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

Ah here it is, knew I'd checked it was ok!
'You can still eat soft, mould-ripened or blue-veined cheeses if you cook them thoroughly, such as oven-baked camembert, as this will kill any bacteria. Just make sure you've cooked the cheese until it's piping hot throughout, and not just melted.'

www.babycentre.co.uk/x3175/is-it-safe-to-eat-cheese-during-pregnancy#ixzz2wJeBb0pP

I had no idea that you weren't meant to drink lots of tea when pregnant. I don't drink coffee anyway but the tea thing passed me by. By chance I went completely off tea for the first few months in both pregnancies and my drink of choice was crushed ice cubes.

The first thing I ate after I gave birth was a huge baguette with turkey and brie - my DH went to the local deli to get it for me and brought it onto the ward as I was craving it so much. I have to say that the cup of tea I had with it tasted amazing.

I now drink decaff tea all the time just out of choice, because I drink so much of the stuff and the normal tea started making me a bit hyper.

I ignored all advice and carried on as normal. If I wanted a bacon, Brie and cranberry panini I made one. If I wanted a glass of wine with dinner I poured half a champagne glass of wine and topped it up with sparkling water.

I went off coffee and I have never liked pâté or ice cream anyway.

I'm sure there's more foods but like I said, I ignored most of the advice because I researched the actual risks and didn't take the advice at face value.

I drink a little weak 'normal' tea in pregnancy. Otherwise, my body goes a bit mad. I end up feeling unbearably ill if I eat: anything with artifical colours/flavours/preservatives, guar/xanthan gum, meat. I end up eating a lot of organic stuff, and peeling all my fruit/veg. It's very healthy!

Not using PG tips decaf tea because they wash their leaves in carcinogens.

Yorkshire teas use co2 which has no risks

I did my own personal risk assessment, so I ate shellfish and runny eggs (where I was comfortable with the source) and generally stuck to my normal diet.

I reduced caffeine (never drunk tea anyway), had no alcohol for the first trimester and heated unpasturised or mouldy cheese. That was about it (didn't eat pate anyway).

I hated the taste of tea when I was pregnant so that wasn't an issue - but I did spend the whole pregnancy just waiting for the time when I'd be able to have a smoked salmon and cream cheese sarnie followed by a lemon meringue pie.

Luckily I craved healthy food the whole way through, so pretty much carried on as normal.

I can't stand caffeine anyway so that one was easy! I had decaff tea once my morning sickness let me. Funny how you go off tea with morning sickness isnt it? Weirdly I also went off lamb for the whole duration of my pregnancy.
I stuck to bland foods for a lot of the time. I did crave pate but I coped. I went through a phase of eating mangos - i mustve been lacking some vitamins there.
I didn't realise I was pregnant for the first couple of months and had been enjoying swordfish, wine and mussels in sardinia for three weeks ! I felt TERRIFIED that I'd done some damage but everything was fine. Once I knew I was pregnant I avoided everything I needed to. It wasnt hard.
Best way to cope is sleep loads, eat bland food, remember that once your baby has arrived safely you can eat it all again :)

Never tried the decaf tea - but I became a huge fan of herbal and fruit teas while pregnant - and still am - especially gingery ones.

I avoided unpasteurised cheese, but found that many hardcore cheeses come in pasteurised versions. Useful as I could not have existed without it.

I was sorry not to have raw fish and the like - but went over to California style sushi for a while.

I went off coffee (which I normally love) in the first trimester of both of my pregnancies, so swapped it for tea instead - usually one cup of regular PG Tips in the morning and decaf if I wanted more during the day.

I haven't really felt the need to substitute specific foods I'm avoiding, but find myself naturally gravitating towards other things anyway. I always love sparkling water but drink loads of it in pregnancy, and really crave things like fresh fruit and veg, yoghurt, and cheddar cheese. I am also very big on pizza, loaded with veggies. Alcohol doesn't really appeal to me in pregnancy, so I don't miss it.

FYI, the current nhs guidelines say to avoid all pate including vegetable pates (that is due to the listeria risk; additionally liver is not recommended due to the vitamin A issue). Also they say in the UK it is not necessary to give up cold meats like salami, but some other countries recommend it.
I'm not planning on giving up caffeine, I only have a couple of cups of tea a day. And as for runny eggs I think the ban is a bit over the top considering how low the risk of salmonella is in British lion marked eggs, and that salmonella only makes you ill and isn't a risk to the baby in the same way listeria is.
Having said that I'm only 5 wks so who knows what I'll go off once I'm a bit further in...

I wasn't that fussed about what I wasn't allowed to have, though I did make sure I had pate and brie in the fridge for when I got home from hospital!

What bothered me more was the things I couldn't eat, when I was pregnant with DS2. I mean, chocolate, fgs![shocked] The first sign that I was pregnant was chocolate giving me horrendous heartburn. As did spicy food. The curries I absolutely loved when I was pregnant with DS1 (and at any other time, for that matter) left me in extreme discomfort for the next day.

