Pregnancy and Food

[TMus1111]

First of all, Congratulations. And second of all, I can surely sympathize as I had "all day" sickness for the first 3 months of both of my pregnancies. I am not sure if drug stores still carry it, but I used a cola syrup, which I mixed with either just ice or ice and a little water and drank with the small meals I did eat. Another alternative is to buy a "fountain coke" at a place that is a little heavier on the syrup (there was a place across from my job that was very heavy on the syrup and I must have had 3 or 4 sodas a day from there). The other thing I tried when all else failed was to eat things that wouldn't taste too bad coming back up (sorry if that's gross) - which for me were mainly smooth, sweet and basically not to exotic type things.

Best of luck and as someone said, it is all worth it.

[Kouign Aman]

Congratulations!

Avoid anything that smells. That means eating cold food, and letting someone else cook. Go for a walk if you have to, while the cooking is going on. There's no benefit to adding to your torture.

Try to eat often - if in small quantities. For some weird reason, the nausea is worse on an empty stomach - hence the term 'morning sickness'. If you can wake up in the middle of the night and snack, that helps the morning bout, which helps you eat breakfast, which helps the later bouts.....Perhaps keep a slice of bread (&butter if you can stand it) next to your bed. In the morning, eat before you get out of bed.

Can you stand smoothies? Milk, banana or peanut or almond butter and ice or icecream or yogurt? (the smell of pnut butter wouldnt work for me)

Perhaps dried fruit (not apricots - strong smell).

Its horrible, and it passes. (Nausea tho does have that horrible characteristic of seeming like forever when one has it).

Good luck.

editted to add: soup? lukewarm soup? (lukewarm to keep the smells down)

Edited April 5, 2006 by Kouign Aman (log)

[Terrasanct]

I seem to remember that cheese was good--just plain cheddar, not anything stinky. Let someone else do any cooking of meat. Potatoes, crackers, broth, clear sodas like Sprite--much of what you'd eat if you had the flu.

I had five kids but it's been a long time. You have my sympathies--morning sickness is the worst! My ex-husband told me it was all in my head. I wanted to kick him in the crotch and tell him THAT was all in his head!

[Kouign Aman]

You have my sympathies--morning sickness is the worst!  My ex-husband told me it was all in my head.  I wanted to kick him in the crotch and tell him THAT was all in his head!

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That would explain the "ex"?

[jgm]

A few years ago, I heard doctors talking about what to give a child recovering from an intestinal illness; they called it the BRAT diet. Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast. Apparently those four foods are bland and easy to digest. Since I've never been pregnant, I can't help with ideas from personal experience, but maybe one or more of the selections from the BRAT list will work for you. Unfortunately, I have a feeling it will be a trial and error thing. And we all know what the error part means. Just keep looking forward to those cravings!

[Jenny McClure]

How about cereal? When I'm sick and have little or no appetite for anything, cereal usually works. especially Weetabix (not sure if you can get it where you live). Also a cup of tea with toast. I have a friend that is pregnant and currently going throught the same thing. For her, baked potatoes are a life saver and cameo cookies...go figure

[Lori in PA]

Seconding the recommendation to eat small amounts frequently. I used to keep a couple of crackers on my bedside table and nibble one if I awoke during the night. I'd eat the other immediately on waking in the morning before I even sat up -- it seemed to help a bit.

If you are the cook, it can be hard because raw meat made me sick and the smell of cooking food made me sick. One thing that worked pretty well was to get a one-dish thing in the crockpot right after I'd thrown up sometime in the morning and PLUG IT IN OUTSIDE to cook all day. If you have a covered porch or something, that is ideal. That way, dinner was ready even if I was nauseated during regular dinner prep time, so everybody else could eat, BUT, I didn't have to smell it all day.

Good luck with everything -- babies are a blessing that makes all the puking worth it. :-)

[bavila]

Here's a link to the discussion I started when I was pregnant.

Looking back (my son is now 7mo), I'd say I fared best on a low refined carb diet. For me, I think alot of the wooziness was from blood sugar levels cycling rapidly. Ironically, cutting back on many of the foods that are traditionally recommended (crackers, bread, etc.) worked for me.

