregnancy - how did you cope - share your tips with PG tips Decaf and you could win £250 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

We all know that there's lots of advice out there about what food and drink (and ingredients in food and drink) to avoid during pregnancy.

For the Mumsnet guide to this please click here.

The team at PG tips Decaf say "With PG tips decaf, you can still enjoy the splendid luxury and taste of a nice cuppa, without having to think about the caffeine as it contains less than 10mg per cup - available in packs of 40, 80 or 160."

PG tips Decaff would love to know how, when you are pregnant, you managed to find substitutes for the foods and ingredients you were avoiding.

For example: did you use a strong pasteurised cheese in place of Stilton on a salad, did you try sparkling fruity water in place of wine etc?

Decaff tea and coffee is perhaps an easy one: do share what you did - they'd also love to know if you tried their tea what you thought!

Please share your tips and stories relating to the food changes made to your diet when you were pregnant on this thread - everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky MNer will win a £250 voucher for the store of their choice.

thanks and good luck

MNHQ

I substituted pate for vegetarian pate, there are some lovely ones which I continued to have after the birth. The same applies to decaffeinated tea and coffee. Since giving the caffeinated ones up, I haven't gone back as they taste the same to me!

I drank decaf tea when pregnant with my young children and I continued when breastfeeding.

I still do - since having children coffee gives me heartburn?! So for the past 5-6 years I have had one regular tea a day in the morning, any other cups are always decaf. I only manage about 2 cups a day though - hot drinks + small, fast children isn't the best combination!

I currently have some pyramid PG tips which I am trying for the first time - I have found both Tetley and PG Tips decaf to be the best tasting as stores-own brands have a metallic aftertaste. I do find decaf takes longer to brew / can be weaker though - but the pyramid bags seem a bit better due to the shape I think.

Instead of lemsip I made hot orange juice or actually had a lot of warm milk with a spoon of honey in when feeling generally grotty but unable to take anything stronger than paracetamol.

For other things when pregnant I tried a vegetarian mushroom pate which was quite nice - and instead of prawns I found a great love for Mozerella, basil, tomatoes and honed it to a fine art! (Room temperature tomatoes, good quality olive oil and sea salt for dressing, branded mozzarella, crutons optional!)

I drank Kopparberg non-alcoholic pear cider at Christmas etc. and found Sainsbury's low-alcohol cider to taste best - although I was never a big drinker anyway.

I will just say though that after following a decaf 'diet' as such I then had a full hit of a barista coffee when my youngest what about 18 months and got such horrid side effects! Banging head, shaky, took ages to feel right again … it really illuminated how accustomed to caffeine I had become. chocolate doesn't count though, obviously

I don't drink a lot of tea, and don't drink any coffee so I carried on as usual with that.

I didn't avoid runny eggs - I have confidence in the systems in place In The UK.

I did avoid blue cheese, that wasn't a problem.

I though not having wine would be more tricky, but I lost all desire for alcohol of any kind so it was fine. I drank gallons of Ikea alcohol free pear cider though!

I had hyperemesis and so the first few months food was nauseating just thinking about. I then took a notion for kiddie style food. Triangular sandwiches and skip crisps which was weird. idon't drink alcohol and had already switched to decaff tea so I did not miss out there. I did miss out though on New Year's Eve dinner. We were in Sydney and paid £289 each for dinner at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was a Chinese banquet. Little did I know the main event was lobster and king prawns.

Some things I made an informed choice not to avoid - like runny eggs - but I really missed a good cocktail so tried to substitute with virgin cocktails - it didn't quite hit the mark some how!

The only thing I wanted a decent substitution for was wine. There just isn't a good fake wine.

I only drink decaf tea so that wasn't a problem.

I became addicted to Ribena! At least it looked vaguely like red wine .

But for some foods (maybe it was by my third pregnancy I was a little more confident!) I weighed up the risks. I craved peanut butter. I was re diagnosed as asthmatic two years ago, but during my previous two pregnancies I had been fine eating peanuts, and given I was seriously craving them, I figured there was something in there I needed!

Once I discovered that Stilton is permitted (according to NHS website) all the other deprivations faded into insignificance, really.

I tries to avoid anything that might bring on the awful acid. Fruit juice was sorely missed and I couldn't stomach any diet drinks so sparkling berry drinks were my 'glass of wine'.
Food wise I didn't change much other than pate and Brie, melted cheddar with cranberry sauce was my faux Brie in French stick.
I converted to pg decaf and prefer it now to ordinary - I can have a nice string cuppa without the stewed taste.

