The pregnancy cravings

[Marlene]

A sister thread to maggie's PMS thread. For the ladies, what did you crave the most during your pregnancy?

For the boyz: what's the weirdest thing your lady sent you out to get for her at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, that she just couldnt' sleep until she had tasted?

For me as posted in the PMS thread it was soy sauce. I ate tons and tons of rice during my pregnancy. I'd of had soy sauce on my cereal in the morning, if I thought I wouldn't have sent then hubby screaming from the house....

[torakris]

For all 3 pregnancies it was pretty much the same, anything RAW!

The most intense cravings were for raw beef (mostly yuke sp? a korean style tartare) as well as sushi and most raw veggies especially cherry tomatoes.

I also had a lot of cravings for anything my Mom used to make and no pickles but olives especially green ones, I could go through a jar a day!

I really bad morning sickness with the first one and basically learned to eat things that would taste just as good coming abck up

With #2 I ate the same frozen pizza for dinner every night during the morning sickness, It was only sold at one store and workers there probably think Americans can't live with out pizza.

with #3's morning sickness it was umeboshi onigiri (pickled plum rice balls) for breakfast every morning bought at the same convenience store, who knows what the hell they were thinking.

Being pregnant in Jaapn I would aslo get craving for things that are impossible to get here, anything from Taco Bell, thick red gloppy sweet and sour sauce, Whoppers, etc etc

During all 3 pregnancies I had aversions to Chinese food, couldn't even stand the smell and I couldn't touch noodles even pasta was hard to handle.

Even to this day I have a difficult time eating certain Chinese noodle dishes.

[hjshorter]

Meat, meat, meat - especially red meat. Steaks, cheeseburgers, lamb, mmmmmmmmm.

Ice cream, especially Baskin-Robbin's Mocha Almond Fudge.

Salads. I couldn't stand cooked vegetables. Garlic in any amount was intolerable too.

This was all with my first pregnancy. With my second I developed Gestational Diabetes early on and had to follow a very specific high protein diet.

While pregnant with my first I couldn't abide the smell of cheese. Of course, that Christmas my in-laws decided to send us a 3-month cheese delivery from Williams-Sonoma. A trip down the cheese aisle at Whole Foods sent me running for the Ladies room. I had to quit eating it until after I delivered.

[claire797]

Log Cabin Pancake syrup!

I made myself french toast and pancakes just so I could douse them in Log Cabin.

When I'd had enough pancakes, I switched to oatmeal and started adding the Log Cabin to that.

Prior to my pregnancy, I ate pancakes with syrup only once in a blue moon.

[Liza]

Torakris,

I'm craving sushi, all the time, but have been told to avoid it (and even smoked salmon - not cooked enough!) at all costs. Wondering if the same prohibitions exist in Japan?

[kimwb1]

Liverwurst and raw onion on rye, with yellow mustard.

Bacon, Lettuce and tomato with extra mayo on lightly toasted white bread.

Onion Rings.

These were the cravings I gave in to.

Mostly, though, I wanted Corona with lime...I didn't give in to that craving until the 8th month, when my doctor gave his blessings for my 25th birthday to be mexican food and a corona. 15 years later, I can still remember that beer. On Atlantic Avenue, In Brooklyn Heights...that was a good beer.

[elfin]

Pregnancy number one I ate Slim Jims. Luckily ( a miracle)my daughter turned out OK. Now, entering my second trimester, I am craving ice cream sandwiches and Drunkin Donuts' coffee rolls and double chocolate doughnuts. Do not tell my doc!

[Wilfrid]

Different experiences. My Beloved, a hearty carnivore, gave up meat - it tasted disgusting to her. Weirdest craving, heavily salted passion fruit. Very strong, sharp tastes were popular generally. Anchovies, raw lemons, etc.

[Suzanne F]

No personal experience with this, but family legend has it that when my mother was carrying my older sister, the only things Mom could eat were anchovies and hard-boiled eggs. Fits in perfectly with the emerging sharp flavor/high protein profile.

[sparrowgrass]

When I was pregnant with my oldest son, I lived on the Quinault Indian Reservation, and my Indian neighbors smoked lots of salmon. I couldn't get enough--very salty and smoky, kind of like a good country ham.

[ferdlisky]

with my first daughter, I craved dim sum. I worked in a high rise in Northern Cal. that had a great dim sum place next door, and every day I would lumber down and have dim sum for lunch.

With the second, I craved Ocean Spray ruby red grapefruit juice, but nothing Asian. I remember getting a whiff of Kim Chee and nearly barfing.

