To ask for your morning sickness remedies?

[CinderRosie]

Posting here for traffic as I’m in the office today and struggling. 6+3 weeks pregnant and nausea arrived at 6 weeks on the dot. All smells are making me want to retch and I need to get through my job which is client-facing, so I can’t just die quietly into my desk. Any tips gratefully received.

I had HG so drugs and getting signed off sick helped me but I guess that's not helpful.

Eating little and often, ginger biscuits and staying hydrated are usually recommended. I used to try eat whatever I was craving on the theory that if I was craving it then it was more likely to stay down. Sucking fizzy sweets like Refreshers helped too.

I feel for you OP. I had terrible morning sickness in my first pregnancy and was then hospitalised and diagnosed with HG in my subsequent two pregnancies. And in all three the ongoing nausea was horrendous.

One thing I would say is to eat whatever you're craving - if there's anything you feel would take the edge off the nausea, eat it. I found nibbling salt and vinegar crisps a help at times. Anything salty and carby really. I'm afraid healthy eating had to go out of the window for a time. Drinks had to be freezing cold - tiny sips of lemon barley water helped. Also sucking ice cubes rather than trying to drink big glasses of water which made me instantly sick.

I ended up on medication, but if you just have nausea (and I don't say that lightly - 'just' nausea is absolutely horrific), then perhaps this won't be needed. Cyclizine in my second pregnancy eased my symptoms a bit, but in the third I had ondanestron as the cyclizine didn't touch the sickness.

I understand that you're working but outside of that try to rest and sleep as much as possible. I found tiredness made my nausea and sickness far, far worse. If you're really struggling it may be worth getting signed off for these next few weeks (which are likely to be the worst). Good luck OP.

Clear apple juice and cream crackers

Are there any smells you feel you like atm, and that ease the nausea? For some reason I loved the smell of Cool Citrus Listerine mouthwash in my third pregnancy. I kept bottles dotted all around the house to smell as soon as I felt a wave of sickness. Conversely I hated the smell of my DP and his deodorant. I used to make him go to the furthest end of the house to apply it so no fumes could reach me. 🤢

Ginger biscuits for me, I nibbled on them every time I felt sick, they really helped.

Medicine

i found flat ginger beer quite helpful. But sometimes the only real thing that helped was being sick!! Sorry I know that isn’t useful. It’s a horrible feeling, hope it passes quickly for you.

Those car sickness wristbands. Might have been a placebo but seemed to help a bit.

Ginger biscuits, Jamaican ginger cake, salt and vinegar crisps
Lots of water first thing

Very weak tea and rich tea biscuits

Mini Cheddars
McDonald's chips
Ginger biscuits/Digestive biscuits
Pom Bear crisps
Basically bland, salty or ginger worked for me - good luck!

With my first it was double lollies, 2nd was vanilla ice cream, 3rd was oranges and 4th was chicken nuggets. I threw up on ginger biscuits and found my 'cures' from pure coincidence I did however realise that the sickness was worse when hungry so I tended to graze to ward off the worst of it.

Wristbands and green tea took the edge of it for me.

Hope it passes quickly for you OP.

Crackers and milk helped at that stage. The act of chewing controlled the nausea for me so I kept industrial quantities of chewing gum in my bag.

I was hospitalised with HG in both pregand would have cheerfully murdered the next person who told me to eat ginger biscuits or wear sea sickness bands. This was 27 years ago and they didn't give drugs in pregnancy then, I'm surprised they do now - in most things they are more cautious in pregnancy now.

What helped?
Actually being sick gave a few minutes relief. I used to throw up all day, not just morning.
Avoid smells, perfume, food, anything.
I used to tie a scarf round my face when cooking, a face mask might do the job.
I survived on plain boiled rice for weeks.
Sips of cold water.

I made a clear soup with chicken stock, ginger and chilli. It helped. But apart from that really avoiding other people, public transport, and staying in bed with anti sickness meds were the only things that really helped. I really feel for you...it's not nice.

Medication

For me, a cool bag with very cold sparkling water, and very cold grapes, sliced apple and watermelon. Plain salty crisps.

I'm also client facing and was petrified to eat a meal as stuck in meetings or commuting and was afraid to throw up. So I just grazed. But it was awful.

Also, I found the more tired I was, the iller I felt, so I booked off one day a week holiday to just stay in bed and rest.

For me both times, I was better by 13 odd weeks but it feels never ending when you're in it

Salt and vinegar crisps
Salted crackers
Sips of full fat coke with ice

If I was hungry the nausea would be 100x worse so I found that I would get a window where I wasn't feeling sick or nauseas, I would eat a slice of toast with cheddar or some crackers with cheddar and it was keep away the really awful nausea.

I was on medication but still had nausea to some extent, wasn't vomiting a lot but sometimes I feel that makes the nausea worse as you just want relief from it.

As a previous poster said, just sleep as much as you can as it can help

I'm 12 weeks now and nearly out the other side of the sickness but I still get it in waves

Oh it's pure hell isn't it. Im 24 weeks and just coming through the other end. With my first I felt fine by 12 weeks. I found anything salty or fruity like ice lollies. Hope you feel better soon x

Original lucozade was the only thing I could keep down at one stage.

Don't let yourself get hungry. That makes it 100 times worse.

I had terrible pregnancy sickness and in the early weeks I found it was good to eat an ice lolly (just a super icy one) then straight after eat something substantial. The ice lolly stopped the nausea for enough time to get a decent meal into me.
Biscuits by the bed too.

Polo mints
Fresh air regularly
Getting enough sleep
Distraction

All help but not a silver bullet. It's not fun. Fingers crossed it subsides in the 2nd trimester

I had HG with the first 2 so nothing helped except drugs and drips.

With 3 I wasn't sick once, but I did eat none stop. So breakfast the second I woke up, mid morning sandwich, good solid lunch, mid afternoon sandwich, tea, snack before bed. If I got even slightly hungry I felt very very very sick.

Things that helped me a lot during my morning sickness

Constantly nibbling plain crackers/breadsticks etc. This was probably the most helpful thing. I work in an boutique and my managers always had a stash of crackers for me in the stock room so I could just pop out whenever I needed. I also had a box in my bedside table as I often got sickness overnight.

Constantly sipping water (really helpful when I couldn’t access crackers)

Fresh air as much as possible (although I live opposite a really smelly farm so that wasn’t often great)

Are there any smells you can stomach? I found my house absolutely stank (thanks to the farm) so I had to find the least offensive air freshener I could find to mask the smell. It still wasn’t great but definitely a lot less nausea inducing. I also avoided a certain stock cupboard at work as it always set me off.

Distraction. I tried to keep busy to try and take my mind off it - didn’t always work but sometimes did

Rest rest and rest

I ate a lot of plain lettuce, carrot sticks, apples. My stomach literally couldn’t handle anything other than those and plain carbs until I hit 16 weeks

Please keep an eye on your weight as well, I lost nearly a stone in my first trimester. My dr eventually have me a prescription to help with the sickness but by the time they did this it eased off a bit.

I hope it eases off soon, morning sickness is awful, especially when you’re having to work through it 💕