Food Poisoning and early pregnancy...neg effects?

[courtenay_e]

My girlfriend was at the LLLI conference in Chicago this weekend, and is around 10 weeks pregnant. Apparently, there has been an outbreak of what the Chicago Health Department suspects is food poisoning in a LARGE number of the people who attended the conference. My friend's two children seem to be afflicted...at least one of them has been vomiting and now the second is complaining of an upset stomach. My friend also has an upset stomach, but she says that she wouldn't be surprised if it was normal early pregnancy nasuea, compounded by the fact that she's cleaning up her six year old's vomit.

She is slightly concerned though, about the bacteria (and they don't know which one it might be yet), and how it might affect the pregnancy.

Anybody here have any ideas? She is going to be under midwifery care, but hasn't hired her midwife yet, as she has had a few late early trimester miscarriages, and couldn't afford the outlay of cash if this was going to end in miscarriage...otherwise though, she is ridiculously healthy diet and exercise wise, and has had four healthy term pregnancies.

My GUT reaction was that I'd be most concerned about dehydration...but I thought I'd do some research first. Any thoughts?

Thanks for any help you might be able to give!

[DoomaYula]

No real scientific thoughts here, just dehydration and probably she'll be really miserable. That really sucks. I had a 24h virus early in my pregnancy and it was no fun.

[courtenay_e]

Yuh, those were my thoughts, too! So far a google search shows that the worst case scenario BABY wise seems to be an exposure to Lysteria. Otherwise, the others seem to be VERY rare in pregnancy at all, or if contracted only really making mom miserable. I did find two documented cases of botulism, but they were in late pregnancy and caused early births (both, strangely, at 34 weeks...), but that was it. Salmonella seems to make mom miserable and possibly dehydrated, with a worst case scenario of blood poisoning, which I suppose COULD be bad for baby...but otherwise not really an issue. BUT, I'm still wondering if any of the midwives and etc. have anything to add!? :

[DoomaYula]

Those mws, sometimes they just don't answer! :

My mw did recommend arsenicum when I had the virus.

[courtenay_e]

Thanks. I'll look that up in the book o'homeopathics! Probably all the midwives are at births, or something... I'm sure somebody else'll answer if they have any info to add...:

[DoomaYula]

Psht, whatever, they're hanging out in front of the computer with a pint of Ben and Jerry's, waiting til you beg.

[courtenay_e]

:

[bryonyvaughn]

Originally Posted by YumaDoula

...My mw did recommend arsenicum when I had the virus.

I swear I'm going to bed after this last post.

Arsenicum alba could well be the remedy most commonly needed for food poisoning remedy. A person needing it would be very weak, suffer chills, and crap out small amounts of water stool frequently. They'd feel better for being under lots of covers, and taking small but frequent sips of warm beverages. They can also feel they're going to die which comes on much more intensely around midnight.

I needed Pulsatilla the last time I had food poisoning, and my DH needed Sulphur. I wanted the window open and fans moving air as well as company and my DH to carry me into the living room. My DH had water stools that chemically (not temperature wise) burned his anus and but cheeks. Once I needed Veratrum album when I pigged out on overly ripe watermelon which I didn't noticed barely starting to go bad.

Hopefully those will give you some good leads if none of the remedies I mentioned matched the symptoms, you can always give Arsenicum alba and post back symptoms in the morning... or sooner; I just won't read them until morning.

~BV

[courtenay_e]

Originally Posted by bryonyvaughn

I swear I'm going to bed after this last post.

~BV

SO OFTEN my famous last words, BV!

Thanks, I'll forward her that info now...

[Defenestrator]

Knowing which organism caused the illness is going to be a big piece of the puzzle when trying to assess risk.

I think that treating food poisoning homeopathically is a great idea and might provide her the most comfort for right now. Other thoughts that I have right now -- she can help protect herself from catching fecal-borne food poisoning from her kids by taking a teaspoonful of turmeric every day (it will also help heal her gastrointestinal system if it already is irritated).

Also, if she does have gastrointestinal issues from this it will be important to get her on a good quality probiotic supplement to help re-colonize her gut after her body has naturally flushed out the organism. This is even more important if the organism is listeria or e. coli because those are more likely to cause trouble later and a probiotic will help keep any lingering intestinal colonization in check.

Good luck!

[courtenay_e]

Thanks, Stacia! I'll forward that info, as well! I didn't know that about turmeric. Gee, I learn something new every day!

[mwherbs]

charcoal is what to take it is inert and will absorb toxins- safe for pregnancy -
you can get caps at a health food store or here you can even get some at Walgreens- the ones at Walgreens cost about 2x as much as the health food store ones-
some types of food poisoning can affect pregnancy more severely than others like listeria can cause a range of problems from nothing to fatality -she go to the doc or call the health department- and find out what they say

[Defenestrator]

activated charcoal, turmeric, and probiotics wouldn't interfere with each other. The turmeric kills the bad organisms and is anti-inflammatory, the activated charcoal removes toxins generated by the organisms' metabolism and the probiotics help rebuild healthy flora. I would think that this would be particularly important with listeria. The way that I understand listeriosis is that listeria can lie dormant in the body for a while and then run rampant at a point that the immune system is compromised (like the 3rd trimester of pregnancy). So, it would be good to think long-term fix and rebalancing if that is what you are dealing with.

[mom3b1?]

Most food poisoning won't affect the baby unless she becomes very dehydrated. If it's listeria it will affect the baby, and there is nothing really to do that can save the baby. Usually listeria involves a bad headache, and the symptoms for mom aren't usually as bad as many of the other kinds of food poisoning. I had it once during pregnancy. I saw a CNM about it, and this is what I remember of what she said. For me, I didn't feel THAT sick. I had some stomache symptoms and a terrible headache, but I lost the baby very quickly. I know in later pregnancy it can lead to stillbirth.

If she's rip roaringly sick, and can't keep anything down, or it goes straight through like a freight train, it's probably something else, and as long as she keeps hydrated the baby will be OK. She can go to the ER if she goes into preterm labor for it. A few hours on an IV drip can do wonders, along with some meds. Maybe it won't come to that and gentler remedies will work.

Kiley

[mwherbs]

yes I agree that all or any can be used I would just go for the charcoal first-to trim down or even prevent an acute phase-when others in my house have had a diarrheal illness I have started taking charcoal in preparation to prevent even the build up of the toxins the bacteria puts out--
actually charcoal will absorb what ever else is taken at the same time- so if you take tumeric at the same time as the charcoal you are not going to get the most benefit from your charcoal or tumeric --
yep I just love probiotics the range of usefulness is wide- and it definately is a good thing to help ward off listeria--
I would probably invest in a bottle of hand sanitizer stuff as well- just for the time being

[courtenay_e]

ALRIGHT! She just got notice from the Dept. of Health that apparently it's Norovirus. I looked it up on Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norovirus ), and it looks like we have a case of the flu...but it seems that it could have been passed by salads or ice in drinks... regardless, I think that the info here will be helpful, thank you allll for your help!

Oh, and so far, she's doing fine, so I think she's probably dodged the bullet, so to speak.

Thanks again for you help!