Is too much chocolate a bad thing?

Monday, 26th March 2012

It’s hard to believe that Easter is only around the corner! Easter eggs are EVERYWHERE! If you are anything like me during my second pregnancy, you are eating chocolate faster than the speed of light! Stop! I urge you! I know, it’s easier said than done but if the thought of endless, sleepless nights with a crying colicky baby is an experience you would prefer to avoid, then then trust me.

During for my first pregnancy with ‘Spike’, I vowed to eat all the right things and avoid all the bad things. I was very diligent and managed to eat the ideal text book diet during my pregnancy with Spike’s. I cut out all coffee (down from 4 a day!), alcohol, cheese, processed meats and the list goes on. Spike was my dream baby. From the moment she was born, she fed and slept well and suffered no reflux or colic. I can only recall one bad afternoon and at the time my envious friends predicted that it was the first of many may but it was the first and the last. The only pain I suffered with Spike was the first three months of conception where I lost 4 kgs through morning sickness, but after that, it was pretty much all plain sailing. This was half the reason we went for baby # 2 when Spike was only seven months old.

This was the not the case with ‘Booboo’. When I look back, my pregnancy with Booboo involved little morning sickness and I definitely relaxed much more with my food – a coffee here or there, a little bit of soft cheese, a sneaky half glass of wine once in a while and TONS of chocolate. With Spike, I craved fruit and only fruit. I could not stomach the idea of eating chocolate or anything fatty so this meant I ate incredibly well throughout the whole pregnancy. With Booboo, I craved chocolate like nothing in this world. I recall an afternoon when my husband found two empty bags of M & M’s and I had to confess to having downed them both in 30 seconds flat even though one of them was meant for him.

With the power of hindsight, I now do wonder if either the chocolate contributed to the long months of pain my poor Booboo endured with colic. Spike slept well and was able to entertain herself without a problem. Booboo on the other hand, screeched with pain for hours at a time and did this for weeks. This started in hospital. If I had followed the same strict diet, would the outcome have been much different?

Some doctors think that foods that produce lots of gas may cause colic or at least make it worse. These include foods like orange juice, onions, cabbage and caffeine rich foods like coffee and CHOCOLATE!  My craving for chocolate did not abate once Booboo was here. So I continued to indulge in chocolate, Oreo biscuits and m & m ‘s while I was breastfeeding. Was it this indulgence that caused Booboo’s colic and severe pain? No one knows for sure but if the research is correct about caffeine then there is a strong possibility, especially in the amounts I was consuming.

My tip this Easter is to try cutting it out altogether. I know, that seems extreme but if you can avoid the experience that ‘Booboo’ had and I had, I encourage you and will you to have the strength. It is only 40 weeks of your life and if I had my time again with ‘Booboo’ pregnancy, I certainly would rewind and ditch the chocolate.

Have a hot cross bun instead.