Concerned Dad to be.

[Moose222]

Hi, I will try an keep this as brief as possible. My wife and I are expecting our first child. It's still early days and we are currently at 11weeks but the wife has been having issues with morning sickness, mainly in the evenings. I know this is not a great part of being preganant but is a common side effect. However the problem is she has now not eaten anything but toast for a few days. She is diabetic but won't take any of her medication or folic acid and hasn't done for over a week now as she says this makes her feel worse. As time goes on I'm concerned this lack of nutrients will have an adverse affect on her health and our child.

Does any one have any advice weather it be dissolvable folic acid or pregnacare type products to at least get some vitamins in her. Or am I just being an annoying daft sod?

Cheers.

I think you are wise to be concerned about your DW missing medication and not eating.
You need to encourage her to discuss the way she is feeling and behaving with a HCP - a MW would be a good start, but I imagine she may well be under the care of a consultant or specialist MW as she has diabetes, so a call to them might be an alternative.

I think the folic acid is probably the least of the concerns.

a) the child will take nutrients at the expense of the mother - so I'd be more concerned about her than the unborn.
b) morning sickness is awful, no matter what time of day you get it. It can be really debilitating.

What worked (a little) for me was to drink water or squash with added glucose, to keep my blood sugar up. Glucose is more easliy absorbed by the body - and it did give me a little more "get up and go".

I lost loads of weight in the first 3 months of both my pregancies due to not being able to eat, and then chucking up what I did eat, and DDs turned out fine.

Folic acid is more beneficial if taken before conception than after. And no-one even took it until relatively recently (25 years -ish??) - so I wouldn't be overly concerned about that either.

I think she needs your support at a time when she's feeling absolutely dreadful for large parts of the day. I'd keep offering to prepare plain food for her, and things like ginger biscuits which help some people witht he sickness, but I really wouldn't worry about the baby - it will be fine.

Congratulations btw

i recommend encouraging her to contact a midwife or doctor. if not for her for her baby..

they can help to re assure both of you and offer further guidance if its needd.

i would be more concerned at her not taking her diabetes medication than the vitamins tbh!

has she spoken to her diabetes team, or at least her GP about the effects pregnancy could have on her? she needs to control her blood glucose carefully.

you've probably already read this

The folic acid I had, which I think was just Asda's own brand, while not marketed as being chewable certainly was!

Unfortunately I don't think you can't get soluble or chewable pregnancy multivits. I've looked everywhere.

Thanks for the quick replies. She is under the care of a specialist Mid wife and has been having weekly blood tests to find the correct medication for the diabetes until 2 weeks back. I have asked her to contact them but currently feels that she doesn't want to pester them. I will maybe be a bit more tackful and try and persuade her to conatact them again.

Are there an particular foods that are maybe easier to stomach than others at this time? I sympathise with the sickness, its not nice to witness et alone go through.

Cheers for the advice.

Uncontrolled diabetes in pregnancy can cause all sort of problems for the baby as well as the mum.

She would not be pestering her MW, it is her MWs job to make sure that she and the baby get the best care possible.

Please get her some proper medical advice.

BTW - it isn't just the MWs job. All the MWs I know would be devastated if something happened to a mum or baby because the mum didn't feel able to approach them. They do care very much about the women they care for.

Hi Moose I'm currently a week behind your wife and suffering badly like I did in my first pregnancy. I find chips and other bland foods to really help, though yesterday I started craving McDonald's cheeseburgers.

I feel awful in the morning and nothing helps, I also feel awful in the evenings and find just lying down sipping lemonade helps.

I can't take vitamin supplements either as they make it worse but am fastidious about folic acid so I just take the smaller tablets of those (pregnacare are the size of horse tranquilizers! !!)

She will get through this don't worry but definitely get her to speak to her diabetes midwife to let her know sge can't take the medication.

Anything with ginger or peppermint worked for me. Sugary soft drinks (not sure how that works with diabetes though!) allowed to go flat.

Rice cakes. Oatcakes. Mashed potato. Dry cereal.

yep def get her back to the midwife. that's what they're paid for!!

the sickness is vile. it really is and I totally get why she doesn't want to do anything that makes it worse.

