Pregnant and morning sickness with an eating disorder

[SeaBird99]

Hi all,

I am currently 17 weeks pregnant with my first baby and really struggling. I was diagnosed with anorexia in early 2011, when I was 19, for which I have been in and out of therapy since then. I was managing well and on a good path to recovery, but pregnancy has really thrown me and I'm now struggling to eat and still facing morning sickness into my second trimester. I have in fact lost 5kg since I found out that I was pregnant.

I think the other issue that I'm facing is that I'm terrified of eating something 'dangerous' that would hurt the baby. E.g. something with unpasteurised milk in it and I'm driving myself insane.

Any help / guidance / tips would be HUGELY appreciated!

Thanks xx

Have you mentioned it to your midwife? I managed somehow get pregnant just as I was coming out of an anorexia relapse and there was a specialist service that I could have been referred to (in the end, I just stuck with my normal psych). I was 'lucky' in that the only thing that stopped my morning sickness was eating carbs (mainly bread!) frequently so it never became a problem but my midwife kept a very close eye on me. I'd definitely suggest reaching out for some support. If you're not getting enough nutrition, they may also need to do extra scans of the baby. In terms of pure calories, would something like those fortsip drinks help?

Yes I have been very open with my midwife, but unfortuntaly there's not much that they can offer me, as NHS resources are so tight and wait lists so long!