Friday, January 25, 2008

Caffeine & miscarriage

By now, pretty much everyone has heard about the new AJOG study linking caffeine to a significantly increased miscarriage rate. But also this month, a study in the Journal of Epidemiology showed no link between miscarriage & caffeine. So what should you believe?

I'm inclined to always err on the side of caution. It can't hurt to consume less caffeine - well, maybe a little. I know I'm quite fond of my Cafe Americano...but given the alternative, it's seems like an easy choice.

So if you're aiming for 200mg of caffeine per day, how does that translate? You could have around 5 cans of Diet Coke, but barely half of a tall Starbucks coffee. And I could comfortably have my beloved Americanos...visit this caffeine database for a comprehensive list.

When I was pregnant with Josh, I tried to limit myself to one caffeinated soda a day (Diet Mt. Dew - 55mg). If I was totally wiped out, I felt like I could comfortably have a second one and still be well below the 200mg threshold. And if I could survive on limited caffeine intake, believe me - anyone can. Except maybe Nate - I shudder to imagine him decaffeinated. Not a pretty picture.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

When ever I hear about stuff like this, I can't help but think about all the things that our parents did when they were pregnant with us. My mom drank a 12 pack of pepsi per day!

Aside from caffine.. lets not forget about all of the OTHER things that our parents did...