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.

It was a consultant who prescribed my drugs without batting an eyelid. She said that you have to enjoy pregnancy, constant sickness just makes it unbearable.

I had my booking in appointment with a midwife at the hospital who was aghast that the consultant had prescribed me them, said I should have been able to cope.

The difference in attitudes was astounding.

Fwiw, my first pregnancy I was sick until the day ds was born, I lost four stone in weight and midwives kept fobbing me off. It was only when prepping me for my CS the consultant asked why the hell I was left like that for 9 months to suffer. The midwife just mumbled and skulked off. Hence this time making sure I paid privately to see the consultant who I would have been under on the nhs anyway, but wouldn't have been 'allowed' to see. Madness!

Ginger beer through a straw - the straw bit is important. Also dry salty crackers.

As Pavlov says. I had HG with 2 pregnancies. Dehydration is the real risk so concentrate on getting liquids down - try sipping through straws, ice lollies, eating ice cubes... I found coke and lucozade stayed down the best, also sometimes chocolate milkshake. Eat and drink (not alcohol) whatever might stay down, as soon as you think it might be possible.

If you're vomiting more than a few times a day or are too nauseous to drink, or if you have racing heartrate, confusion etc then see your doctor for antiemetics. There are quite a few options which are safe in pregnancy, based on years of use (you can't actually test them on pregnant women, but over the years a body of evidence builds up from people who have to take them). If your GP won't treat you then find another/go to a walk-in/A&E. My heart started to fail on multiple occasions due to dehydration.

Also find the hyperemesis thread here for sympathy and advice.

mak that it isn't it? you have to shout and scream and pay for meds in pregnancy, when, actually you have zero strength at all to do a thing let alone fight your corner due to constant throwing up. Luckily, I had a great gp, although he could probably have prescribed a little earlier than he did; both him and his co-gp were great. I was given endless time off work, with them quite horrified that I was asking for just a little help to keep me going at work 'work?! you can't possibly work in this state!), as well as cyclizine, followed by metaclopromide later (and another horrid melt under the tongue one, and some suppositories as I couldn't hold even the meds down at one point). But, I have heard so many stories of women being made to think they are somehow failing by taking anti-sickness meds, or being plain refused. We do not have to suffer, so we shouldn't. I was still sick several times daily from pretty much the moment of conception through to birth, despite being on meds, and I honestly don't know how I would have coped without them; I would have likely been in and out of hospital (where, coincidentially they have no quarms about IVing a shit ton of anti-emetics into you while pregnant).

OP, I hope some of these suggestions work for you, and if not, really do ask your gp for some help. You have got to live your life still.

The only thing that worked for me was :-

1. Never letting myself get hungry
2. Keeping a strong peppermint in my mouth all the time!

I hated every second of it!! People who don't get sick don't know how lucky they are!

Lemonade.

Coke zero.

Lemonade ice lollies. Sell them at tesco. A lifesaver.

Pasta.

Polos and foxes fruit sweets. I also found having enough sleep helped to reduce the amount I was sick even if I still felt nauseous

In the morning chocolate yazoo.

Pineapple chunks!

Robin sons lemon squash also lovely.

Plain buttered toast
ready salted crisps
Blackcurrant ribena (hot or cold)
I hated all things gingery.

For me it was..

Salt and vinegar pringles

Lemonade

Polos - I always had these in my pocket and popped one in my mouth everytime that horrible feeling appeared. I had so many lying around that I found a rather young DS1 sucking on one he had found in my handbag when I was pg with DS2!

Hi

I sympathise. Had MS all the way through my second pregnancy and it was all day queasiness at least

Couple of people have mentioned mints on here and they worked for me too. In particular chewing gum. I think it gets the gastric juices going which keeps things, just steadier

HTH

Hi Nyborg

Take a look at this website. www.pregnancysicknesssupport.org.uk/

They are the only UK charity dedicated to helping women with the whole range of pregnancy sickness, from what people call 'morning sickness' through more severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy to hyperemesis gravidarum (HG). They offer information on medications, as well as helping you with one to one support if you need it from volunteers who have been there before. They also have access to up to date research that you can take to your GP in order to get medication if the sickness and nausea are so bad.

Ginger in capsule form can be effective in cases of mild morning sickness, but like people have mentioned above not everything works for everyone. Ginger does not work in cases of HG. If you really are struggling to eat or drink or keep anything down, go to your GP and ask for your ketones to be tested. But this is not the only sign of dehydration. Look out for dry lips and decreased urine output. And weight loss is not good either. Good luck.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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

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