Also, careful with the vitamins on an empty stomach. That alone is enough to give you a big wallop of nausea.

Congrats!

[therese]

A few years ago, I heard doctors talking about what to give a child recovering from an intestinal illness; they called it the BRAT diet.  Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast.  Apparently those four foods are bland and easy to digest.  Since I've never been pregnant, I can't help with ideas from personal experience, but maybe one or more of the selections from the BRAT list will work for you.  Unfortunately, I have a feeling it will be a trial and error thing.  And we all know what the error part means.  Just keep looking forward to those cravings!

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The point of the BRAT diet is that it's mildy constipating (or is supposed to be) in addition to being very bland. So I wouldn't necessarily pursue it in this instance.

[SweetSide]

Here's a non-food related way to relieve morning sickness (and motion sickness) --SEA Bands.

You put these on your wrists and they hit an accupressure point that relieves nausea. And, they work like a charm!

Here's a link so you can take a peek CLICK, but I got mine at the local CVS pharmacy. The pharmacist helped me find the correct isle...

My only other advice is to reemphasize watching when you take your vitamins. I'd be fine until I had one. Even in my non-pregnant state, they bug my tummy.

Congratulations and best wishes!

[avocado]

I'm not pregnant, but have had experience taking medication that caused continuous nausea. One thing I always carried with me was goldfish crackers, plain or cheddar, because they're tiny and you can kind of "sneak" them into your tummy one at a time. Also grits, sometimes with an egg cracked in and stirred up right at the end of cooking. I know the texture of grits is not for everyone, but it goes down alot more easily than oatmeal when you're nauseated- trust me.

I also found honeybush rooibos tea to be soothing. It smells a little medicinal but you can sip it cold of the smell bothers you.

[jgm]

A few years ago, I heard doctors talking about what to give a child recovering from an intestinal illness; they called it the BRAT diet.  Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast.  Apparently those four foods are bland and easy to digest.  Since I've never been pregnant, I can't help with ideas from personal experience, but maybe one or more of the selections from the BRAT list will work for you.  Unfortunately, I have a feeling it will be a trial and error thing.  And we all know what the error part means.  Just keep looking forward to those cravings!

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The point of the BRAT diet is that it's mildy constipating (or is supposed to be) in addition to being very bland. So I wouldn't necessarily pursue it in this instance.

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I usually just pick one or two from the list. A meal or two will usually get me past the end-of-the-flu stage. Sometimes I can't stand anything sweet, so I go for the rice or the toast. As a steady diet for 2 or more days, it might be constipating, but picking one or two things from the list, to get through today, shouldn't be a problem.

[tejon]

Congratulations! The main thing that helped me in the first trimester when I had nausea all day long was taking extra B6. My midwife suggested it, and I found that taking some first thing in the morning helped immensely. Don't worry too much about losing weight right now, as the baby doesn't really require extra calories until much later in the pregnancy.

[Trishiad]

I called it all damn day sickness when I was pregnant. I ended up with IV fluids and anti-nausea meds. I couldn't even open the vitamin container without throwing up. The smell of toothpaste made me vomit. I don't think I went into the meat or dairy sections of the grocery until I was 5 months. I lived mainly on slurpees and regularly vomitted in the 7eleven parking lot on my way to buy my slurpee. You will get past it and it will be worth it. For the record, just about the time I started eating food again I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and was forced to eat so much peanut butter for the next few months that I gained more than 40 pounds! Still worth it.

[Cleo]

Congratulations to you! I'm 15 weeks pregnant with my second child, and luckily I haven't been sick this time. Last time, however, I couldn't find many things that appealed to me early on, but I was always able to eat macaroni and cheese. It just made me feel better.

Another comment about the vitamin thing...at this time, the vitamins are almost definitely contributing to you feeling sick. The really important thing that you need right now is Folic Acid. So you might want to try just buying Folic Acid capsules and taking just them until the sickness subsides a bit.

[cathrynapple]

edit: my post was irrelevant.

Edited April 5, 2006 by cathrynapple (log)

[Lkfarkas]

I didn't read thru the other posts, but I read that sea-bands (an accupressure bracelet from the drug store) are very helpful. Also, look for "Preggie Pops" - lolly pops that help with morning sickness. My Once Upon A Time carries them. Hope that helps!

