do's and donts

[Mildly]

My midwife said that rates of peanut allergies in babies have not fallen at all since the guidelines about not eating peanuts have been released. I have excema and other allergies and used to have asthma as a kid but I think it is a stupid guideline (and one that exists in the UK only). I had a snickers bar the other day and it was lovely I'm not going to eat mountains of peanuts but I am not going to avoid them either.

It's bad enough I can't have brie or stilton or other wonderful smelling cheeses (although I often stand in the cheese aisle inhaling deeply ).

 

[lea m]

I just wrote a big post and it wiped off
I hate that!
Well it was like this
I have had a sneaky mr whippy and after googling and finding that salmonella is found in the poop of animals etc then I cant see how it could collect in the machines of mr whippy if the ice cream is pasturised!
It was wrote alot better than this but now Im mad lmao!
I will keep researching and will be back in a jiffy!

 

[lea m]

Oh and I forgot too that as horrid as it may be, salmonella wont harm the baby! Obviously no one wants to be ill while pregnant but then who wants to get salmonella at any time!?

 

[lea m]

Well so far I cant find anything on any government or offical website!?
If anyone else finds something let me know but so far all I can find it on is other forums so Im wondering if its just like rumour? I will keep looking of course! I would hate to think of everyone dying for a mr Whippy and not having one when they are safe to eat!

 

[Charmed]

I have been eating nuts and I'm not going to go out of my way to avoid them. As far as I can see there is no proof that eating them increases the chance of allergies.

As for eating mussels its fine so long as they are properly cooked, remember to discard ones in shells that haven't opened.

 

[Naterjack]

TBH, i think a lot of it is a bit over the top
15 years ago you didnt even know (or it wasn't confirmed) that you were pregnant till over 8 weeks and these things didn't cause many problems

I think as long as you are careful and don't have things that are obviously bad, its not a problem
Your body tends to put you off the things you shouldn't have anyway.

 

[Beth88]

blimey i didnt know about the bath stuff
so far we have....
no cat litter
no dog poop
no home made mayo
only well cooked eggs
limit tea and coffee
no alchohol
limited tuna
no mr whippy
no brie of similar
no lambing
NO SEX (well thats what i told my hubby anyway)

HAHA!!! i hope that isnt true

 

[Tasha20]

You can't have Mr whippy, that has to be a joke

 

[maybebaby]

Well so far I cant find anything on any government or offical website!?
If anyone else finds something let me know but so far all I can find it on is other forums so Im wondering if its just like rumour? I will keep looking of course! I would hate to think of everyone dying for a mr Whippy and not having one when they are safe to eat!

I found this on the nhsdirect website, which quotes: "Avoid soft whipped ice creams (e.g. from ice cream vans and fast food restaurants) as they can contain bugs such as salmonella if the equipment is not kept clean." I guess as with everything it's down to your own personal discretion.

 

[lea m]

Well so far I cant find anything on any government or offical website!?
If anyone else finds something let me know but so far all I can find it on is other forums so Im wondering if its just like rumour? I will keep looking of course! I would hate to think of everyone dying for a mr Whippy and not having one when they are safe to eat!

I found this on the nhsdirect website, which quotes: "Avoid soft whipped ice creams (e.g. from ice cream vans and fast food restaurants) as they can contain bugs such as salmonella if the equipment is not kept clean." I guess as with everything it's down to your own personal discretion.

Oh bugger did you have to find something hahaha

 

[Julie84]

hennaly its only fresh tuna you need to limit not the canned stuff.

The NHS 'Pregnancy & Healthy Eating' leaflet says, "Limit the amount of tuna eaten, don't eat more than one tuna steak or two medium sized tins of tuna a week..."

Even the thought ot tuna makes me heave at the moment - I have had to hide all my tins at the back of the cupboard as glancing at them whilst reaching for something else was making me sick!

 

[Alicebabe]

And did you know you're not supposed to sleep with an electric blanket?

Obviously, the weather is better now but I was sleeping on one for the first couple of weeks. This is because you are not allowed to let your body temperature go over 39 degrees and also apparently, the electromagnetism in the heating coils can cause miscarriage!

