Force food down or not?

[jasmine51]

Im 16 wks and although the worst of the nausea has now gone I still cant stomach 'nutritious' meals. I am becoming concerned about nutrition for the baby and cant believe he can get all he needs from endless crackers with cheese or oranges, or vast quantities of sweets. I dont mean specific meals here, I mean any kind of conventional meal...meat n veg, pasta n sauce, chicken salad, soup...I cant stomach anything like this.
I have started to force myself to eat what would be considered to be very small balanced meals (that I would normally love) but hate every second and want to gag all the way through. Am I doing the right thing forcing myself like this for the sake of the bub or it is pointless and I should just eat what I most feel like on the basis that this is what my body wants?
Anyone got any wisdom for me?

I have been where you are and I say eat what you feel like eating. You will become seriously malnourished before your baby goes short of anything.

I expressed similar concerns to my midwife, and she reminded me of just how small a first trimester baby was.

I hope that helps :)

Don't bother. Eat what you fancy.

With my last one I survived mostly on potato waffles, with my first I tried to force down fruit smoothies and veg but gave up with no 2 and took multi- vitamins and just ate what I could. Both are happy and healthy and were healthy weights. Don't worry too much, just try to eat what you can.

Just eat what you fancy! I barely ate anything during my second (lost nearly 2 stone in first 12 weeks), mw said baby takes what it needs from you!

Agree with others. I seem to remember a study that was done on pg women in Africa who were literally starving. It found that their babies' birthweights weren't significantly lower than babies born to healthy mums, proving what efficient parasites foetuses are and how amazing a placenta is! If you can eat a balanced, healthy diet then obviously that's best but don't worry about the baby not getting enough food to grow.

no dont force yourself, just eat when you fancy eating. i was the same as you i had terrible nausea and the thought and smells of food made me want to be sick. but the baby takes all the nutrients from your body so it will be getting everything it needs. you will suddenly start feeling starving anyhow lol i did around 19 weeks, i lost weight in the 1st 16 weeks and i was small enough not to, but my babys totaly healthy and fine

I wouldn't worry too much, I developed a major aversion to vegetables when I had ms and it wasn't until about 18/19+ weeks that I was able to go back to eating pretty much any type of food that I normally would. I also felt starving and couldn't get enough food in me for a couple of weeks.

I did find that vegetables in stir-frys or curries a lot easier to stomach than boiled veg before that though. I also found fruit a lot easier to manage than veg and drank ridiculous amount of orange juice in order to ease my conscience slightly, as even though I knew it was ok and the baby would be fine, I just couldn't believe how little fruit and veg and I was eating as I normally eat loads!

Thanks all. The veggies thing is interesting - I am normally a complete veggie freak but please dont show me a carrot at the moment!
You've made me feel alot better and I'm going to stop torturing myself and just try to eat the best I can but not stress over it. Right - where's the cheese box...