Panicking after eating cheese

NicsM

Hi folks, I just found out last week that I’m pregnant, very excited but still adjusting. I’m just after eating a cheese toastie with cheddar and a tiny bit of Gubbeen cheese, I’ve googled but can’t find a conclusive answer – is Gubbeen safe given that it’s semi soft and pasteurised? I’ve really freaked myself out 😥

Toots

If it's pastuerised, you're alright. A tiny bit like that in a toastie won't do any harm. Congratulations!!

NicsM

Toots wrote: »

If it's pastuerised, you're alright. A tiny bit like that in a toastie won't do any harm. Congratulations!!

Thank you!! Still feeling in shock at times but thank god for boards ❤️

iamwhoiam

This is a good site for foods allowed

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/foods-to-avoid-pregnant/


Congratulations !!!

emeldc

Pity it's not on Google. I'm sure you'll find someone on here that nearly died from it :rolleyes:

looksee

Oh for heavens sake, your blood-pressure raising panic is far worse than a bit of cheese. Just calm down and enjoy your pregnancy. It is generally advised that some foods and drinks are less advisable than others. It does not mean that eating or drinking a small amount of one of them is going to cause harm to your pregnancy.

I was fortunate in that I was pregnant long before any of this kind of information was available or shared, I had no pre-natal attention, apart from establishing that I was pregnant, for my first two (I was moving between Africa and UK) and probably did all kinds of things I should not have, I had two perfectly healthy babies and no problems. It is possible to be too uptight about possible consequences.

Dial Hard

looksee wrote:

It is possible to be too uptight about possible consequences.

I've known pregnant women refuse to eat Philadelphia because it's soft *rolly eyes* It really is unreal the amount of scaremongering that goes on around pregnancy.

Loveinapril

Early pregnancy can be a terrifying time, especially on the first baby.

Congratulations OP!

Day Lewin

I've seen so many scares come and go!

That being said, the"unpasteurised soft cheeses" thing really may have reduced the incidence of Listeria among pregnant women, a rare enough infection that can - in about one-fifth of cases - be harmful to the baby.

As you can see, the risk is pretty small (even if the cheese had been unpasteurised): so please do not worry.

Honestly, I had my babies before most of these things were known: we were warned against eating green potatoes, since at the time this was considered to be a possible risk for neural tube defects.
They didn't know then that the culprit was lack of folic acid: I don't know if the green-potatoes warning has since been stood down!

Things like liver pate and black pudding were warmly recommended to us, for the iron; and now they're on the naughty list, - or were, last time I looked.

I drank an occasional drink of alcohol, and I smoked very moderately. Sprogs are all fine, and clever with it. PhD's and whatnot, smart-alecs.

Not to defend the indefensible, but to reassure you that women have been having babies for millions of years; and now we live in a well-informed, well-nourished, clean world. Worrying is natural but it really doesn't help :-)

Put your feet up and sit easy!

cyning

Once it’s pasteurized you are fine. Soft cheeses like Brie and goats cheese are fine to eat once cooked.

No liver/pate because of high vitamin a.

No undercooked meat. No Pepperoni, salami etc unless cooked. Limit tuna and caffeine.

Really the list of things to avoid is quite small: I follow the NHS advice.

In saying all that, early pregnancy and particularly a first pregnancy left me a ball of nerves! So don’t feel bad for worrying, just know where to go to ask if you are worried or nervous: the NHS website or HSE one tend to be better than the American ones where advice can be different.

looksee

cyning wrote: »

In saying all that, early pregnancy and particularly a first pregnancy left me a ball of nerves! So don’t feel bad for worrying, just know where to go to ask if you are worried or nervous: the NHS website or HSE one tend to be better than the American ones where advice can be different.

Do you honestly think that being 'a ball of nerves' was good for your pregnancy? You will only get into that state if you allow yourself to worry about every notion that is put forward as damaging. If you are actively looking for things to worry about, like the op, then you will be in a state of nervous decline for your whole pregnancy. Would it not be a better approach to say 'well it might not be considered a good idea but its done now and nothing I can do about it. Move on.'

scarepanda

looksee wrote:

Do you honestly think that being 'a ball of nerves' was good for your pregnancy? You will only get into that state if you allow yourself to worry about every notion that is put forward as damaging. If you are actively looking for things to worry about, like the op, then you will be in a state of nervous decline for your whole pregnancy. Would it not be a better approach to say 'well it might not be considered a good idea but its done now and nothing I can do about it. Move on.'

Hindsight and experience are a wonderful thing!

angeldelight

looksee wrote: »

Do you honestly think that being 'a ball of nerves' was good for your pregnancy? You will only get into that state if you allow yourself to worry about every notion that is put forward as damaging. If you are actively looking for things to worry about, like the op, then you will be in a state of nervous decline for your whole pregnancy. Would it not be a better approach to say 'well it might not be considered a good idea but its done now and nothing I can do about it. Move on.'