Oh, you're not allowed in the jacuzzi or sauna for the same body heat reasons

 

[babydust]

julia the nhs page that lea put up says this

If you're pregnant, you should eat no more than two portions of oily fish a week. Oily fish includes fresh tuna (not canned tuna, which doesn't count as oily fish), mackerel, sardines and trout.

i dont like tuna anyway
but it just goes to show there is so much confusion, tbh i think its all BULL

 

[ninjawomble]

tbh i think its all BULL

me too

 

[skairdykat]

I'm sure our parents didn't avaoid all this stuff and we all turned out okay

If we didn't do or eat everything they told us not to we'd just have to sit on our hands for the whole 9mths

 

[abcd1234]

Grr this all pisses me off tbh! All these websites are here to scare us and get you thinking even the tiniest thing will harm your baby, if you arnt sure about anything google it and then make sure you read the evidence for it.

Listeria in cheese is present at all times, we are just more suseptable to it when pregnant, after reading info on it i have decided to continue eating brie as i love it, i only ever buy properly controlled supermarket stuff as it's mainly the none controlled of foriegn stuff that carries it.

Peanuts i also continued eating as normal, the midwife said there is NO evidence that its true, and in fact allergies have increased in babies since that advice came in, i personally dont see how you can built a tollerance to things you dont come in contact with (not sure how this applies to those with allergies in the family though, again google it)

Soft boiled eggs i also ignore, again samonella is present at all times, i dont eat lots of them and i've not been ill

I'm not about to completely ruin my meat over cooking it as again its all controlled and cooked well not full of bacteria.

Hot baths and saunas, in first trimester i may aviod them, however everyhting i have read has said that the advice to avoid them is only because of the risk of you fainting at the heat. In fact i am going to the Spa next week for my birthday, a lovely hot natural spa and YES they know i'm pregnant. I avoided the bubbles in spa baths early on as they make my back go numb and was slightly concerned about "knocking her loose" now i avoid them cos she hates them and goes in to hiding

anything i've missed....

um alcohol has evidence that it affects baby therefore i cut it out of my life, i've had a couple of glasses of wine over the pregnancy, but 1 glass took like 4 hours to drink as i just thought that if i was affected by wine she would be too.

Caffiene, i didnt read advice on it but switched to decaff as soon as i found out i was pregnant, this was because i'd been weaning myself off it and had been having really bad headaches and i didnt want my baby to come out addicted too

 

[amethyst_echidna]

Gosh I'm so glad I'm not the only one that believes most of this is a pile of old cack! I'm currently having one cup of tea per day (which is 50mg, the recommended limit is 200mg), NO alcohol except the other night when I accidentally ordered a lemon sorbet with cava in it (and hubby had half), and that's about it really! It's all about being sensible IMHO, I'm eating two portions of salmon a week because I see that as healthy, two portions of red meat (RARE - shock horror!) a week for the protein and iron, lots of spinach for iron, and plenty of pasta and rice for energy. Most of my meals consist of a salad, lean protein (chicken, fish or veggie equivalent) and pasta / rice. I'm also drinking STACKS of semi-skimmed milk - my body seems to need it - and eating plenty of high-fibre cereal (Weetabix). IMHO that's a healthy diet and other than the occasional Kit Kat or Rich Tea biscuit I'm not snacking either. Since increasing my iron intake my energy levels have increased too. I adore mussels and whilst I don't have them that often I certainly won't pass up the opportunity should a nice restaurant have them (in fact I had some in New Zealand in very early pregnancy) and I also ate sushi before I realised it was potentially dangerous. Does this make me irresponsible?! Hardly IMHO. Those who drink continuously and heavily, and those who smoke during pregnancy are the ones who are irresponsible.

AMETHYST

 

[bobby1]

This issue of what to eat and not to eat really seems to be a matter of opinion. I agree with both sides of the argument tbh. I am quite lucky, nearly all the stuff on the list I don't like anyway.

 

[xmcnickyx]

I'm sure our parents didn't avaoid all this stuff and we all turned out okay

Well my mum smoked about 40 a day and had 5 healthy kids. Not advocating smoking while pregnant or anything but there something to be said about what our parents did...

I'm quite lucky that I'm veggie, don't like cheese and don't drink anyway so I haven't really had to give up that much Although I do want a Star Bar and am still unsure about the whole peanuts thing...

 

[bobby1]

hehe, yes us veggie seem to have it easier when preggers. though recently i have been craving meat really badly. especially chicken nuggets, bacon and steak. mmmmmmmm