1st trimester - ate cake with brandy - is that ok ?

Question

guys.....i just ate a slice of choc cake - and then i foundout that it has brandy in it. I was wondering if its ok ...esp since i am in my 1st trimester. Please lemme know.

Answer 1

That 'the alcohol cooks off' isn't quite true, but somebody's already posted a link for that one, so...

That a little bit of booze is harmful isn't at all true.

"The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recently conducted a large study including 400,000 American women, all of whom had consumed alcohol during pregnancy. Not a single case of fetal alcohol syndrome occurred and no adverse effects on children were found when consumption was under 8.5 drinks per week. 3

A recent review of research studies found that fetal alcohol syndrome only occurs among alcoholics. The evidence is clear that there is no apparent risk to a child when the pregnant woman consumes no more than one drink per day."

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/FetalAlcoholSyndrome.html

"Abstaining for foetal health: The fiction that even light drinking is dangerous

Abstract

There is a strong ideological and political movement in the USA to convince pregnant women not to drink any alcohol. An examination of the research literature on the results of drinking during pregnancy does not provide any evidence that light drinking is harmful to the foetus."

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1360-0443.1991.tb01873.x

In short: if it was good cake -- and with brandy, it probably was -- have another slice.

Answer 2

That little bit of alcohol didn't hurt anything. As some people say, it may have all cooked away. On the other hand, some brandy cakes have the brandy poured over the cake AFTER it's baked, to soak it up. In which case it didn't cook away, but still should not be something you need to worry about.

Answer 3

Most of the alcohol will have cooked off, though not all of it.

They say that there's no amount of alcohol that's been proven to be safe, but the occasional glass is extremely unlikely to have negative effects on the baby. One of the reasons they say "no alcohol" is because if they said "not more than a glass a day" then some people would think "well, if one glass is fine, surely two aren't so bad either" etc. Iirc the advice back when your say mom was pregnant was "no more than 2 glasses a day", and pretty much everybody of your generation came out just fine.

Answer 4

I went out for a night on the town with friend for a bachelorette party, I was really drinking heavy. I did not know at the time that I was pregnant until 2 weeks later. I asked the doctor and she said that the baby was fine since I was only in the first trimester. the cake with brandy will not harm your child.

By the way the child is 12 now and she is one of the brightest children in her class...:)

Answer 5

Yes, it's fine. But disregard the people saying that the alchohol cooks off- this is what gave the cake that little 'bite'. By baking the cake, you retain 45% to 15% of the alchol, see chart below for future reference.
Regardless, your OB/GYN will usually allow a glass of wine/week, just ask her. The amount of brandy in your slice of cake is WAY less. Relax, your baby will be fine.

Answer 6

Hi,
I have 2 kids, young, and it's ok to have a bit of alcool during your pregnancy. Personally in total I have had 2-3 glasses of redwine during the 9 months.
If you fell really bad about what you did (you should not), drink cranberry juice tomorrow (which by the way is great every morning), cleanses the liver. Also, drink green tea every day is just great.

Hope this helped a bit....and don't forget that exercise is important too.

Answer 7

Of course, how many of us women party until our second month of pregnancy. I drank and partied until my second month and I freaked when I found out I was pregnant. I stopped right away, but I was still worried. My kid is OK. I was even on medication that had not been tested on pregnant woman. But my doctor said it would be OK, just to stop the medication.

Answer 8

it is perfectly fine, as the Brandy that is in the cake no longer contains alcohol once it is cooked. Plus, it wouldn't be enough to get you drunk even if there was some alcohol in the cake. You are fine.

Answer 9

The alcohol in the cake is just for flavor...it cooks out during baking..so your left with the flavor but not the brandy.....you should be fine!
Congrats on your pregnancy!

Answer 10

You're okay. The brandy was probably cooked out. I had a similar experience when I was just a month pregnant. I was told I was a-ok though. :) Good luck with your pregnancy! It's a lot of fun!