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Starbucks can make almost anything decaf. I ordered fancy decaf drinks to trick my brain into thinking I was drinking real coffee.
I personally just cut back my caffiene intake a ton. Every now and then I allow myself a caffenated soda as a little pick me up. You may get better suggestions if we know what exactly it is you're missing (soda, coffee, tea?) If its soda I've been getting by with rootbeer, sprite, and orange soda. If its coffee maybe decaf or hot chocolate would be better? Same with tea... Good Luck!
I drank rootbeer when I was pregnant and caffeine is alright in moderation. I had one Dr. Pepper a month while I was pregnant because I wanted caffeine. My Ob told me that was alright as long as I didn't do it all the time. It doesn't hurt the baby if you have just a little. There are soda's that are caffeine free and like snmcdowell said, you can get decaf coffee.
Thanks bees, I finally got off coffee last year (I was hardcore addicted) and switched to mate, then to chai tea- I am just wanting to be really careful, but maybe I am worrying too much. I also heard too much sugar isn't good (for anyone of course) but I LOVE sugar. I am trying to switch to smoothies and fresh fruit for energy, but I am finding myself eating a LOT more. We are just starting to TTC...
I have a very healthy little girl. I didn't stop drinking coffee when pregnant. I drank no more than one a day and sometimes less, which is my normal consumption anyway. And drank lots of water.
Of course, I was low blood pressure and coffee is actually not bad for that - it even helps a bit. But if you have a tendency towards high blood pressure you shouldn't drink coffee.
I have never been pregnant or been TTC so I don't know if my advice helps.
But I can't have caffeine on certain days because of my job. Coffee makes my hands shake so I can't drink it if I have experiments to do. My experiments require me to keep my hand very steady.
What I do on days where I can't have caffeine is I eat a lot of snacks. Candy, pepperidge farm gold fish, fruit snacks, snickers bars, etc. It usually keeps me going because my body is getting the sugar it needs.
I am only drinking green tea (which some say aids conception) and decaf coffee. And I don't have either every day. I have already noticed a huge effect when I have just a little caffeine...major caffeine buzz. Especially off of decaf Starbucks (which has some caffeine still).
I think the hardest thing is not having enough choices...If I go to a bar with my husband and I'm not drinking then there's only water or NA beer (or juice which I don't typically drink because it's so sugary). I guess I'm still trying to figure it out!
Like others have mentioned, I drank rootbeer a lot while pregnant. However, once I hit my third trimester, I allowed myself one can of soda a day, but no more.
I mostly just tried my best to have something with flavor. I did drink water, but I hate it, so it helped to have something else that was sweet.
Also, this isn't drink related, but I bought a bag of Hershey's Kisses and allowed myself a few a day when I wanted a chocolate boost. That way I wasn't overdoing it, but I still got the chocolate I wanted. I craved sugar after every meal, and especially chocolate, so having a Hershey's Kiss wasn't that bad.
I think it's really all about moderation, as others have mentioned.
I read in a magazine last month that the pediatrics association (or association of pediatricians, something of that nature) has relinquished the "ban" on caffeine and now says 200 or 250 mg a day is fine so there's no need to give up your daily cup. But, that's only one cup. I've been looking for the proof but i can't seem to locate the article. i literally scanned it in my doctor's office, did a little happy dance, and moved on.
@superstitions, isn't root beer caffeine free? are you supposed to limit non-caffeinated sodas also?
Hi! @ejs4y8 is right... 250 mg of caffeine a day is generally acceptable.
I cut down from 2 cups of coffee a day to now MUCH less than that by drinking half-caf. My husband sweetly went on board with that one. At the beginning of my pregnancy (and TTC), I would have about half a cup of half-caf, and the rest of the cup filled with milk. It was more like a latte or a cafe au lait, but gave me the taste of coffee I wanted.
Now I've switched to tea, which has less caffeine than coffee. I allow myself one cup of that per day. I steep it for just a little less time.
You have to do what you are comfortable with, and limiting caffeine or cutting it out completely are going to only be beneficial to you. Good luck!
@ejs4y8: rootbeer is caffeine free but you are supposed to limit SUGAR as well. That's why she cut back. Some people don't and have healthy children but if you have too much it can harm them.
@bride21, ah, gotcha, thanks for clarifying. i didn't think about the sugar in sodas because i drink diet only occassionally
@ejs4y8: Your welcome. I love being helpful.
Diet is a no-no for pregnancy too. Something in diet soda is bad on the baby. My OB told me I could have caffeine occasionally but absolutly NO diet. I know you didn't say you drank it while pregnant so this is just an FYI for everyone out who will read this.
