What to eat & what not to eat

mm2299 · October 2010

I have a million questions! I don't want to tell anyone IRL since it's so early so sorry for all my questions at once. My googling seems to show that deli meat unheated and chicken salad are not ok when pregnant, so what are my options left for work if I dont' want to microwave anything?

juldar09 · October 2010

This all has me very confused too. I have heard that meat, milk, cheese, etc has to be pasturized. I checked my ham package and it didn't say pasturized and the cheese said made with pasturized milk. I didn't know WalMart, grocery stores would sell that kind of stuff that wasn't pasturized???

craftytype · October 2010

Congrats on your BFP!

Some suggestions:

Veggie and cheese sandwiches, cucumber, tomato etc.

Spinach or garden salads with hard boiled egg, veggies

Egg salad sandwiches (watch for mayo made with raw egg)

Tuna sandwiches

Good ole PB&J

Pita bread with hummus, sliced cheese, veggies with tzatiki

MidwestTexan · October 2010

I ate deli meat (unheated) and chicken salad while pregnant with DS and he turned out fine. I'm doing the same this time around.

Google lysteria...it's very rare.

Jessica0624 · October 2010

I have eaten lunch meat ( cold!) , caesar salad, soft cheese, egg batter, chicken salad with lots of mayo, and I am fine. The key is to eat things in moderation. Have you asked you doctor about all your concerns, what does he/she think? Mine has no problem with me eating anything.

mm2299 · October 2010

I actually have not received any advice from my doctor. It seems that if this was such a concern, the doctors would be warning pregnant women from the start. I kind of live on cold cuts and salads with mayo. Why are you more susceptible to lysteria when pregnant?

Turtle143 · October 2010

Best to play it safe.

Listeria can be found in unpasteurized milk, cheese like feta cheese, blue veined cheese, brie, queso fresco, queso blanco.

Deli meat slices and hot dogs: eat these but make sure they are cooked.

HTH

MrsDL · October 2010

Don't take drugs, don't drink booze, cut caffeine intake and stay away from foods that you wouldn't normally eat due to safety concerns. Lunch meats and things like hot dogs are processed and usually high in nitrates - I don't eat that stuff for those reasons - not because I think there is a high chance of getting a foodbourne illness.

You pretty much have the same chance as getting sick from high quality sushi or meat as you do from eating at a random fast food joint who employs one random worker that doesn't wash their hands after using the bathroom. Everything in moderation and you'll be fine.

Like my doctor recently said - "if something is going to happen it's going to happen, it's not from that one can of coke you drank or because you ate a sandwhich. I see women who do everything right and still can't get pregnant or miscarry and I see crack addicts that drop 12 kids out without a problem."

Try not to stress about it.

bingham101 · October 2010

I too have read to cook deli meat... I wonder if you cook it at home then put it on your sandwhich for lunch the next day? Not sure if that works. PB&J!

soon to be Mrs. Connolly · October 2010

You are urged to stay away from deli meats because they could carry listeria which could make you sick and cause you to get dehydrated. They also say to stay away from unpasterurized soft cheeses. If you need to eat deli meats, you need to heat them up to the point they are steaming. My doctors office also suggested getting a rotisseri (SP) chicken or turkey and you could make a sandwich out of that meat. You could have tuna 1 or 2 times a week, egg salad sandwich, salad, or put soup or something hot in a thermos to keep it warm till lunch time.

Eld2009 · October 2010

mm2299:
I actually have not received any advice from my doctor. It seems that if this was such a concern, the doctors would be warning pregnant women from the start. I kind of live on cold cuts and salads with mayo. Why are you more susceptible to lysteria when pregnant?

My dr. told me a pregnant woman isn't actually more susceptible to listeria, but the damage that listeria can cause can be greater. As in you actually aren't more likely to get it when pregnant, but if you do you could get sicker, and you could miscarry.

LittleEgypt · October 2010

juldar09:
This all has me very confused too. I have heard that meat, milk, cheese, etc has to be pasturized. I checked my ham package and it didn't say pasturized and the cheese said made with pasturized milk. I didn't know WalMart, grocery stores would sell that kind of stuff that wasn't pasturized???

Uh, meat isn't something that is pasteurized.

waterfall11 · October 2010

soon to be Mrs. Connolly:
You could have tuna 1 or 2 times a week, egg salad sandwich, salad, or put soup or something hot in a thermos to keep it warm till lunch time.

Seems like pretty much everything is out if you add up all the google info and different doctors. Mine said absolutely no tuna because mercury levels have been found to be higher than previously thought. That was the one article they gave me in my welcome pack.

I have been eating soups, chili and other leftovers. I have had a few things on the don't eat list but just don't make a regular habit of it.

kelly321 · October 2010

Since pregnant women's immune systems are weaker (after all, we wouldn't want our bodies rejecting the baby), we're more susceptible to falling ill with things like listeria or the flu. According to my OB, normal immune systems could fight off low doses of listeria and the person would never know it, but our immune systems have been "turned down" and can therefore be affected more easily. That doesn't mean that you will probably get listeria if you eat unpasteurized dairy products or toxoplasmosis if you eat deli meat that you haven't heated up first. But it does mean that you are in a higher risk group and that the consequences for your baby can be very serious if you do happen to have the bad luck to eat that piece of salami that was infected.

In other words, know that you have a higher risk than the rest of the population to be infected by these bacteria and make educated choices about what you eat. I personally am going to wait until after pregnancy to finally sink my teeth into a high quality mdm-rare steak, but there are plenty of women on this board who continue to eat "normally" throughout their entire pregnancy.

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