Top tips for morning (actually, all-day) sickness

[Nyborg]

Any good ideas? I'm being sick every time I eat today, no matter how little/often/ginger-filled the food. It's making me miserable, so all suggestions welcome.

[mrsmonkey14]

i guess just echoing what everyone's said, in my experience:

• different foods work for diff people. Carbs and bland food were key for me, and eating VERY regularly (forcing food down as didn't want to eat)
  
• definitely sleep as much as you can. Hard to vom whilst you're asleep (although i have woken to be sick and then gone back to sleep)
  
• my boss lent me a nausea wristband for seasickness, but it actually vibrates (has different settings so you can alter intensity) and i did find that helpful, so worth a try? think you can buy them on amazon. May be better than just the wrist bands.
  
• drink as much of whatever you can, and don't fret too much about nutrition - just eat what you can
  
• it's exhausting - if you need time off work then get signed off. Stress made mine worse.
  

I was prescribed meds but didn't want to try them because i wasn't dehydrated and could keep some food down.

Try not to get too down about it, and try to grin and bear the "have you tried ginger biscuits' and 'you're still being sick? oh it should have stopped by now' comments.

I'm 25 weeks and went seamlessly from preg sickness at around 18 wks to indigestion/acid reflux vomiting. Tough pregnancy, easy birth right?! :-)

[littlehorse]

I cant drink water which make me feel sick. Then I found drinking squash mixed with water work miracle for me. I even eat dinner now without feeling sick! And I feel almost normal now because being able to drink squash, I.e., liquid enough.

[Manzanita]

Hi I found really tangy Granny Smith apples, ice chilled apple juice and salty crisps helped a little. Plain salad or cress sandwiches usually stayed down, and I freaked my DH out because I often stuffed crisps inside too.

Lying down with cold flannel on forehead also helped.

I did have medication from the doc but tried not to use it too much.

Ginger nuts, anti sickness bands were useless for me.

[FreeWee]

Poor you. I really feel for you. It's vile not even being able to think about food. My recommendation would be to imagine a food/drink, kind of taste it in your mouth and see if the idea makes you nauseous. I used to shop twice a day for lunch and dinner. I'd buy what I could bear. Different things on an hour by hour basis but in general over the course of the 9 months:

Ham sandwiches with square cheap ish ham rather than nice off the bone stuff (not too cheap and gristly though)
Cheese sandwiches
Bacon sandwiches
Tinned fruit in juice/syrup
Lemon barley water squash
Pain au chocolat
Ready to eat fresh fruit pots from supermarket
Double chocolate chip muffins
Tinned tomato soup
Hummus and pitta bread

Nothing minty even toothpaste and certainly not Gaviscon and didn't eat a potato for 9 months! Hope you start to feel better soon and if not get yourself to the GP for help.

[mummyxtwo]

I found boiled sweets helped - cola cubes in particular, I couldn't stomach every flavour. And citrus in water is meant to help and was recommended to me by the hospital - a slice of lemon in a glass of water chilled with a ton of ice cubes was the only way I could sip fluids and keep them down.

[CharLiz]

My morning sickness was hell, everything made me sick, I couldn't leave the house even the smell of toiletries made me sick. I found the only things that helped were ginger ale/wine (ice cold), fresh fruit, ice lollies and ready salted crisps. It turned out it that my vitamin d tablets were the cause, my doctor advised to stop them and the improvement was immense. I still get sick a couple of times a day but I don't feel sick all the time, I have my life back. I now only eat what and when I fancy and loads of fruit.

[Petal7]

Mint Tic tacs and frozen grapes were the best things for me (in all 3 pregnancies). Hope you find something that works for you.

[MsCatShoes]

I found stupidly cold fizzy water lovely and philadelphia cream cheese on toast was the only breakfast I could stomach.

I was also recommended to keep a mini bottle of really mild alcohol-free mouthwash in your bag/car to just wash your mouth out but still protect your teeth. Such a good tip.

[puddleduck16]

I second (or third?!!) carbs and cheese and anything cold, esp cold fizzy drinks.

I'm now at 19 weeks and still getting nausea (luckily no vomiting). My midwife suggested soor plooms to suck which I find helps immensely. Ginger did nothing for me.

[Junebugjr]

HG with both pregnancies, hospitalised a while for both two. An very experienced midwife or doctor (can't remember now) told me to buy freezing cold full sugar coke and crisps, an they were the only things I could keep down. I had an easier time keeping down either freezing cold or boiling hot food too, god knows why, if anything lukewarm hit my stomach it would just come back up. This stage passes soon x

[Xollob]

Unfortunately, I think it depends on the pregnancy. A little of what you crave and stay away from smelly things. Morning sickness is the pits

[MurderOfGoths]

Drugs, drugs and more drugs.