Do you honestly think that when you're in that panicked state and nervous about every little thing that someone saying "move on" actually helps? It's like someone telling you to cheer up when you're having a bad day.. a little bit of empathy goes a long way

cyning

looksee wrote: »

Do you honestly think that being 'a ball of nerves' was good for your pregnancy? You will only get into that state if you allow yourself to worry about every notion that is put forward as damaging. If you are actively looking for things to worry about, like the op, then you will be in a state of nervous decline for your whole pregnancy. Would it not be a better approach to say 'well it might not be considered a good idea but its done now and nothing I can do about it. Move on.'

If you have a difficult pregnancy or an unplanned pregnancy or anything out of the norm, it’s not easy. Hindsight is a great thing: it’s fine for you to to be utterly dismissive of what you perceive as a totally irrational fear, but it’s not for others, which is why I suggested the NHS/HSE website. As opposed to all the apps which tend to be American where they do make a big deal out of avoiding much more. I don’t particularly like the way you phrased it at all to be honest I found it utterly dismissive. I prefer to be nice. But if you are worried coming into a pregnancy forum and discussing it is far better than non stop worrying? She isn’t actively looking for things to worry about to me, she’s worrying about something that alot of sites say is damaging in pregnancy.

And honestly the first trimester, the first pregnancy or any pregnancy can be utterly nerve wracking. Not for everyone, clearly not for you, but it is for others. And thanks for making the suggestion it’s not good for my pregnancy by the way.

Toots

Black pudding is good to eat during pregnancy, it’s high in iron. The nutritionist in the Rotunda was saying to me that 2 bits of black pudding contains all the iron you need for one day.

shesty

I always wonder how French women manage.Pate, cheeses, wine, practically raw meat, shellfish etc are part of the daily diet in many parts of France....do they get warned off that stuff too?

Wesser

Will not do you or baby any harm.
Risks of alot of these foods in pregnancy are grossly overstated.

looksee

she’s worrying about something that alot of sites say is damaging in pregnancy.

and that is where a lot of the problem lies. This is not something that 'hindsight and experience' have anything to do with (and please don't jump to conclusions about my pregnancies) its to do with having the sense to not believe everything you see on an internet site, or if you are inclined to believe it, give it a bit of thought and analysis. Social media and quasi health sites are the old wives' tales of today - generally a grain of truth in there somewhere, but usually overstated and alarmist.

cyning

shesty wrote: »

I always wonder how French women manage.Pate, cheeses, wine, practically raw meat, shellfish etc are part of the daily diet in many parts of France....do they get warned off that stuff too?

Don’t they test for toxoplasmosis in France? Having vague recollections of this from a French mum in baby group who was shocked we don’t test for it.... that if you have the antibodies you can eat rare meat etc. If not you can’t. The cheese advice is the same as here as far as I know. No idea about the pate.... shellfish advice here is fine once cooked so I’d imagine there’s is same?

Gatica

Don't know about Gubbeen cheese specifically but the advice around cheese is, it's fine if it's a hard cheese, even unpasteurised as the risk is low, if the cheese is a mould ripened type (like Camembert or Blue cheese) even if pasteurised it's better to avoid in case of presence of listeria. The same soft cheeses are fine though if cooked through.
Since you had a grilled toastie, then whatever cheese was there probably got cooked through. Even if not, the odds are still very low of there being issues with it.
A lot of advice is around avoiding something which _might_ or _could_ be harmful. So don't fret too much about it.

I'd take advice from reputable sites, like NHS, HSE ...

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/foods-to-avoid-pregnant/
https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/az/p/pregnancy-care/

Even undercooked eggs seems to be a point of disagreement. NHS has now said it's safe to eat as long as the eggs have the red stamp on it that it comes from a certified farm. How many places do you know which serve eggs from "random" farms? Most chicken farms would have strict quality/health controls in place for their chickens, so I eat poached eggs. Point is, research the info provided for and against foods or activities in pregnancy.

witchgirl26

OP the HSE and NHS websites are great. And don't worry too much. I ate microwave mussels for lunch the day before I found out I was pregnant and also drank more on a night out than I normally ever would a couple of weeks before that. 31 weeks in and everything is fine. I'm sure there's been small bits of non-recommended food in meals or sandwiches I've had too but really small amounts shouldn't cause too much problems.

seamus

Ultimately most of these food warnings are to do with the absolute worst case scenarios. Basically, "If you are really unlucky, this can go really badly, so for the sake of just not eating it for nine months, better safe than sorry".

If there was a general risk of contracting any kind of illness from consuming a food, you wouldn't be allowed sell it to the public at large.

Naturally the worry when you're pregnant is that if you've been warned off something, then it must be really, really dangerous. If you just remember that if something is normally fine for a healthy person but "not advised" for pregnant women, then you're not going to do your baby any harm by accidentally consuming a small amount of it*. Or even intentionally; many women avoid caffeine completely even though small amounts are fine.

*Obviously medication is not included in this rule of thumb!