"Issues" with food

Hi ladies, I'm hoping some of you can help me, or at least tell me I'm not the only one!

Thus far in my pregnancy I have had NO food aversions, my appetite is somewhat normal and I've had very little m/s. However... I have 'issues' with eating food that I haven't prepared myself.

I'm deathly afraid of toxioplasmosis and lysteria, so when I eat out at a restaurant or at a shopping centre, I take AGES to pick what I want, and even then, I only pick at the food.

We have many social engagements coming up, as well as the fact that I need to actually LEAVE the house once in a while around meal times, so I don't know what to do.

I really didn't think I had a problem until we went to stay with my inlaws last week for a few days. Everytime we had a meal, I would pick around it. When MIL questioned me, I explained what i couldn't eat and she practically rolled her eyes and told me to relax. But I SAW that she didn't wash the salad greens and the chicken was COLD and leftover from the day before.

Yesterday when we were at a food court in a shopping centre and I couldn't find anything I was 'allowed' to eat. It was so difficult and I was STARVING!

My DH is happy that I'm careful, but is always worried that I don't eat enough when we're out and about.

HELP ME!! Or tell me you do it too!!

dont worry hun. I was EXACTLY the same. I wouldnt even drink a glass of water that someone gave me.

As for going out.. go armed hun. Take your hand bag with little munchies, nuts etc. Even a vegemite sandwich.


As for the MIL's food, the chicken was cold??? go and heat it up... i reheated (like killed lol) all the food i was given at someones house.

When u go out, u cant pretty much eat anything. Milkbar.. potatoe cakes.. dim sims, chips.. anything really. Restaurant.. there are so many selections, i usually steered clear of fish coz i didnt know much about it. If its cooked throughly, 99.99% chance its just fine. Lysteria is usually found in uncooked chicken (i think).

As u get further along u will feel more comfortable with eating 'other'foods.

toxioplasmosis ..... if u have had a cat in your house thoughout ur life, chances are u have already caught this and to my knowledge u cant catch it again.. Good thing to steer clear of cat poo (litter tray) tho.

When your out and about, try soup or something at a cafe maybe? A cheese sandwich should be ok (boring I know). I ate mcdonalds last time (just the cheeseburgers with no salad) or else wok in a box maybe as its cooked fresh while you wait. Alot of jacket potato places do baked beans - they'll open a can and heat them up there and then too so they've not been sitting around like other toppings. Restaurants you should be fine - just get veg instead of salad. As long as the food is served piping hot you will be fine. But in the end, there's always cake, cake and oh cake! ice cream is ok except the soft serve stuff too. And I think pizza again as long as its pipping hot.

As for the mother in law, I used to get the comments "when I was pg, we ate all this coz we didn't know and they turned out fine" my reply was that I'm such a worried wort that if anything went wrong, at least if I had done everything right, then I coudln't blame myself. Get your DH on board too - my DH was great for saying to his mum when he was inviting ourselves along for tea, what are you cooking, sam can't have that, etc.

Good luck!

I am absolutely the same. Will be until the day bubs arrives, then I get to worry about what goes through the breast milk. :rolleyes:

My DS was born with congenital heart disease and while I KNOW this wasnt caused by anything I did, (and I was just as obsessive about food then too) just the thought that I could harm my baby by doing something like choosing the wrong food is all the stimulus I need to keep being picky.

I get really frustrated at how small my choices are - I often just pack a vegimite sanga and some fruit and nuts when I go shopping now. BUT I know that I am doing what I need to do for this bub.

You know what freaks me out?? When I ask for things to be zapped in the microwave (ie Asian (veg only) noodles at a food court) and when I am asked why I say I am pg and need to see my food hot; then the ask why and so I say listeria and (this is the bit that blows me away) the people working in the food shops dont know what that is!!! How can that be safe if they dont even know how to aviod it?? :wall:

Stick with your determination to keep your bub safe - nothing worse than mother guilt if something goes wrong.

TBH the list of foods that you shouldn't eat is actually quite small. Aside from cutting out the foods that have a listeria risk - some cheeses, cold meat from the deli, the roast chickens from the deli, deli salads, soft serve ice cream, raw egg and smoked meats like salmon - there is very little that you can't eat. .

A lot of people don't know what listeria is (I didn't before I got pregnant with my first baby), because it generally is not dangerous in everyday life - you can get it and not even know because often it can be asymptomatic and doesn't affect you unless you are pregnant. That is not to say that people who work in food service shouldn't practice safe food handling, but the actual risk of contracting listeria is very low. The only food at a restaurant I would stay away from is buffet food - like all you can eat, and maybe chicken dishes and salads if you want to be extra careful.

Thanks for your replies!

Rommy's mummy - I do the same - ask for thinks to be zapped. I asked a girl yesterday to zap a quiche for me so that it was piping hot and she looked at me blankly and said 'we normally serve it cold'.. I finally got my hot quiche and it was still cold on the inside.. sigh.. was not even worth taking it back.

Bon - i know that i'm probably overreacting, but i still can;t shake the paranoia. i am choosing to be careful because i don't want to harm my baby.

Thanks to all the other suggestions.. i'll be packing a vegemite sandwich and plenty of nuts and crackers from now on.. but sometimes you want something more substantial don't you? do you think think that something like oportos would be ok as they cook on request and it's fresh chicken? i always order no mayo and no lettuce anyway.. so maybe this would be fine.. hmmmm... now i have a craving!

I don't think you are overreacting, I just got the impression that it was bothering you because you are finding it hard to eat food when you are out and about. But if you are happy with that, that's fine. I just wanted to point out that the risk of harming your baby with food is very low, but of course there is nothing wrong with being careful.

bon - yeah.. i did ask for help didn't i? :redface: oh, i don't know... i guess i just wanted everyone to say "yes! you're right!" but thank you so much for your response. i'm a big statistic person, so i might have to google around and see if i can find a nice LOW number to say it's hardly any risk at all :rolleyes:

ah, i'm going to get there one way or another!

oh i forgot to add. i ate macca's...lotsa macca's. Just no thick shakes and no chicken and i sussed it all out before eating.