(Closed) Questionable foods in pregnancy

  • lisianthus
  • 9 years ago

Every preganancy don’t is something that I’ve considered from a perspective of why is it risky and what are the changes of being a victim of that risk. Most guidelines are from a place of “better safe than sorry” or “why risk it?” even though the risk is so small and takes critical thinking out of the equation.

1. the amount of alcohol in penne a la vodka is not above the threshold that is going to cause FAS. My doc and I had the alcohol talk because I have no issue with a sip of my husbands beer or wine to taste what he’s tasting. He gave me the “no amount is safe” followed by “personally, I don’t think a sip or two is the cause of FAS. My best guess is that it is multiple servings of alcohol on many occasions, but I will tell you to have none”. Heck, kefir and fruit juice have small amounts of alcohol. Is the tiny amount of alcohol in kefir really enough of a risk to outweight the benefits of being the only source of protein that I could stomach for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy? I’d be more concerned about the amount of sugar I would have consumed without having kefir to provide my nutrition. Coca Cola or kefir with a possible 1% alcohol. I lean toward thinking the kefir is better for my growing baby.

2. cooked is fine regardless. The raw milk cheese thing is overhyped. It’s illegal to sell unaged raw milk cheese in the U.S. anyway. Unaged raw milk cheese is not going to be soft. You really have to seek out soft, raw milk cheese and it’s “wink wink, nudge nudge not sold for human consumption”. Listeria shows up in the strangest places. I stay updated on food recalls and outbreaks. This seems a lot more practical of an approach.

3. See 1.

I’d ask your doctor. This is entirely my opinion from a perspective where I wasn’t willing to give up my body to a bunch of guidelines that were presented in pregnancy books without citing strong evidence. That said, practical safety measures like a rear-facing carseat in a middle seat, pertussis vaccinations for caretakers/visitors and back sleeping on a firm surface are non-negotiable for my baby when he comes along. There’s good data for those safety measures.