I just went cold turkey and let me tell you, I drank about 4 cups every morning of coffee and several Splenda Diet Cokes throughout the day. I actually did not get a headache from this and I have no idea how! I am very fatigued, but I would be from the pregnancy anyway, so I can't say it's from lack of caffeine. Everyone kept telling me one cup is fine, and I know it is, but I figured if I'm gonna cut back, I might as well just stop altogether. And it's been fine. It's been a month now. I have drastically quit the sodas too. When I feel really nauseated which is not that often yet, I might drink a shot or two of Sprite, but I have to cut out sugar too. And the aspartame in the diet drinks is out for me, so I am mainly a water and milk drinker at this point. I do have some decaf iced tea and decaf coffee for when I need something different, but really I haven't gotten to that point yet, so they are still unopened. I'm sure I will want it eventually though. If you want to stop or cut back on caffeine, you can do it! Just wean yourself off of it slowly if you need to and take some ibuprofin if you are not pg yet.
I'm lucky, I never cared for caffeine to begin with. But they say that a little bit won't hurt you, so if I want a coke every once in a while, I don't freak out about it.
My doctors all told me that caffeine was fine in small amounts, so I allowed myself one can of real Coke every day. (Real Coke because the regular sugar is better than the chemical sweeteners in Diet Coke, which is what I normally drink.) No harm at all in one Coke or two small cups of coffee a day!
When I was pregnant I had the worst sugar tooth ever... I ate every sugary thing in sight. Cookies, cake, pie, ice cream all the time. It was bad and I was freaked out about getting gestational diabetes but I seriously could not stop. In the end everything was just fine. My gd test came back very low and my boy is healthy and happy. Caffeine wasn't such a problem, probably because I was on a constant sugar high!
The research on caffeine and pregnancy only really shows a negative impact for women who drink >=300 mg of caffeine/day, so I don't worry about it too much. I get half-caff lattes at Starbucks, and often mix decaf and regular coffee at the office. Since caffeine is a diuretic, I try to drink extra fluids to compensate, but other than that, I don't worry about it too much.
I am on day 4 of no caffeine! But yesterday I ate two pints of ice cream. :/ I have all sugar teeth all the time :/
Thanks bees, so it sounds like moderation is key. I am going to try to go cold turkey/ keep this up, but we'll see what happens this week at work.
I may be an aweful mother but I CANNOT survive without my Diet Coke. I drank it all through my first pregnancy and now through this one. I have cut back some. But its not going anywhere anytime soon. I hate to sound to apathetic about it but I really feel like theres worse stuff I could be doing. Maybe thats the "coke"addict coming out of me lol
I don't plan or nor do I currently cut back on my coffee intake. I don't drink much soda to start with though.
I cut back at first by filling my cup with half regular, half decaf but now I'm mostly off it. Sometimes I'll have some tea but I think it's fine in moderation. I was never a "coffee-a-day" type of person so it wasn't too hard for me.
I drink one or two diet cokes a day -- every study I've seen says this is perfectly fine. I don't think I could survive without!
@bride21: If you read the studies, diet coke does not have any effect on babies. Neither the caffiene nor the aspartame harms anything. Just don't drink more than two a day.
@chicagowife: SOOO good to know!!!!!! Thank you for erasing most of my guilt! LOL
switch to decaf. I switched to decaf chai tea and it is still fun to drink in the morning. You will get use to it. Start on a saturday morning when you dont have to be up early and keep some headache medicine close by.
There is a recent danish study that links diet soda to an increased risk of preterm delivery. But it seems like you can link everything to something bad.
The one thing is that caffeine is a slight diuretic so especially later in pregnancy make sure you're getting enough fluids.
But I've tried to not drink coffee, though sometimes I have a couple sips of my husbands, and well chocolate is just so delicious right now, but for me there's enough studies that I try to keep caffeine intake very minimal. At least from what I've read there seems to be more harm in a cup of coffee a day than a glass of wine a day so I keep my intake of both at very minimal levels.
Regarding diet coke (I don't know about coffee), see here:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/53185
http://www.babycenter.com/406_is-it-safe-to-drink-diet-soda-during-pregnancy_1245945.bc
http://www.pregnancytoday.com/expertqa/drink/are-diet-sodas-ok-to-drink-during-pregnancy-1196/
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I have read that caffeine is not good for moms-to-be (obviously) or EVEN those TTC, so I am on day three of no caffeine... and now I am craving sugar! How do you survive?