Sadly, PG Decaf tea was not available where I was so I think I just drank hot water or herbal tea.

Apart from booze, I didn't moderate my diet at all. Drank regular tea, ate normally - the advice changed too often to know what I was supposed to be doing!

I only kept off the booze.

Don't particularly like pate or stinky cheese. I still drank coffee and tea - mainly tea and kept my coffees (freshly ground) to one a day.

I was just sensible and didn't eat a whole Marlin every day washed down with a vodka red bull

With DD I had hyperemis so it was pretty easy to avoid stuff - I completely went off tea so that was easy, though the cuppa I had after she was born was the best I've ever tasted

With DS - I found out I was pregnant 6 weeks before he was born - I'm not a drinker so had no alcohol in that time, but most other things including tea and caffeine I had regulary - he's perfectly fine

I won't be switching to decaf, I only have 2-3 cups a day, though I need 1 first thing and I don't feel 'awake' till I've had a strong tea.

I regard most of it as scaremongering and ignored it except for alcohol. I had soda and lime instead although I did have the odd glass of wine if I was out for dinner.

I read the Food Standards Agency guidance which assured me that most cheeses were fine - Brie sold here is pasturised, Stilton was OK, sushi in UK restaurants is fine as the fish has to be frozen. And up to 3 coffees or teas is OK, so I actually drank more, usually 3 a day, as I was so tired. And had a small glassof wine a few times a week as advised by GP and MW and after Id read the research giving no reason not to.

I did however avoid salad bars, pate and anything that might possibly give a delicate person food poisoning.

So wouldn't have drunk decaf then but do now as since births, caffeine doesn't agree with me but my brain wants a hot brown drink that I can pretend is perking me up.

I am a total cheese addict and I did my homework. Careful reading of NHS Direct wesbsite told me the cheese had to be 1) unpasteurised 2) blue 3) not mould ripened. So I came up with Saint Paulin which is neither of the 3 and that became my pregnancy cheese treat. Now I see they say you can cook Brie & Camembert so I would probably just put it in the oven and eat with French bread. Yum.

I didn't change anything except cutting out alcohol.
I enjoyed 2-3 cups of tea a day (don't drink coffee), I ate runny eggs, cheese, pate, sushi etc and was incredibly healthy. I think it's all gone a bit too far with what we can and can't eat. Moderation with everything is the key.

I have one regular cup of tea or coffee a day, then redbush. I am very aware of MC risks indeed for personal reasons and my consultant said this was fine.

And I no longer buy any tea from a brand who has made a marketing strategy for their decaff out of making pregnant women feel guilty. Shame on them. You don't see cheddar marketing itself as 'not brie' on pregnancy sites!

I'd rather drink redbush which is just another type of herbal tea albeit with milk.

melli You can have stilton too! I love blue cheese and was happy to find stilton is classed as hard cheese.

Once I got past the 3 month point I had the odd small glass of wine and "proper" tea. What I missed most of all though was runny poached eggs, and I don't think there's much of a substitute!

I have stuck to the decaf tea and coffee largely now, and save caffiene for when my daughter has had a really bad night sleep!

Have to say decaf gave me rotten headaches, so I made my peace with red bush tea which was much nicer(sorry PG Tips!!!)
With both DC I spent the entire time longing for poached eggs. I would stare with hormonal charged hatred at DH if he ordered one in restaurants.

I've always had decaf tea so that's not a problem, but have gone right off tea in this pregnancy!
With my first pregnancy we had chicken livers in the freezer that needed using up and as my DH makes the most out of this world pate, I couldn't have him make it and me not eat it! So instead I found a mushroom pate recipe and I made that the same time so I felt I wasn't missing out.
Also at 36 weeks I had my first drop of alcohol-as it was the only glass I had/was going to have, I made sure it was top notch champagne!

I really wanted cured meat and salami when I was pregnant. OH bought a pack of chorizo into the maternity ward.
With regard to tea, I just had fewer cups than usual.

Instead of rose wine, I have been drinking cherryade in a wine glass!

I may have convinced myself that cooking deli meats - salami/chorizo etc was ok, as with soft cheeses or blue cheeses
Not sure if this is actually ok but assumed it killed off the bugs. Didn't do it loads but enough to not feel I had 9 months without.
I switched to decaf after first baby and didn't really go back to more than one cup of anything caffeinated a day. Anything more and I feel really spacey now.