convince me to take the pregnancy "don't eat's" seriously

[Anonymous]

This is my second and I just cannot convince myself not to eat deli meat, tuna, soft cheese, etc.

Honestly, how bad could it REALLY be? How many people do you ACTUALLY know that got listeria?

[Anonymous]

I ate all of these foods daily throughout my three pregnancies. Kids are teens now and they are alive, I think.

[Anonymous]

I ate deli meat just heated it up first. Limited tuna to once a week if I really wanted it. Not sure about soft cheeses (I don’t eat blue cheeses normally so that wasn’t an issue.) Salads were honestly my biggest concern because of all the recent lettuce issues. I avoided prepackaged salad kits or washed them if I really wanted one.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who got listeria....from lettuce. She and baby were fine.

[Anonymous]

I’m pregnant with my second and I feel the same way. The only food I’m avoiding is raw oysters and pre-cut fruit. Haven’t had sushi yet but I’m not ruling it out.

[Anonymous]

Most people don’t get it, but if you do, it can be devastating to your pregnancy and there’s basically nothing you can do after you catch it to prevent harm to your baby. It’s up to you whether it’s a risk you’re willing to take.

[Anonymous]

Seems crazy to ignore known risks, even if they are not common. I mean, I don't know anyone who has had listeria, but nor do I want to be that person who loses their baby because of it:

"Pregnant women are 18 times more likely to get listeriosis than other healthy adults, and 16 to 27% of all L. monocytogenes infections are in pregnant women. Scientists don’t know why pregnant women are so susceptible to the disease. It usually affects pregnant women who are healthy and don’t have other risk factors....
While listeriosis in the mother is mild, infection in the fetus and newborn can be severe. Listeriosis can develop at any time during pregnancy, and the disease causes miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, and life-threatening infection of the newborn, such as a blood infection, respiratory distress or pneumonia, and meningitis (inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord). Listeriosis is one of the most common causes of meningitis in newborns.

With a mortality rate of 20 to 30%, newborns suffer the most serious consequences of listeriosis. They have either early- or late-onset disease depending on when their symptoms first appear."

https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/get-facts-about-listeria#pregnant

[Anonymous]

How bad could it be? You could get sick and lose the baby. How likely is it? Not at all likely. I would definitely avoid queso fresco and other unpasteurized soft cheese, but other than that a lot of the outbreaks have been random items that it is more bad luck than anything else (cantaloupe, bag salad, frozen vegetables, celery, peaches, hummus, etc).

[Anonymous]

Read Expecting Better by Emily Oster. It gets into all of this. The reason there are so many rules for pregnant women is because we have become very bad at assessing risk when it comes to pregnancy. They don't actually study any of this stuff (it would be hard to do so because what's your control group?), so they just keep adding to the list of things that pregnant women "shouldn't" do because that's easier.

I avoided deli meat, sushi, and soft cheese while I was pregnant, though that was largely about being incredibly nauseous all the time and not wanting to trigger it. I [GASP] often had a few sips of wine or beer when I was pregnant because it helped with digestion. People would act like I had pulled out a crack pipe and started smoking it at dinner. People are insane about this stuff, and the less familiarity they have with actual pregnancy, the more insane they are. Ignore them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people don’t get it, but if you do, it can be devastating to your pregnancy and there’s basically nothing you can do after you catch it to prevent harm to your baby. It’s up to you whether it’s a risk you’re willing to take.

Not true, you can take antibiotics and the baby should be fine if you catch and treat it.

[Anonymous]

My dr said the only food you need to avoid is alcohol and, even that, an occasional glass of wine was ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people don’t get it, but if you do, it can be devastating to your pregnancy and there’s basically nothing you can do after you catch it to prevent harm to your baby. It’s up to you whether it’s a risk you’re willing to take.

Not true, you can take antibiotics and the baby should be fine if you catch and treat it.

Yes, IF you catch it: "Diagnosing listeriosis in pregnant women is difficult because they usually don’t have the gastrointestinal symptoms—such as vomiting and diarrhea—that are normally seen with a foodborne illness. The most common, and sometimes only, symptom of listeriosis in pregnant women is fever."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read Expecting Better by Emily Oster. It gets into all of this. The reason there are so many rules for pregnant women is because we have become very bad at assessing risk when it comes to pregnancy. They don't actually study any of this stuff (it would be hard to do so because what's your control group?), so they just keep adding to the list of things that pregnant women "shouldn't" do because that's easier.

I avoided deli meat, sushi, and soft cheese while I was pregnant, though that was largely about being incredibly nauseous all the time and not wanting to trigger it. I [GASP] often had a few sips of wine or beer when I was pregnant because it helped with digestion. People would act like I had pulled out a crack pipe and started smoking it at dinner. People are insane about this stuff, and the less familiarity they have with actual pregnancy, the more insane they are. Ignore them.

That is a really good book, and the list does keep growing and growing.

With my first I was so worried about everything. I wanted a tuna sandwich so badly! With #2 I relaxed a lot. Had a weekly tuna sub, it was heavenly. Interestingly that kid loves tuna, kid #1 gags at even the thought of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is my second and I just cannot convince myself not to eat deli meat, tuna, soft cheese, etc.

Honestly, how bad could it REALLY be? How many people do you ACTUALLY know that got listeria?

I ate all of them, it’s not bad. The chances if you getting sick by eating one of those is less than the chance of you getting into a car accident. You don’t stop riding or driving cars just because you’re pregnant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Read Expecting Better by Emily Oster. It gets into all of this. The reason there are so many rules for pregnant women is because we have become very bad at assessing risk when it comes to pregnancy. They don't actually study any of this stuff (it would be hard to do so because what's your control group?), so they just keep adding to the list of things that pregnant women "shouldn't" do because that's easier.

I avoided deli meat, sushi, and soft cheese while I was pregnant, though that was largely about being incredibly nauseous all the time and not wanting to trigger it. I [GASP] often had a few sips of wine or beer when I was pregnant because it helped with digestion. People would act like I had pulled out a crack pipe and started smoking it at dinner. People are insane about this stuff, and the less familiarity they have with actual pregnancy, the more insane they are. Ignore them.

That is a really good book, and the list does keep growing and growing.

With my first I was so worried about everything. I wanted a tuna sandwich so badly! With #2 I relaxed a lot. Had a weekly tuna sub, it was heavenly. Interestingly that kid loves tuna, kid #1 gags at even the thought of it.

+1 on Expecting Better— it lets you assess what foods potentially pose a danger to you (and what that danger is) vs what foods potentially pose a danger to your baby. I kept eating sushi from the same place I had pre-pregnancy since I’d never once gotten ill eating there. I didn’t branch out or (the example Emily Oster gives) try gas station sushi.

Another good resource is the Royal College of Gynecology which is the UK’s ACOG. Their guidelines differ but there is research behind it and you can assess whether you feel comfortable (for example, freezing charcuterie salami before eating it rather than abstaining entirely)