Short Rant about my doc....

W

wendymin72

Cathlete
Okay, so my doc had suggested I avoid artificial sweeteners except for maybe splenda if I HAD to have it. So...I have been doing my best to avoid them...I gave up my yogurts which had them and other lower fat or fat free foods that added them for flavor. Well, I have been taking tums since day 1 for heartburn (ok by doc) and guess what!?!? I popped one in my mouth last night and started reading the label and wouldn't ya know it---SUCRALOSE is an ingredient!?!?!? GRRRRR! I'm not truly afraid that I have done any harm as I am sure the amounts I have ingested are minimal as I only take one tums at a time and not even once a day but it just irritates me that the doc says stay away from this and then says it's ok to take a medicine with that in it! DUH!

Ok, I'm done venting now! Thanks for hearing me out, ladies!:p :D

~Wendy~

I smoked my last cigarette on March 17, 2004 at 10:00 pm!

http://lilypie.com/days/050519/1/0/1/-5/.png[/img]
EDD: 05/19/05
 
Doctors truly are something! I think they contradict themselves a lot without realizing it.

I fully understand your concerns. I don't think you will need to worry much about the sucralose in your Tums. There couldn't be much in there to begin with.

To help put your mind at ease, I had to use artificial sweeteners every day with my first pregnancy due to being borderline with gestatonal diabetes. I was told to use them and not sugar by the nutritionist. My Obgyn never contradicted her either. There have not been any side effects noticed from using them while pregnant with DS. On the contrary I hear from a lot of his teachers that he is very bright and advanced for his age, so I'm pretty sure it has not harmed him.

I hope this reassurance has helped settle your fears.

Have a great day!
 
Thanks for the info Kristi!

I am not perfect and I KNOW I have not done everything EXACTLY "by the book" during my pregnancy...I AM human after all.;-) So I'm not overly paranoid about anything I've done affecting my baby's health or I wouldn't have done those things...

There is so much that they say is a potential harm to an unborn child and no matter how hard most of us try to avoid these things, I'm sure we make "mistakes" every day of our pregnancies and don't even realize it and then have perfectly normal, happy, healthy babies anyway!

Gosh, I wish I were pregnant 30-40-50 years ago when "ignorance was bliss". No one knew any better so they didn't worry about anything like we worry about today...ya know what I mean? But I'm sure also that some of the "dangers" today didn't exist back then...like, for example, when did artificial sweeteners come into existance? Were they even around back then? But even if they were I'm sure no one thought to be concerned about the affects it could have on an unborn child...

Thanks again.

~Wendy~

I smoked my last cigarette on March 17, 2004 at 10:00 pm!

http://lilypie.com/days/050519/1/0/1/-5/.png[/img]
EDD: 05/19/05
 
Wendy,

When my mom was pregnant with her babies 30-40 years ago, she was told that she should only gain 15 pounds through her whole pregnancy. She worried about it all the time. She did really well keeping her weight down having 5 kids in 8 years, but she said that she was always worried about weight gain during pregnancy and not putting on more than 15 pounds. Plus back then bottle feeding was the "in" thing to do, so then she had to worry about what her friends would say when she breastfed.......blah blah blah...so I think women in every generation have had something or other to worry about or more rightly...obsess about!:)
 
wendy..
i truly wouldn't worry so much about that. it's so sad, that every time pregnant ladies turn around they are telling us don't do that, don't do this, this is now bad for your bad. last night dh and i were watching the news and their was a woman on their that used to be a prositute well, she had gotten pg and didn't even know it til her 7 month. she said she had her period for the firs 5 months and then the last two she was afraid to get tested. well at 7 months she tested positive. she said she didn't want the baby so she tried everything she could to make herself (gasp) miscarry. anyway she did not miscarry and today she has a healthy child....just goes to show it's not always about what we do/don't eat, etc...it's God's will and the baby's tenacity:)
 
Only 15 pounds weight gain?! Wow! My mom always said that she "dieted" when she was pregnant, but I had no idea. No wonder I only weighed 6 1/2 pounds. And back then she drank and smoked too! So many of our mothers did that it's a wonder that we are all able to spell and count. :)
 
I guess the moral of the story is that we have to pick and choose what we listen to, don't listen to, worry about & don't worry about. If we don't do this we will drive ourselves insane!!:)

~Wendy~

I smoked my last cigarette on March 17, 2004 at 10:00 pm!

http://lilypie.com/days/050519/1/0/1/-5/.png[/img]
EDD: 05/19/05
 
Yep one time it is DON"T do this but then in a bit it is ok. I will never understand that. Like for instance, when I was pregnant w/my son I received a list of what types of medications I could take during pregnancy and Pepcid was listed as acceptable. Well this time around it was taken off the list. Go figure. I took a lot of Pepcid my last trimester and my son was born just fine.

I don't think that the little bit of sucralose in tums should be anything to worry about. I accidently bought a pack of gum that I didn't know was sugarfree. After chewing it I thought it tasted strange and sure enough it has artifical sweetener in it. I'm not going to let that worry me.
 
I understand your frustration. Sucralose is considered safe. The American Dietetic Association, American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics have declared even aspartame safe for use during pregnancy. I certainly see no harm in being cautious, and there are probably some of you reading this whose doctors, midwives, etc. have advised against the use of such artifical chemicals but this is not the current consensus.

I believe that the more natural our foods the better for baby and mom. With that said, I have delivered two perfectly healthy aspartame, sucralose, & caffeine babies. I was a heavy aspartame & caffeine user. I am NOT advocating the use of artificial sweeteners, but I hope this eases your mind. :)

Wow Wendy, only 41 days!!!!!! I can't wait to see your lil' one! :)

Take care!
 
Yes, "recommendations" for pregnant women are in constant flux. With respect to medications, my understanding is that most are banned simply because there hasn't been any research on that particular drug and its effects on pregnancy. There may well be many meds that are okay for us to take, but no one's done the research, so they don't recommend the drug.

I have a kitchen science book that talks about sucralose. It is unlike other artificial sweeteners in that it is not a man-made chemical, but is a by-product created during the process of refining sugar plants. It is a part of the sugar plant, but is used as sugar substitute because it goes through our systems undigested; kind of like the fiber of the sugar world. It's considered quite safe for pregnant women, although many people still like to take a conservative approach and avoid it during pregnancy, saying there haven't been any long-term studies done yet that confirm its safety. So, I guess what I'm saying is the odds are very good that ingesting sucralose will not harm you or the baby, particularly in such minute doses as are in a tums tablet.

I continue to eat feta cheese, have hot baths, and do not avoid the kitty litter. For shame!


Cheers,
Sandra;)
 
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