Morning sickness can be bad, but food poisoning can be worse—much worse. 

Unfortunately, getting food poisoning doesn’t take much.  A couple bites or sips of something contaminated can knock even women with iron stomachs off their feet for a day or two. 

Moms-to-be are particularly susceptible to food-borne illnesses. Pregnancy weakens a woman’s immune system so her body doesn’t reject the developing fetus. So what can you do to ensure you’re getting the nutrients you need without exposing yourself and your baby to salmonella, E. coli or other bugs that cause food poisoning? 

Some women – 26%, according to a Wiser Pregnancy survey – try to avoid all toxins by adopting environmentally-friendly practices, particularly when it comes to food. 

About 77% of women who opt for an eco-friendly – or green – pregnancy consume organic products; 60% limit their consumption of animal products.  Even organic and vegetarian foods must be properly cleaned and cooked to be free of food-borne germs.

For the three-quarters of pregnant women who don’t go green, most make some dietary changes to limit their chances of picking up a nasty food bug or toxin.  Some of these steps include: 

• Avoiding unpasteurized cheeses and milk, unpasteurized juices, deli or prepared meat, raw sprouts or other foods that could harbor bacteria that could lead to food poisoning
• Washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly with running water
• Cooking eggs and meat thoroughly (no runny yolks or rare steak)
• Paying attention to food recalls (milk, spinach, grapes, ground beef and even food flavoring).  Fruit and produce are great sources of vitamins, minerals and fiber, but they can get contaminated easily.
• Avoiding fish with higher levels of mercury

Not sure if you have food poisoning? The symptoms – often severe nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea – usually come on quickly and subside in 24 to 48 hours.  If symptoms last longer than 48 hours, if you have a high fever or if you are worried about dehydration, call your doctor.

Have you gotten food poisoning while pregnant?  What are you doing to avoid getting a food-borne illness?

That scourge of new moms – bisphenol A (BPA) – is going further under the microscope.

The health effects of bisphenol A – long used to harden plastics and found in everything from baby bottles to food and beverage containers – will be the focus of new research, say U.S. health officials. Although the full effects of the chemical are not known, BPA exposure has been linked to several health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes or liver-enzyme abnormalities.

Most worrisome to new mothers is that BPA is in many baby products: bottles, sippy cups, liners of liquid baby formula containers.

But many moms-to-be are taking preventive steps early to be toxin-free. According to a WiserPregnancy survey, 26% of women focus on having an eco-friendly or “green” pregnancy, meaning that they try to avoid known or potential toxins that could harm their baby. Read the rest of this entry »