[chocolatemartini]

Almonds are really good too I've eaten kilos of them

[chocolatemartini]

Oh yes and sleep! I couldn't bear it any more by 6pm most nights and just went to bed

[chocolatemartini]

San pelligrino, avoiding sugar and fruit, and eating every 1/2 hour is helping me. I think the reason people find sweets and fizzy drinks helpful is because keeping your blood sugar levels stable helps. I find it better to keep mine low than high. San pelligrino apparently better for hydration than normal water, some doctor once told me why but I've forgotten. It's to do with the minerals and the bubbles I think. Hope it improves OP it's really an awful thing to suffer with

[LightTripper]

I don't have HG. Am only sick once a day (usually evening), so generally keeping stuff down, but feeling rubbish all the time (worse in evenings). For me food helps. Even things that don't seem appetising can go down OK, though I can't bear the thought of meat or anything oily.

For me the key thing seems to be to eat at least every hour early and late in the day, and every 1h30 in the middle. Porridge seems to have good staying power. Toast works but lasts less long. Sweetcorn is good. Pasta is good if you have the energy to eat it. Small portions often. I have boiled a massive pan of potatoes and a potato piece from the fridge with a bit of brown sauce is good. The only problem is I am very loose, which I guess is all the fibre. I should be the size of a house given the amount I'm eating, but actually I lost half a stone when first sick and have now been flat for two weeks since learning to manage it a bit, despite eating all the time.

Sleep is also good. I am getting 9 or 10 hours a day if I can, and definitely feel more sick if I only get 7 or 8.

I read something a couple of days ago saying lack of protein can make sickness worse, so have also hard boiled some eggs and had some chicken last night, but too early to tell if its making any difference. I have some kidney beans to try too. I'd like to manage more greens, but salads have tended not to settle, and cooked veg seem too smelly. Have managed sweetcorn and peas, so will try to do more of those.

For me ginger biscuits are fine but just food, doesn't seem to help particularly. Mint isn't helping, actually it's one of the smells I've become very averse to (either everything in my house has become really smelly, or my sense of smell, particularly for human smells and tobacco, has gone off the chart sensitive). Blech. Wish I could go back to my old crappy sense of smell!

[HaveTeaWillSurvive]

Half banana in bed in the morning, before my head even left the pillow. When it was really bad I sometimes also had at 3am - I found it was manageable - just about - with lots of sleep and eating a couple of bites of something plain every 2-3 hours.

Oh and frozen grapes - god I still love them. It was loads of them and cream crackers for weeks on end.

[summerswims]

did nibble apricots, nuts, oat cakes all day - tiny amounts to soothe it a little

[summerswims]

Hate to say it- but nothing works. 3 pregnancies - months - at least 6, feeling sick as a dog all day- worst in eve!! Horrid - babes were gorgeous though in the end

[goodjambadjar]

My sickness wasn't as bad as it could be, but I agree that it is exhausting.

I found eating at about 4am, when I needed a wee, helped reduce the severity of it when I got up in the morning. Digestives hit the spot nicely!

Then I would have something really sweet for breakfast, like porridge with LOADS of sugar and maple syrup and lunch was peanut butter sandwiches. They were there only things which seemed to help foodwise. I used to buy a 500ml bottle of sprite, and sip it at the worst moments. It was better if it was flat and warm. A bottle could last me 3 days! The sprite also helped when I had indigestion!
I hope you don't suffer for too long.

[middleclassdystopia]

It's the exhaustion that goes with it that is so debilitating as well. An all round shitty feeling. Like being ill for weeks on end.

Third time for me and fed up.

[Bumpsadaisie]

I lived off coke and sherbert lemons. I couldn't keep anything down that wasn't fizzy and hyper sweet!

If you are being so sick that you can't keep anything down for 24 hours you must see the doctor OP, they can prescribe meds which will help.

I was on cyclizine with both my children until about 17/18 weeks.

[Nyborg]

Thanks, everyone. Tbh, I'm struggling to read all the posts as just the thought of some (ok, most) foods makes me queasy. I have good days and bad days - on the good days I'm sick once or twice. Four is my record on a bad day.

I'm a little worried about dehydration and the tip to drink through straws is particularly helpful - thanks. I've basically only eaten tinned fruit, bread and plain white rice (in miniscule quantities) for 10 days now - can't seem to bear protein in particular, though it does tend to stay down when I've eaten it.

[itsonlysubterfuge]

I found eating regularly seemed to help me. Especially the moment I woke up. Every few hours I had something to eat and when I couldn't stand to eat something, I just had a glass of milk.

[kiwik]

Mine has been different each time.
First pregnancy the only food I could stomach was white sliced bread with peanut butter. As soon as the ms passed I never ate peanut butter again.
Second pregnancy it was beige food - brown bread, digestive biscuits, crisps, lemonade. The sweeter the food the more pleasant it was coming back up again.
Third pregnancy I was lucky as ms only lasted a couple of weeks. I mostly ate toast, toast and more toast.
This time I've been lucky again and only had ms for a few weeks. I mainlined digestive biscuits, and Nilla wafers. The thought of eating another Nilla wafer now makes me nauseous again though.