ideas for healthy pregnancy snacks

[umboo]

hello

i'm running out of ideas for healthy pregnancy snacks and a couple of times ive gone hungry but i just haven't known what to eat and haven't felt like anything i have in my kitchen.... and then felt nauseous and ultimately vomitted :( im currently 16w and still feeling sick unfortunately. anyway i need ideas for good snacks i can have, both for at home and also some things i can quickly pop in my bag as emergency food when out. any ideas much appreciated!

How about crudités? You could prepare raw carrots and cucumber etc or veggie wraps, yoghurts (if you can stomach them!)

I ate cereal bars, the less sugary the better but was substantial enough to take the edge off the nausea and keep my energy up. I also had times when nothing seemed appetising, everything tasted the same, ended up just eating things like cereal bars because I knew I had to have something.

I did a lot of snacking to avoid nausea and I worried a lot about putting on weight, but I found that little and often and a good variety of snacks helped.
I had - buttered toast, carrot sticks, plain digestive biscuits, fruit (especially pears and bananas for some reason), cereal bars, mini chocolates (eg celebrations - strictly rationed!), raisins...

Remember to see your diet as a whole - it's fine to have a packet of crisps mid-morning if you then don't have it at lunchtime, or to have toast mid-afternoon if you then have a slightly smaller dinner.

hi there

great ideas! thank you, i was feeling very uninspired....and whenever i've googled pregnancy snacks i never like the ideas! that may be something to do with reading them while being nauseous though...

anyway ive added small packs of dried fruit to my online shop to give that a try, and also discovered that ellas kitchen do long life smoothies so have ordered a couple of those too to see if they're any good while i'm out (though i might look a bit silly drinking one...or possibly mean, like i'd just nicked 19mo ds' snack ). like the idea of cereal bars, not so healthy like you say, but i guess as an emergency in the bag thing it might help.

crudites might go down well while at home, actually dh made some carrot sticks today and they were quite nice so maybe i'll do that.

please keep the ideas coming!!

I really like krisprolls - a small wholegrain type of swedish toast. I find them absolutely delicious, even plain (though you can also put things on them). Other than that I carry around lots of fresh fruit with me (which also helps with the constipation tremendously!) including packs of raisins which help with the hunger quite a bit.

Check out this website graze which may also give you some ideas for healthy snacks (though you can buy the same sort of things elsewhere of course).

Soreen malt loaf is a winner for me. Particularly if spread with crunchy peanut butter, yum!

I only had sickness at 16 weeks and the only thing that got me through was yoghurts - lots and lots of yoghurts

I had a bag of mixed nuts and dried fruit.waa great! I vomited until birth but found little and often really helped:(

I've just been researching snacks as well! I'm 20 weeks and now that I've lurched out of the first trimester (where I ate anything that didn't turn my stomach / come straight back up) I'm now back on the wagon.

I looked at the NHS website, whch has a great section on pregnancy and health. To increase vitamin D, folate and keep iron up, they suggest a few of these ides:

• weetabix / all bran with banana and sem-skimmed milk (extra vit E if you put pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, linseeds or wheatgerm on top)
• wholegrain toast with mashed banana
• crudites with hummus
• oat cakes with low fat cream cheese, ham and watercress (or smoked salmon if you're happy to eat it - NHS now says we can!)
• glass of unsweetened oj
• yoghurt
• porridge
• soup
• dried apricots
• fruit (banana, apple, grapes, tangerine etc)

If you're flush with cash and short on time, M&S do crudites, bulgar wheat salads and fruit sticks in a pot (3 melon types, mango and pineapple).

Guidelines I could see generally suggested upping calcium intake, drinking a glass of oj a day and ensuring you get 1/3rd starch content per main meal (bread, potatoes, pitta, rice, couc cous etc)

Some of them looked a bit faffy to me (and scarily healthy!!) and would take some organisation, but it's really tough to stave off hunger whilst keeping not eating for two - as we're now told is not good.

Watch the guidelines on nuts though as some sources say not good in pregnancy, whilst others say no harm. Ah, choices choices!!

I'm not sure if any of this will be possible as I work in an office where eating every few hours at my desk will look odd, but fed up of the tummy rumbling.
Watching this thread with interest as I'd love some good snack ideas. Good thread!

