Coffee/caffeine in the 2ww and beyond......

choklatemunky

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Ummm, I can across this on the web today.... it was a headline in the news section of my homepage = I wasnt looking for it.

Anyway, I know there has been some discussion about whether people treat the 2ww as if they are PG until they know otherwise so I thought I would post it on here - apologies to anyone who is upset by it but I guess I just thought that forewarned is forearmed and that at least if you have the info you can make a choice.......

Drinking coffee doubles risk of miscarriage

Drinking coffee can double the chance of a pregnant woman miscarrying her baby, US experts have warned.

The study - published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology - was conducted by Dr De-Kun Li and involved 1,063 women who had become pregnant in the last month or two.

They showed that consuming 200mg of caffeine a day doubled the risk of miscarriage.

The women were asked to provide a diary about their caffeine intake up to the 20th week of pregnancy.

On comparing the details it was found that 172 women had miscarried by 20 weeks.

Compared with those who did not drink caffeine, women who consumed up to 200mg a day had an increased risk of miscarriage.

Dr Li said: "This strengthens the association between caffeine and miscarriage risk because it removes speculation that the association was due to reduced caffeine intake by healthy pregnant women.

"The main message for pregnant women from these findings is that they probably should consider stopping caffeine consumption during pregnancy."

Pat O'Brien, a consultant obstetrician at University College Hospital, said: "This is the best evidence we now have on the subject and I will advise patients to avoid caffeine completely, at least for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy."


To turn that into understandable levels, from what I understand;
A cup of coffee generally contains 100-150mg of caffeine,
An average chocolate bar contains about 30mg of caffeine (milk chocolate contains less than dark chocolate and white chocolate doesnt contain any),
a cup of tea contains about 50mg,
cans of coke etc contain about 40mg
hot chocolate is somewhere around 15mg
 
This was something that reallyoldmums consultant said to her too so I have been trying to give it up - I have 2 cups of tea a day but after reading this will replace with decaff tea bags I think!
 
Ive drunk de-caf tea & coffee for years, normal stuff sends me hypo :shock:
 
Thats interesting as my consultant recons caffine is the worst thing for TTC too - she recommended that we cut it out completely..... It did give me a terrible headache when I switched to decaf but to be honest that made me think that it must have been doing something to my body to make me have such bad symptoms when I gave it up!!
 
I switched to de-caf tea bags about 6 months ago as i read that when ttc you should avoid caffiene. I think they taste just the same.

Not a big coffee drinker but fancy a cup now and then. Morrisons own De-caf Gold is really lovely.
 
Im not a coffee drinker myself - dont really like it and much prefer tea.....I have decaf at work and the teabags at home are normal ones, although I dont have a cup every day anymore (used to be a complete tea addict but just dont tend to fancy a cuppa as much anymore).

My OH is bad for having loads of fizzy drinks, but I have read that if a man has some caffeine about 15/30mins before BDing it can sort of 'wake the sperms up' so they have a bit more energy......so men dont need to worry about it affecting ttc in the way we do. :roll: Typical!
 
I have completely cut out coffee over the last month or so and only drink green tea. I read the same as you Choklatemunkey about caffeine being good for sperm motility too so I have OH drinking as much as he wants. :D
 
Hmmmm now thats got me thinking.....

Perhaps i need to go out and get his and her tea bags now :rotfl:

No good if the de-caf isn't getting his spermies going now is it :think:
 
I don't drink tea or coffe or fizzy drinks!! athough DH does drink diet coke.....even if it is mixed with Jack daniels!!!
 
I don't drink coffee and I occasionally drink decaf tea. I stopped all fizzy drinks and cut out chocolate and still it has made no difference for me :x

It's so hard not eating chocolate :cry:
 
I drink at least four cups of coffee a day sometimes black filter coffee :shock: and about 3 cups of tea a day!!! :( :( Think i need to cut down. My OH is the same.
 
Loola said:
I have completely cut out coffee over the last month or so and only drink green tea. I read the same as you Choklatemunkey about caffeine being good for sperm motility too so I have OH drinking as much as he wants. :D

Green tea also contains caffeine. I learnt this on the news this morning. I've just looked it up on the web and it contains about the same per cup as normal tea! I'd been switching from normal to green as I read somewhere else that green tea is good for fertility.

