Seeking Advice Diet Soda During Pregnancy

Hi Ang-
I had gestational diabetes with both my young boys. The diabetes clinic would only let me drink diet soda (which I NEVER had before my first child) and Crystal Light. I couldn't even have milk because it jacked my sugar levels way high. If you don't have the gest. diab. worry then the only thing to remember is that you may not want too much caffeine for the baby. Otherwise, my docs were fine with as much as I wanted. Hope this helps-
J.

For both my pregnancies I stayed away from caffinated pop and no diet pop. I drank Crystal Light all the time, because you are right water gets boring to drink.
Good luck and congradulations!

Having had 2 pregnancies with gest.diabetes diet soda and crystal light was the ONLY stuff I could drink besides water. Didn't harm my kids and I would do it again.

I would never drink diet drinks or Crystal Light because of the toxic sweeteners. My kids drink Zingers to Go which is made with stevia. Zingers to Go are made by Celestial Seasonings and lately I have only found them online.

Remember, whatever you eat or drink, your baby gets it too.

You can buy natural mineral water and mix it 1/2 and 1/2 with 100% juice, too. I really like that and my kids think that it's pop! :)

Congrats on your pregnancy!

;

I don't know what the "correct" advice is, but I drank an absurd amount of Diet Coke during my second pregnancy. I too was worried about it during my first - my doctor said it wasn't going to hurt the baby. So I had a perfectly healthy 7 lb, 5 ounce little man!

Ang - you'll certainly get both sides of the story with this question. As you stated you have friends that drink it like water and others who avoid it.

Personally, I stand on the side of avoid it all costs. Artificial sweetners are just that, artificial! They are a chemical process and really don't belong in our body. No matter what you hear, they are still chemicals.

Our poor babies today are born with a ton of toxic chemicals in their bodies. Why expose them to more especially for such little pleasure. Check out the article about how much toxins babies are born with http://www.ewg.org/node/17755. Armed with this information, you'll make your own decision about chemical enhanced sweetners.

Just read the other 27 postings and several people suggested Propel water and others lived on Crystal Light. The truth is, you need to read the labels. Some of the waters that have flavoring added to them have some sort of artifical sweetner as does Crystal Light (that's why it's called "light"). You have to become a label reader to know what's best for you.

Good luck,

I would say stay away from fake stuff. There is too much unknown about the long-term effects of artificial sweeteners, and what you want is a healthy baby and a healthy mom! Meanwhile, you can experiment and create your own not-too-sweet blends of fruit juices diluted with seltzer water. I like orange and cranberry mixed together, about 1/4 of a glass total, filled up with seltzer water. Find your own favorites, and you'll have the benefit of knowing exactly what you're drinking.

I have Gestational Diabetes and diet drinks are the only thing that I am allowed to have. When I got pregnant I also thought you weren't suppose to drink diet drinks or artificial sweetner but since finding otu that I have GD it is the only thing that I can have. I would talk to your doctor first but both my OB/GYN and my diabetic doctor both told me that this is fine during pregnancy.

I used to be a diet soda junkie. I was concerned about the caffeine as well as the artificial sweetner factor. During my pregnancy I abstained from all sodas during the first trimester. I fell back into the habit during the second and third trimester, but reduced my diet soda intake by drinking more all natural sodas (like Izzie - as one of the other responders mentioned) and mixing my own with seltzer and 100% juice. After the first month of breastfeeding, I went caffeine and soda free after discovering how it can affect calcium and iron absorption - both necessary for healthy breastfeeding.

Try watering your juice down. That way the water won't be so plain and the juice not so sweet. I believe you can have soda periodically. Dr.'s say to stay away from a lot of caffeine. I haven't heard to stay away from diet.

Ang-
When I found out I was pregnant with my son, I was drinking diet soda like crazy!! I switched to rootbeer, which has no caffeine. Now I don't drink a lot of soda and when I tried to find drinks with low sugar and no asparatame, one of the few things I found was propel water. You can buy the packs and add it to your own water and it's great for on the go, and not so expensive. Wal-mart also has their own generic version available in packets. My favorite is raspberry lemonade and lemonade. They aren't as sweet as soda, and you still get to drink lots of water and not have such a blah taste. Good luck with your newest addition!!!

I have a friend who's doctor said he would rather her drink regular ,fully caffinated soda as opposed to diet becuase of all the artifical stuff in diet.

I drank a lot of Izzie juice when I was pregnant. They have unique flavors and its carbonated.

I am not sure if you already do, but make sure there is no caffeine in the soda if you choose to drink it.

If you have to question if it's good for your baby or not then it's not. It's only 9 months out of your whole life. It's definately not good for the baby. The only positive thing would be you get the satisfaction of drinking it. There are no positives for your baby. It not about what you want during this time, it's about what's best for your baby. Besides soda dehydrates and crystal light has aspartame in it which isn't good during pregnancy.

check out http://sweetpoison.com and you will likely never drink or eat anything with sucralose or aspartame in them again.

my soda of choice, when I'm not drinking one of my many many teas, is Zevia. Check it out at Zevia.com They make their soda with stevia, which is plant based, no chemicals. It's non caffeine and has tons of good flavors!!

I know this reply is late, but hopefully someone will benefit from it!

I was told by my midwife that as long as I monitored my caffine level I could drink diet soda, there was no issue. Congratulations and good luck. Crystal Light is good also.

I was always under the impression that it was the caffeine that wasn't good for you (although some docs say you can have one cup of caffeine a day). Just because a soda is diet doesn't mean it doesn't have caffeine. In fact, diet coke has more caffeine than mountain dew. If you need to have a soda, try to limit yourself to the caffeine free type and try to just have one.