[duckduck]

Someone else told me sea bands. She swears by them. I found them at Walgreens.

[RuthWells]

I need to tap into some collective wisdom here..........I'm just a few weeks along, and the all-day-sickness felled me like a tree.      I was told to try bland foods, but even the scent of oatmeal cooking had me fleeing from the kitchen.  All my usual comfort foods have turned on me.  For a food-loving person, this is doubly distressing.  I'm *losing* weight. 

So far, it's a diet of vitamins, soda crackers and ginger tea......

What have you done to get through this, or what has your partner found successful?

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Lemon water ice. It kept me on my feet for both my pregnancies. And try not to take your pre-natal vitamin on an empty stomach -- that will just make matters worse. Hang in there; it does get better!

[Malawry]

During the nauseated phase of my pregnancy, I learned the hard way that eating something would make me feel better than not eating anything. It was hard because I couldn't think of any foods I wanted to eat when I felt so terrible, yet I had learned that not eating anything at all made it worse. Keeping an assortment of crackers around helped, I'd force one or two down until I could think of something else I could tolerate. I started consuming things I'd mostly dropped from my diet like fruit juices because they were easy and they put something in my tummy. I recommend experimenting with different foods relentlessly until you find things that work. Just keep trying different things, eventually something will appeal or at least be possible to choke down.

I moved past my nausea around month 5. I'm less than a week from my EDD and already those problems seem like a distant (and not-so-fond) memory. You will get over it, if not later in your pregnancy than certainly after birth. Hang in there!

[KatieLoeb]

Emetrol is a syrup that's similar to coke syrup and really helps with nausea. It's available at most pharmacies. Ask your doctor if it's OK to take it first, but it's basically just a sugar solution. Also make sure you're getting enough fluids and keep your electrolyte balance up if you're vomiting and losing fluids. Pedialyte or Gatorade (if you can stomach it) is helpful for that.

[goldie]

Root beer really worked for me- with a lot of ice. I ate a ton of plain whole wheat toast. I also found that plain yogurt seemed to go down and stay down. When I felt like I could cook stuff, I made chicken and rice soup. I, too, ate many potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Best wishes for a healthy pregnancy!

[BubbleheadChef]

While certainly not prone to "all day sickness", morning sickness, or any other preganant malady, I am the father of two, so I'll chime in.

When Mrs. BubbleheadChef was prego with our first, she was mildly morning sick and violently motion sick. We found that plain potato chips helped. I equated the feeling to being hungover (of which I have LOTS of experience) and offered salty, prepackaged, fried things (chips, french fries, nuts). We always had snack bags in the car, in her purse, at my office (ok, those were for me. Come on, you've heard of sympathy cravings right?). The other thing that really helped was a bag of cut lemons. If she started getting nauseous, she would open the bag, take a wiff, and find the nearest bag of Lays (bet you cant eat just one!).

I will say that it did get better for us/her and I hope that is the case with you. Congrats and best of luck!

[duckduck]

I've found recently when sick that Smart Water is easier on my stomach than gatorade for keeping hydrated. No flavor at all. Can't handle pedialite either. Tried it one day when the little one handed it back like "no, way" and understood why he wouldn't drink it.

[FabulousFoodBabe]

What have you done to get through this, or what has your partner found successful?

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Congratulations! Terrific news. My whole food thing went whacko too. With my first pregnancy, I couldn't even look at fish or chicken until the last trimester. I ate peanut butter and lots of it. Instead of vegetables, I just took vitamins and was glad I could drink milk without feeling too horrible. Perrier seemed to help a little, and definitely breathing through my mouth. It literally changed overnight: I woke up one day feeling so good I insisted on a checkup to be sure everything was fine. It was.

One of my friends had mad cravings for McDonald's fish sandwiches. Nasty things, and she's the pickiest eater in the world, but when she needed them, nothing else would do.

My husband got through it by steering clear of me in the morning, and by learning to shave over the kitchen sink (we had one bathroom and we never knew when I'd need it).

Those were the days.