Large amount of tuna consumption before pregnancy

[SMom]

Hello. Please could I get a response from people who may have been in a similar situation or know for sure about mercury levels from food in connection with pregnancy. I'm so scared and want some accurate advice/knowledge and experience rather than a response formed from a quick search on the web because I've been searching and searching and have found every kind of answer but not specific to my situation.

I've always thought that I ate healthily, eating lots of fish, vegetables etc. and avoiding red meat. My favorite fish to eat is tuna and it's convenient tinned as it doesn't go off. I love it so much that I've eaten a can a day of it for at least 7 years. I checked and each can is 185g but contains 130g of tuna when drained. I've been eating skipjack tuna which is the smaller variety of tuna. Canned/tinned, not fresh. Skipjack tuna apparently contains 0.144 parts per million of mercury. But sometimes I would eat 2 cans if I got hungry in the evening! I will mention too because it is relevant, I am a small woman, around 105 pounds.

I am having symptoms of pregnancy after only just trying for a baby with my husband and I suddenly found out how harmful eating tuna can be so stopped immediately (if pregnant, I've only just got pregnant). But after reading I've found that mercury stays in your tissues and so could be harmful to a fetus even though I'm not eating it anymore.

I'm so scared that I could have done damage to our baby, all I've wanted to do since finding out about this is throw up. I feel so helpless.

Has any other woman eaten canned skipjack tuna every single day before pregnancy and their child develop normally without autism or any other problems? Is there anyone out there who is more intelligent than me and can set apart fact from fiction regarding my details? I think I will book a doctors appointment and maybe he can check the levels in my blood? Does the blood show exactly how much mercury you are carrying in your body that can transfer?

Thanks for any answers anyone can give me. I would love to hear real experiences, I'm very upset right now.

 

[Froslass]

Hi,

Ive never been in your situation, but Having read up on mercury content in tuna, I think you'd have to eat a lot more than just one can a day for it to build up in your system to the point it would have an effect on you.

If you limit your tuna intake, you'll probably find the placenta will make a good job of filtering out what baby does/doesn't need.

I'm not a doctor obviously, so I don't know for certain. I'd suggest you could maybe get bloods done to check levels for that sort of thing if you're really concerned. If your levels are high, I'm sure there will be some kind of detox you could try.

Good luck x


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[SMom]

Hi, thanks for your response. I know now that a person my weight is only meant to eat a couple of cans of tuna in a whole week! I'm totally off the tuna now after finding out about the damage too much mercury can do. I wont eat another can now. I want to find out if I could still damage a baby from eating a tin every single day before pregnancy (for years) though. Even though I'm not touching it now. I guess I want to hear from women who have done the same and had a healthy child. The reason I'm so upset is because if I have done wrong then the damage is basically already done as the mercury stays in your system.

*I just looked up how long mercury stays in you and found this:

"The only functions that mercury has are adverse; negatively affecting the brain and kidneys. Once in the body mercury has a half-life of ~3 days in the blood stream and a 90 day half life in other tissues (e.g. brain, kidneys, etc)."

 

[cosmicgirl]

Wow that's a lot of tuna to eat over the years! Did it not get boring?
I'm not sure you'll find anyone who has eaten as much as that but maybe you could ask your GP about it??? x