November 2011 Moms
My doctor told me to drink coffee
I had a doctor appointment this past Friday, and I mentioned that I had been having headaches off an on for the past week and a half. She suggested that I drink coffee semi-regularly and couple it with acetaminophen when a headache strikes. She explained the some of the latest data coming in is showing that small amounts of caffeine, even consumed on a daily basis, is quite benign during pregnancy. I'd read pretty much the same thing but thought I would just cut it out completely when I started TTC. Come to find out it's actually doctor-recommended. Anyone else's doctor say the same thing?
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Re: My doctor told me to drink coffee
I always like what my doc says regarding most everything. "You're pregnant...that doesn't mean your life is over. Keep living and stay within moderation."
He even spells out how much caffeine is "ok". 300mg is the upper limit. My caffeine intake pre-pregnancy was nowhere near that. I have some days where I can't fathom drinking a caffeinated beverage and other days where if I didn't drink caffeine, I wouldn't drink. I am doing diluted things on those days, though, like half-caffeinated iced tea. Half caffeine half decaf, that is.
Early on I was doing more of a 'don't drink caffeine' thing but then I found that caffeine actually helped me with morning sickness. I'm cognizant of my intake, but I'm not doing a hard and fast "NO caffeine" - but neither am I doing "ONLY caffeine". It's all about moderation.
When I first met with my doctor, she said "If you're a coffee drinker, scale back to a cup or two a day - learn the caffeine content on your usual drinks - keep it below 200mg (300mg max) and you'll be fine".
So that's what I've done and continue to do. I get awful headaches if I go completely without - somedays all I need is like 3/4 of a cup.
I wasn't aware coffee can trigger migraines. Now that I am more headache-prone, I will definitely need to watch it.
They (my ob's office) told me I could drink it in moderation and only like 100-300mg or something like that. I decided to cut it out for myself just to be good. Then Dunkin Donuts the other day gave me a medium regular iced coffee instead of a decaf. I had the jitters ALL day, and the baby had them too, because I felt a lot of flutters that day.