I've been caffeine free for 3 years now to avoid migraines. PG tips is one of the better ones (as is Asda own brand).

In terms of pregnancy food/drinks, I'm missing the thought of wine and cocktails but treating myself to expensive cordials instead. With this pregnancy (my third) I'm a bit more lax about runny eggs (they just taste so good) but still sticking to avoiding pate and soft cheeses (which I avoid due to migraine anyway). I find avocado on toast can give that creamy texture, as well as being a healthier option.

decaf coffee.
avoided peanuts and had cashews instead as that was the advice at the time.
didnot like the cheeses that are to be avoided anyway.
local cafe cooked the fried eggs thoroughly when we went in and at home swapped to scrambled well cooked.
avoided pate

An excellent trick to keep the morning sickness (all day sickness!) away is to scratch the surface of a grapefruit and sniff. Yeah it means walking around with a grapefruit, but you really dont care, it becomes like a edible teddy bear (that you never really eat) :)

I became addicted to apricot juice for some reason....

I demanded (and got) a meal of salami and blue cheese starter, pasta carbonara main course, and tiramisu for pudding the day I came out of hospital.

I carried on drinking tea and coffee, although coffee first thing made me feel boaky.

To keep morning sickness away (which with me was mid morning sickness whilst standing in a classroom) I walked around with packets of tuc biscuits coming out of every pocket. For some reason the salty bits calmed my stomach.

I didn't really struggle with anything when pregnant as don't eat meat and not a fan of runny cheeses, raw eggs etc. I did drink coffee and tea in pregnancy, but limited to no more than two cups a day. I had bad morning sickness when pg with dc1 and found that mint teas and anything minty including toothpaste settled my nausea.

My DSis really struggled with missing the 'banned foods' when pg. When she came home from hospital I had made her a hamper including champagne, pate and all the oozy unpasteurised cheese she so enjoys.

I went right off tea and coffee and craved orange juice during the early weeks of pregnancy, so that was easy!

Later on I didn't miss much, except maybe a steak now I come to think of it. I only do medium rare so that was off the cards during pregnancy.. I seem to remember having lots of red meat, like homemade burgers and spaghetti bolognese/chilli instead.

I got decaff coffee and tea in while I was breastfeeding, and haven't gone back to caffeinated since I stopped.

hooby and rara make me feel so much better for having the odd thing in moderation! I have a glass of wine/low alcohol beer here and there, but have missed pate so much, I have told my fella that I want a load as a birthing present :)

I switched to decaf tea and have never gone back! I didn't want to have too much caffeine during my pregnancy or whilst breastfeeding and I've not missed it three years on!

I also avoided soft set ice cream on the advice from my midwife (and a lovely waitress in a restaurant when I ordered a pudding that came with it! It was a free pudding with a set meal but she let me choose any other pudding from the menu instead...result!).

How, when you are pregnant, you managed to find substitutes for the foods and ingredients you were avoiding.

Strangely, when I was pregnant, my brain still worked, so I researched the actual risk of eating certain foods, versus the perceived risk.

The 8 most recent cases of listeria in this country came from lettuce and cucumber and they aren't on the "banned" list. I failed to find one single case of listeria from soft cheese in all of those listed (there may have been cases since, but not whilst I was pregnant).

I didn't stop drinking alcohol but did find I had no taste for it so rarely drank more than quarter of a glass a week (literally three or four small sips). I remember dining out whilst pregnant and there was another pregnant woman on a table nearby. She kept glaring enviously at my wine glass!

As I am a vegetarian I did not have any of the meat worries. The only time I have had food poisoning was from ice cream served at a seaside shack and fish served at a restaurant, so I avoided those.

My craving in late pregnancy was Dr. Pepper, so there was no way I could avoid caffeine.

I can understand why society thinks it has ownership of a pregnant woman's body, probably based on tribal instincts to ensure that the tribe continues and has healthy children. However, I strongly dislike the infantalisation of pregnant women - most of us are perfectly capable of thinking for ourselves and rationally judging which foods are safe to eat.

I have not denied myself anything at all, just took a sensible look at what I wanted and weighed up the risk, so apart from the fact that morning sickness has meant that I just couldn't face food! I have continued to eat pretty much as I would normally.

Alcohol - if I want a glass I'll have one, but always with food and make sure I savor it.

Pate - have had this twice and both only a smidgeon on a piece of toast in a restaurant setting to get the taste (and after my partner had tested it first!)

Soft cheeses - if I want I will have a tiny bit. Always pastured, and fresh. If I want more of it I would have it piping hot.

Steered clear of blue steak and undercooked meats - but would still have a steak on the medium rare side (which is what I eat anyway).

Continued to eat Sushi, cooked shellfish, Salami etc, Eggs runny (but lion stamped). don't drink coffee but if I wanted a tea I'll have, and wanted coke or chocolate I will have.

I made Kombucha tea with English breakfast tea - a great probiotic drink! Also alcohol free beer during my summer pregnancy ;)