Seems like a no win situation!
 
Oh dear. Well that's annoying. Here I am in the land of coffee and I have to cut it out. Funnily enough DH sent me the same article today too! :roll:

I have 1 or sometimes 2 cups of good filter coffee a day, but no tea, gree tea or hot chocolate, and very little chocolate. I am in the 2WW though and I suppose that now is a good a time as any to give it the old heave ho. Peppermint tea it is then. :(
 
I gave up caffeine and alcohol for Lent last year, and found out that an awful lot of things have caffeine in - not just green tea (which I hadn't known about previously, but yes, it's the same amount as black tea), but also most decaffeinated drinks actually contain caffeine.

A test on Starbucks decaff espressos (someone tell me the point of a decaff espresso?!) found up to 16mg of caffeine per shot. Most brewed decaff (filter) contained 12-13mg per cup. So the average decaff latte (containing 2 shots), or large mug of filter decaff could easily have 30mg - same as a can of coca-cola.

Anyone having 8 mugs of decaff a day at work could therefore be consuming almost 250mg of caffeine whilst thinking their intake was zero.



Anyway, 7 weeks without caffeine/alcohol meant I tasted a lot of herbal teas. Here are some ideas for those of you wanting to go caffeine-free, other than the usual herb tea suspects:

1) Most fruit teas smell like ribena and taste like dishwater. Bleurgh. However, fruit cordials are much nicer - you can get grown-up ones (I think Belvoir? Also a Cotswolds organic one, can't remember brand), bit like Ribena but better and less sweet, in the soft drinks aisle at the supermarket.

2) Turkish apple tea comes as a powder and is better than fruit teabags. You can get it at some supermarkets, but most health food shops also stock it. Beware - all the Turkish people I know add sugar to it, but it has quite a lot already in!

3) Redbush/Rooiboos tea is naturally caffeine-free, and tastes more substantial (if you know what I mean) than herbal tea. Also, at least one brand does a Rooiboos Early Grey tea, which is really good - for those Earl Grey drinkers out there, this is how to get your tea fix without the caffeine.

4) My new favourite is Mountain Honeybush tea - it's lighter, but has a warm taste.

5) Dr Stuart's botanical teas are also good (some big supermarkets stock them, otherwise it's the health food shop) - but I did just notice that the 'Skin Purify' one contains red clover, which is one of those herbs which supposedly has an effect on female hormones. I read somewhere that it mimics oestrogen (guess that's why it would be used for skin problems) but not sure if that's what you want in the 2ww. I'm guessing if the quantities aren't enough to counteract the progesterone of the luteal phase, they're also not enough to have an impact on your skin...

If anyone else has any ideas for decaff drinks, please post them!
 
i wouldnt worry about it, i drank coffee and had booze efore i realised i was preggers. doc said that nothing passes to bubs till 5 weeks

Best thing is to relax, i'd given up TTC and it happend on a one chance salon night as sex was the last thing on my mind and i was suffering from a bone virus (not boner virus!!)
 
Oh, no :( . Green tea has a lot of caffeine too??? :shock:
I was prepared to give up coffee and black tea altogether but what am I going to do now? The only hot drink I like is green tea. Can't stand the red tea, or the fruit infusions, or camomile tea or mint tea (also caffeine free for those of you who do like them, by the way!!).

As for the decaf stuff, to be honest I wouldn't worry too much. Decaff still has got some caffeine (in the same way that skimmed milk still has SOME fat and alcohol free beer has got SOME alcohol). But it's only a very tiny amount, so I wouldn't give up decaf altogether if you are drinking it.

Just my opinion, obviously...
 
PinkPunch said:
How good / bad is green tea??

There is very little caffeine in green tea, nowhere near as much as coffee and its also full of anti-oxidants which are supposed to be good for ensuring a healthy egg and embryo. :D
 
Caffeine Content Comparisons
The following is the approximate caffeine content of various beverages Milligrams of Caffeine

Coffee (5 oz. cup/small cup=145ml) 80
Cola (can) 45
Black Tea (one tea bag) 40
Green Tea (one tea bag) 20
White Tea (one tea bag) 15
Decaf Tea (one tea bag) 2
Herbal Tea (one tea bag) 0
*Assumes 8 ounces of water per tea bag (average size mug)

(although these values do differ slightly from my original post)
 

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