Ridiculous Heartburn - any tips?

[giddywithglee]

I'm 27+3 and have been suffering with heartburn since about 20 weeks. I'm reduced to swigging Gaviscon from the bottle - does anyone have any tips?!?

Gaviscon didn't work for me. A friend who is a midwife recommend Rennie which is made of Calcium. I could keep it in my bag and pop one in my mouth in the middle of the night and just sit-up and suck for a bit. The added bonus was the calcium, my son 6 yrs and is strong as an ox, honest.

another vote for ranitadine, i had shocking heartburn, but once youve got your baby in your arms it vanishes so there is light at the end of the tunnel!

During my first pregnancy I suffered horrendously with hb. I couldn't believe the immediate relief when I gave birth!! 14 years later suffering as badly with this pregnancy! So bad I cry - will try ALL the above. Oh for the internet 14 years ago! how sad does that sound???

There are degrees of heartburn.

For "normal" heartburn, milk and gaviscon will help enough.

However, for serious long term heartburn, zantec helps, as it actually reduces the amount of acid your stomach makes, whereas Gaviscon just sits on top of it like a foam.

I had HB so badly I ended up at a gastroenterologist who gave me a prescription for something even stronger than zantec.

He also said to avoid fresh bread, as the yeast in it activates stomach acid. He said milk helps for a bit, but then the stomach reacts by making more acid, so a short term solution.

Hideous HB is one of the reasons I am worried about getting pregnant again. I spent a month not being able to lie down due to reflux, and trying to sleep sitting up.

It is agony, isn`t it?! I think the oat slime would also help, if you can get it down. I found regular carb based small meals were the way to go.

hi - also can vouch for the fact that despite having hideous HB and reflux in PG, it went once I wasn't any more.

Acidic fruits are baaad (I remember producing raspberries coated with stomach acid out of my nose one night. It woke me up), I found carbs bad too, pasta especially .

I didn't find any of the medicines "cured", just made slightly better. I slept sitting up, tried to have a long a gap as possible between eating and going to bed, to exercise as much as possible...

But in the end just didn't eat all that much. If you think it's going to be coming out of an orifice of the facial variety, it's a great appetite inhibitor and hard to get over... sorry!

severe heartburn can be a sign of serious pregnancy condition called Hellp syndrme. its rare, but check the link for the other symptoms. If you have any other other symptoms check with your midwife and get some bloods done.

www.apec.org.uk/hellpsyndrome.htm

My sympthoms were horrific heart burn like pain ( actually my liver failing), dizziness, and visual disturbances. I didn't swell up or have high bp until I went critcal at 41 weeks, but I had the other sympthoms from 20 weeks

peppermint tea works really well.

The thing that worked for me was hot milk, at least one large cup before bed...boy I could drink it hot!!

I had HB from 10 weeks pg....with each pg!!(4)

Stop eating bread and pastry.

Just remembered, my MW recommended Fennel Tea to me over peppermint tea too.

I keep thinking of the benefits of all my HB.
I've not put any wieght on at all. In fact I've probably lost some!
When I was pregnant with DS 3 years ago I was back in normal jeans the day I came home, but...then totally made up for 3 months not eating by stuffing my face constantly and piling on the pounds!

Of course this time round I will control myself and maintain this enforced HB starvation weight loss skinny version of myself.

(positive mental attitude and all that!)

I've had three pregnancies and with the first used Gaviscon and milk for immediate relief but later suffering. I was more watchful of what triggered it in my second and third pregnancies and found that crisps, dairy and sugar made it worse so no pigging out for me - even low fat yogarts caused problems - there were times when I ignored the pain and ate cheescake because I wanted too!! Fennel tea is great for settling your stomach.

If it is really bad then you can get omeprazole or lansoprazole from your GP.
HTH

Not sure if anyone has suggested this yet, but this totally counter-intuitive method worked for me when I had extremely bad acid reflux - it would pin me down and I couldn't move when I had it - it was truly awful. Everyone kept saying just eat mild foods like white rice, bread/toast, drink milky drinks etc - and this seemed logical, to tame the acid with soothing things.

But no! This is actually completely the wrong thing to do. It might provide temporary relief (a bit like antacids) but actually eating in that way or taking antacids like Gaviscon or Rennies increases your body's production of acid.

So... what you need to do is eat acidic foods like citrus. Now if I get heartburn or acid reflux, I eat an orange or two and it goes away instantly. But the only times I get problems with acid are when I've been over-indulging in carby processed foods anyway.

The reasoning behind this approach is thus: your body produces acid in order to neutralise incoming alkaline foods (bread etc). Too much alkaline coming in = likely overproduction of acid. (Hence why prolonged use of Gaviscon et al actually worsens the problem). Therefore, incoming acid foods = production of alkaline by the body to neutralise it. Hey presto!

What seems counter-intuitive at first is actually quite logical.

pregnancy yoga. I know it sounds daft but it was an absolute godsend for all bodily aches and pains and heartburn. If can't get that - accupuncture.

Got to agree with babymutha about antenatal yoga as a cure for all ills, and ovumahead - I think different things work for different people but I'm more like you kind of fighting fire with fire as I am sure Gaviscon makes it all worse...

i use pukka's 3 ginger tea. used it for morning sickness and found that if you drink it when you have HB it magically goes away. Tastes delicious, peppermint tea makes me gag (drank it through 1st preg) but this i could drink forever!

I also took ranitidine throughout my pregnancy as the heartburn was unreal.

If i took anything else (rennies, gaviscon etc) it made me wretch and I would puke it back up. Be careful of some types of ranitidine though. From what I remember, boots own brand isn't suitable for pregnancy.

NOTHING WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOTHING AT ALL. Tried everything with all 3 pregnancies and just CRIED. No sleep for 27 months and hardly able to eat - then the children had it just as badly and nearly starved to death as they couldn't keep any milk down and the hospital wouldn't help. Good luck to you all. xx And sorry for being depressing but I do feel your pain :-(((

Just watch it with the milk & gaviscon if you are prone to anemia- i had awful heartburn with both my pregnancies, I also found it near impossible to get my iron levels up with DS2.

Then someone mentioned that calcium prevents absorbtion of either vit c/or iron i cant remember which, but you need vit c to absorb iron, so that was why!

Spatone was the only thing that worked for my anemia & NO side effects.

I was prescribed Omprazole for my HB in the end & it worked like a dream (ish)

I also used to munch on sainsburys value popcorn and eat little but often & limit hot drinks, spicy/acidy food.

StarlightMcKenzie - exactly. And I've never been a swallower.

Just returning to the thread to say that I tried skipping dinner and just having a natural yoghurt in the evening, and had my first heartburn-free night for two months!

Thanks to whoever suggested it.