Freaking out...ate a TON of albacore tuna

Kat_Bride

Hi girls,

I ate a TON of albacore tuna (the tuna that is highest in mercury) in the month I got pregnant, and the month right before.  We're talking 3-4 albacore tuna sandwiches from Panera per week.  Tuna almost every other day or so for TWO months in a row.  I told my midwife at my first appointment, and she just brushed it off.  I haven't eaten tuna again since I was 5 weeks 4 days.  Could it be possible I have too high mercury levels?  Everything I've read said there could be dire consequences for a developing fetus, and that it takes a long time to rid the body of excess mercury.  I am crushed and terrified, and can't even really enjoy my pregnancy because of the fear that something is wrong.          

memelou10

Dang, you really like tuna!  I think if your doctor says it ok and no worries than you'll be fine.

mchupie

Calm down.  There's nothing you can do at this point and it seems like your midwife isn't concerned.  I just wouldn't eat any more.

t.bird

you're fine. i pretty promise

honey740

ask for a mercury test if you are that worried. It's really the only way you'll know for sure. 

MrsPreK

mchupie:

Calm down.  There's nothing you can do at this point and it seems like your midwife isn't concerned.  I just wouldn't eat any more.

This. It's already done and over with. Not much you can do now and I'm sure your baby is o.k.

LadySmith08

Do you know how much I drank the week before I found out.  You and your baby will be fine.

Kat_Bride

LadySmith08:

Do you know how much I drank the week before I found out.  You and your baby will be fine.

But drinking and mercury poisoning are different.  Methylmercury poisoning is dire.  I've read that these are the implications: possible deafness/blindness, mental retardation, brain damage. 

Thanks for trying to reassure me girls. 

SBear12

I totally understand the fears over that kind of stuff. I had allll sorts of simimlar worries with pregnancy #1, and I'm sure they'll happen again with #2. Especially because these crazy hormones intensify any irrational fears/thoughts.

But ultimately, all this happened while your baby wasn't even yet sharing a bloodstream with you. And many pregnant women in many countries eat fish as a staple of their diet throughout their pregnancies, and have perfectly healthy babies. Are their potential risks? Sure. But there are potential risks to everything. Just be conservative in your fish intake throughout the rest of your pregnancy to keep your mind at ease, and no worries about what you've already had. Your baby will be okay.

alisonjoy80

You ate most of it before it would have gone to the baby, so I think you're fine. Just cut down now.

KRISTA555

I'm sure you're fine.

You need to *try* to get a grip on the worry and fear now, at the beginning of your pregnancy.  I know it's easier said than done,  but fear and worry don't help anything.  

If it weren't the tuna, you would be finding something else to be worried about. So your best bet is to chill out.  You'll have a much more enjoyable pregnancy if you do.   You'll still worry most likely,  but now is the time to get a grip on it.  Even after LO is born, you'll still be tempted to worry.

8yearslater

My problem with the whole pregnancy industry is that we're usually given just simple do's and don't, as if knowing WHY is too much for our feeble female brain.  I've always insisted on knowing WHY so that I can make informed choices.

Fortunately, I work in environmental sciences. I'm also a PITA to doctors because I keep asking WHY until I get an answer that explains the situation clearly for me.

Mercury is an environmental toxin that bioaccumulates. That means that it stays put in your body.  This is why big, long-lived fish like tuna have more mercury-- they eat more little fish and eat more of them over their lifetimes than smaller fish like sardines.

Mercury isn't like drinking-- its crossing of the placenta isn't as much a problem as how much mercury you have stored in your body from mercury exposure.  If you are an employee in heavy industries where mercury is used in processing, or you assess hazardous waste dumps (like I used to do), you need to be concerned about your existing levels of mercury. (Although, ideally, you took the right precautions to limit your exposure.)

Mercury is known to be bad stuff. The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland was based on real men who made hats in Victorian England. Mercury, the silver liquid, was used in processing the felts for the hats.  These men would get the actual liquid on their hands all day long.  Many of them went insane because of the neurological effects of the poisoning.  Keep in mind that the stuff that's in tuna can't even be measured in a way that you could see. If you rendered all of the mercury out of a tuna, it would probably be smaller than a tiny drop, and that's spread along the whole gigantic fish.  Each crazy hatter guy was dunking his hands in 1000 times that much stuff EVERY SINGLE DAY!

So if you ate tuna, it's not such a horrible thing.  The idea is not to add to what you already have stored in your body.  Every person in an industrialized country has some level of mercury in their body.  In places where environmental regulations aren't so good, people get more exposure because it settles in the soil. 

It takes ALOT of mercury taken in by eating ALOT of contaminated food for A LONG TIME for mercury poisoning to become a problem.  The USDA and FDA and National Institutes of Health all say that the benefits of eating fish, even tuna, far outweigh the limited risk of mercury poisoning or adverse effects on a developing baby.  Babies who aren't exposed to enough Omega-3s have worse brain development than babies whose mothers ate tuna and got exposed to some mercury. 

So if you're concerned, just don't eat tuna for a while.  Don't add to whatever you've got stored, but don't freak out about what's happened before.  The risks are overblown so that we pay attention.  You paid attention. That's good.

When I found out I was pregnant, I adopted sardines as my new pals.  If you prepare them the way you would tuna in tuna salad, they taste almost the same. Since sardines are little fish, they have almost no mercury.  They're also one of the most sustainable fish out there, so you're doing good by the environment by choosing them over tuna.  They also have more vitamin D as tuna and the same Omega-3 benefits.

 

bridetobein05

I think you are okay- I drank like a fish a few days before my BFP.  Many people say that at that stage of pregnancy you really aren't sharing much with the baby.  Your baby will be fine- trust me I used to work with women who were pregnant using drugs and alcohol.  you would be surprised how resilient babies are.

blondek8

LadySmith08:

Do you know how much I drank the week before I found out.  You and your baby will be fine.

Ditto. Chill out on the tuna.