Some good ideas here.
Yy to yoghurts
Tinned fruit also works for me.

dizzykipper i used to LOVE krisprolls!!! i used to buy them from a little corner shop near where i used to work. since i left there, ive never found anywhere else that sells them :( please oh please tell me where you have managed to track them down!!!

i occasionally eat a bit of malt loaf, as i keep some presliced in teh freezer for ds, but sometimes it makes me sick...

sabbatica thank you for that nhs info, very useful. i have a weetabix for brekkie every day atm so not sure i could have it as a snack.i love the idea of soup as a snack and i have some great recipes, but not sure i can stomach that right now either. but i was thinking the other day that when (if!) i stop feeling sick i'll batch make some soups and keep them in the freezer. i think bananas on toast is a good idea, i will give that a go. i used to have that when i was on weightwatchers losing the preggie weight from ds1 (when i didn't have the problem of endless sickness, i did feel sick, but once it cleared up i just felt ravenously hungry all the time!)

hmm tinned fruit, i do like sliced peaches with a meringue nest, forgot about that.

thank you for the inspiration,, off to add some more things to my sainsbos shop, and hoping i can get even more ideas soon!

(i should say, i'm adding all the good ideas to my shopping not because i intend to feast on all this but because i need to eat lots of different things, i can't eat the same thing (apart from teh weetabix for some reason) all the time right now iyswim....)

ditto tinned fruit.
sometimes yoghurt.
almonds
apples
shreddies
seems to keep changing ..

Loving this thread ladies, I'm 9+1 with twins and go from feeling sick and not wanting anything to needing to eat now, I think I fancy something really big cause I'm starving only to not want it after a couple of mouth fulls!! I'm concious I don't want to put on excess weight, and have started to thing healthy so loving the ideas on here :) dried apricots whilst not great on a diet will defo do the job at the minute, as well as crunchy carrot sticks!

umboo my asda and tesco have krispi rolls, I used to love them too but they are so delicious I can't seem to stop, which again on a diet is not great!.

I'm feeling quite chuffed with myself as not told anyone at work yet and had a couple of people in the last few days say I've lost more weight:) I lost 10lb in 3 weeks just before falling pg!

goingmadtrying you are a star!! i have just checked on tesco online and fortunately our two-monthly nappy shop from tesco is due tomorrow so even though my sainsbos order came this morning with the weekly groceries, i can still get some!! ordered some low fat cottage cheese to put on top, that's how we used to have them at work...mmmm... any other ideas for krisproll toppings?

When I was feeling sick I just ate loads of bland, dry things like oatcakes and crackers. Krisp rolls, definitely. You can top them with humous, slices of cheddar/other cheese, bit of salad...

I find pretzels to be a good snack along with apples & dried fruit. Naked bars from sainsburys are another staple.

It difficult to think of anything when feeling nauseous though.

Cheese and apple
Cereal
Malt loaf
Ice buns / cherry buns
Cheese biscuits

Any good? Try to eat before you need too, that helped me..

Cheese strings and muller rice yoghurts worked for me most of the time. Also had phases of pretzels and mini cheddars. Pineapple and melon have also been godsends for me and I'm just starting to fancy cucumber and carrot sticks. Hope you find some inspiration from somewhere- I found eating such a horrid chore when I felt nauseous :(

umboo I get them from asda or sainsburys - not sure if tesco also do them as the one near me has a very odd layout and I've yet been able to find them. but they are the best!

I'm hitting the hungry all the time stage now and I'm only 15weeks!.

dizzykipper my local sainsburys doesn't do them :( but now ive ordered 3 bags from tesco so that will keep me going for a while lol

flickstar eating is definitely a chore for me atm too. sometimes on teh weekend i send dh to another room with ds so i can concentrate on eating and just get the job done!

i tried crackers as they worked well for me last time but cant seem to be in the mood for them this time around. i reckon when i'm less nauseous i'll like them with cheese, actually that was another good healthy snack id have while on weightwatchers :)

Nuts are safe. They used to be on the banned list but research hasn't found any link with nuts in pregnancy and allergies in baby. Nhs website has info on this.