Here is a link to great guidelines about caffeine during pregnancy. There are a few pages, but they give lots of fabulous info: http://www.babycenter.com/0_caffeine-during-pregnancy_395...

Crystal Light was my lifesaver during my last pregnancy when I was on bedrest and instructed to drink LOTS of water. We're talking at least a gallon a day. (The baby's amniotic fluid was very low and it was a last-ditch effort to bring it up before having to do a c-section. It worked.) Anyway, that's a lot of water and I was really struggling since I am not a huge water fan myself. Crystal Light changed it up enough for me to be able to do it and the we had no health issues because of it.

You're advice so far seems pretty one sided. First, I'm not a doctor, so I would ask one. Second, I drank both with my girls are they are awesome. My suggestion is to have both Diet soda & Crystal Light on occasion. I'm sure neither are Toxic as claimed previously. Water is best, but we all need a little variety in life. So enjoy in moderation & don't sweat the small stuff, your baby senses that too. : ) Happy Pregnancy!

Artificial sweetners are really bad for you and by default, your baby. (I know some people disagree with that, but I prefer to not take that chance). Real sugar is at least natural. If you are trying to avoid the calories of sugar, try something like the new Truvia product. It isn't artificial. It's a natural "sugar" replacement. It's made from a different plant. I use it in my coffee and cereal. It is a form of stevia. I realize that doesn't help you with the soda issue. Can you switch to coffee for your caffine? It's not really the caffine (in moderation) that's bad for you - it's all the other stuff in the soda...

I would not take anything with chemicals. A good option would be Shaklee's Performance, which is used by Olympic and professional athletes. Tastes so much better than Gatorade and is much healthier. Shaklee makes hydration drinks for NASA.

K.
http://K..myshaklee.com

Crystal Light is just diet soda without the carbonation. Same synthetic sweetener, synthetic flavors and synthetic colors, and it's NEVER good for you. In fact for people who drink either of them regularly have a much greater chance of obesity and diabetes simply because so many people think the zero calorie is what's important. It's the chemicals!

Coborn's has a good natural food section, complete with natural colas by Hansen's and Blue Sky - both have a variety of flavors and NONE have synthetics in them.

You can also try Trader Joes and any other food co-op or natural grocery store.

You can also try what some college cafeterias do. Take a pitcher of water, add cut pieces of your favorite fruit - lemon, lime, strawberry, grapes, oranges - and let it sit in the fridge. When you want something to drink other than water, you now have fruit flavored water.

I decided to give up diet pop, but I don't know if I can give up my crystal lite....so I'm wondering too

I would stay away from pop altogether. The caffeine and artificial dyes and artificial sweeteners in diet or high sugar levels in regular are just not worth the risk considering it is such a short amount of time to give up something that could be bad for the baby. Decaf coffee, occasional juice [it's sugary, yeah, but not as bad as pop, it's natural, and the vitamin C helps with iron absorption], milk, and water was all I had when I was pregnant. You could always add lemon and a little sugar to water on your own, too, or make homemade smoothie drinks.

I would stick with MOSTLY water and have ONE glass of 100% juice or possibly an organic liquid a day. It's best to stay away from soda at all times and the doctor told me that the fake sugars in those other drinks and diet soda are WORSE than the pure white sugar!

I used to drink a can of pop a day. I quit about 3 1/2 years ago. Now I only drink water and about once a week a glass of milk. On special occasions I will have a glass of punch or juice.

The more sweet and sugary things you drink while pregnant, the more your child will crave them growning up... I was skeptical when I was first told this but I do believe it now. When I was pregnant with our first (she's now over 4 1/2,) I consumed my normal diet. She is DEFINITELY MORE DRAWN to sweets and sugars than our 2 1/2 year old. Our 2 1/2 year old even eats salads every day with us. (Full fledged salads. Butter lettuce, mushroom, onions, peppers, tomatoes, eggs--the whole works on it!) Our 4 1/2 year old refuses to even try lettuce. She is so much pickier. But I changed my diet completely before I was even pregnant with our younger one.....

Congrats!

what i have found is a bunch of links for you. :) one thing i do know is that recent research is showing diet soda to be more dangerous than regular soda, the sweeteners in diet actually make you want to consume more calories! you could be putting yourself and your baby at risk for gestational diabetes even if it is diet. what i would recommend is if you have to have it, limit it to no more than one CAN (or HALF a 20 ounce) a day, and drink water when you first feel like you need a drink instead of reaching for a soda. caffine does a lot of things, and dehydration is one of them. another concern with any caffine is that baby becomes addicted to it, and when baby isnt getting any after birth withdrawl symptoms could become present, leading to a very cranky hurting baby.

http://www.babycenter.com/406_is-it-safe-to-drink-diet-so...

http://www.steadyhealth.com/Type_2_Diabetes_Linked_to_Die...

9 months is not that long to ensure a healthy baby. As the Mother of a special needs child, I would advise against it. I followed all the rules and had one healthy child and one child with a genetic abnormality, but had I not followed the rules, I'd be blaming myself forever.
I found that water with a little bit of 100% juice in it was all I needed during my pregnancies. It's healthy, keeps you hydrated, and it tastes good too.
You have the rest of your life to eat and drink what you want. Please take every precaution because those chemicals are some horrible things and everything you eat is going right through your baby.
Best wishes,
J.
Mother of 4, 2 by birth, 2 by adoption, and hoping for more.