(edited for Basildog's benefit)

Edited February 25, 2003 by ferdlisky (log)

[Basildog]

on first reading your post ferlisky, i thought your children were called dim sum and ocean spray..i must slow down to read properly.

Mrs BD had no particular cravings other than chocolate and biscuits...but she has then anytime

(i'm sooo brave when shes out)

[maggiethecat]

I am one of those nauseating women who never felt or looked better than while preggers. No strong cravings, though I seem to remember eating lots of buttery baked potatoes during my first trimester.

Weirdest? My mother, pregnant with twins. Still supermodel thin. Her cravings? Parsley and Scotch Mints. I remember a gardening neighbour would present her with with big bouquets of parsley. More appreciated than out-of-season violets.

No pregnant woman ever had fresher breath!

[Lesley C]

Grapefruit, tons of it, and steak.

Not together.

[Ladybug]

When I was pregnant with my first, I craved North Carolina BBQ and Chili Cheese flavored Fritos . . . and I couldn't get either in Turkey. My friends tried to approximate it for me by making me Sloppy Joes. It wasn't the same, but I felt all warm and fuzzy because they tried so hard!

[LBNoble]

Mexican food, which was not unusual, since I crave it all the time-but a major pregnancy aversion-microwave popcorn, which my coworkers seemed to make endlessly, causing me to hit the stall. To this day, almost 8 years later, I cannot smell microwave popcorn without starting to gag (my kids eat air-popped)...

Linda

[lamb]

Craved: Spanish Olives - ate enough during 2 pregnancies to keep the industry going for the next decade.

Aversion: Only 2nd pregnancy - chicken - cooked any way. The smell and sight would make me gag.

Otherwise, the food would have to be moving in order for me not to eat it!

[torakris]

Torakris,

I'm craving sushi, all the time, but have been told to avoid it (and even smoked salmon - not cooked enough!)  at all costs. Wondering if the same prohibitions exist in Japan?

Nope not in Japan!

Sushi is fine for pregnant women here and things like liver (and other organ meats) that they tell you in the US to avoid, well here they push them on you and tell you to eat more.

I become anemic with #3 and could tell when it was getting bad becaue I would have these incredible cravings for liver and spinach

[Liza]

These days, tuna on rye toast. Fig newtons. A Manhattan.

[claire797]

I just remembered this. Along with my cravings for Log Cabin Pancake Syrup, I had a stong aversion to anything caramel. Go figure.

[Toasted]

Avacados, bitter greens with tons of garlic, orange juice, and blow pops for some strange reason! Maybe because it's two treats in one, I don't know.

[NeroW]

No pregnancy for me yet. But when my ex-roommate was pregnant, she used to make me go to the store in the middle of the night (no man, just me) and get her 1 box donut holes, 1 box donuts with the thick pink glaze on them, 1 bag baby carrot sticks, and 1 squeeze bottle of Ranch dressing. Repeatedly, for weeks. I got sick just watching her eat it. Shudder. Ranch dressing.

She also, late one night, went into the yard and ate dirt. Just a little bit. Nothing would have stopped her from doing it, and no one wanted to try. The wet kind of dirt, just a little . . . clay-ey. I've heard of this happening to other women.

Why? It just seems so bizarre.

Also, the scene in Rosemary's Baby, where she is pregnant with Satan, and sears a little piece of something . . . lamb? steak? organ meat? for about 2 seconds. My roommate did that too. Usually, we joined her on that one.

[guajolote]

She also, late one night, went into the yard and ate dirt.  Just a little bit.  Nothing would have stopped her from doing it, and no one wanted to try.  The wet kind of dirt, just a little . . .  clay-ey.  I've heard of this happening to other women.

This is called pica (more here). My wife had a friend with pica who would eat paper. If you loaned her a book it would comew back with the corner from every page missing. If she went out for fast food she would eat the fries and then the bag they came in.

The only thing my wife craved was BBQ Ribs. I was more than happy to get her ribs whenever she wanted.

[bushey]

I craved acidic and spicy foods. Lots of grapefruit and lemons, jars of pepperoncini, spicy Chinese food. Also feta cheese omelettes in pita bread, smothered in garlicky tahini.

Someone once told me that dark beer was great for nursing mothers so after the babies were born my favorite meal was grilled hotdogs and Beck's. I don't know if the brewer's yeast helped the infants, but it sure settled me down.

Congratulations, Liza!

[polly]

When my grandmother was pregnant she sent granpa out to find pieces of fresh tar from the road that she would suck on.

My sister in law had a real thing for earth. She didn't eat it, but she loved the smell of it and wanted to be near earth and to touch it. You had to drag her away from building sites!