I found that eating little and often helped. I normally had to force myself to eat something becasue I didn't want to, but once I had i'd feel better!

ginger never helped me, but fizzy drinks did. prob not a good combination with the diabetes though

If she weren't diabetic then this wouldn't be an issue even the folic acid as it's the first few weeks when the neural tube is forming when folic acid intake is most important. But with the diabetes she really does need to liaise with the specialist mw to find a solution that works for her. It isn't "pestering" at all this is why they have the specialist mws in the first place.

What foods are better than others varies widely from person to person and even from pregnancy to pregnancy. If she's very toast-oriented at the moment, could she stomach something like peanut butter on the toast? That would be getting protein and fat into her as well as the carbs that the toast's supplying.

I know exactly how she feels. I had horrible "morning sickness" on all my pregnancies, couldn't keep anything down, including the folic acid and what made it worse was MIL and others going on about how I had to eat when I physically couldn't. This in itself is not really a concern or half the children I know would have problems!

But, the diabetes meds are really important. She really does need to see her MW about this and this is the MW's job! They would expect your dw to contact them.

She might feel better if she could get her diabetes medication sorted. Badly controlled diabetes can make people grumpy! And the rest.

I found hula hoops and grapes, and home made orange juice ice lollies the only things I could stomach while I had morning sickness. Then once the MS lifted I only wanted really greasy food like macdonalds and curry

I agree with everyone about the fact you need to get her to contact the midwife, but I in fact think you should be considering getting seen to today. When I was 8 weeks I couldn't keep things down for a few days - with the exception of the odd few chips or yogurt. I was advised to see the out of hours GP (I rang the NHS direct line at 6pm), and so I did, and was admitted straight to hospital to be on a drip.
It's even more important that your wife gets seen to as she is diabetic and she really shouldn't be stopping her medication!

Hi OP

Just wanted to add about the Pregnacare tablets you mentioned, they are HUGE and I found I couldn't actually take them until late in the pregnancy, and after as breastfeeding tablets. Our local health trust gives out vitamins to all pregnant women (maybe ask the MW?), these are labelled with the NHS Healthy Start logo and are much smaller pills which you can swallow without water, much better when you're struggling to keep things down.

Tell her to not think of it as "pestering" but enabling them to do their job which is to look after her and the baby.

Uncontrolled diabetes are dangerous both for her and the baby.

It's really not just a case of making her comfortable with morning sickness and she needs proper advice from a HCP.

Hi and congratulations. I suffered from bad morning sickness until 21 weeks and lost a stone and a half so totally sympathise with your dw. The baby should be getting what it needs but of course at the expense of your dw if she is not eating. Folic acid is recommended and aids foetal development so by all means play that card to get her to take the tablets. As for food, just cater for her every whim, whatever she feels like, be it chips or beetroot sandwiches! Anything is better than nothing at this stage (toast is fine) and make sure she's drinking because she'll be losing fluid if she's vomiting. Cannot offer advice re. Diabetes but liase with midwives and doctor. Try not to worry too much either. They will be fine and you're doing great. X

I wouldn't eat much I'd have a mouthful an say I don't want anymore, just make sure she is drinkin liquid, I loved lucozade. I didn't drink much water was always pop! Hopefully she will grow out of it soon. Least she's having toast don't no much about diabetes but if she needs her meds she really needs to try taking them xxxXxxxx

Congratulations! I know your wife doesn't want to be seen as 'pesterer', however IME I've found that the MWs would always much rather I contacted them, even if it was about something daft, than do nothing
Regarding vitamins, as a diabetic does she have the higher dose of folic acid (5mg) on prescription? (I took this as I have another condition which required the higher dose for pregnancy) Although they probably don't make her feel great they are at least small, pregnacare are horsepills! TBH though my priority would be her diabetes meds as uncontrolled diabetes is not fun. I had bad morning sickness in the morning, so I changed the time I took my meds (took them at lunchtime and evening) - this may not be feasible for her though? Again the specialist midwife or whoever she sees about her diabetes should be able to advise.

OP,if your wife won't 'pester' her midwife do it for her! I'm a type one diabetic and vomiting raises your blood sugar levels,even if she isnt eating anything, so its vital she takes her insulin/meds. High blood sugars are incredibly dangerous for both her and the baby,is she still monitoring them at least?

Not trying to scare you but I really can't stress enough how important it is she speaks to someone sooner rather than later.

Right, just as a quick update. After showing her this thread, the wife had called the midwife and is being taken of the glucophage and put onto insulin so she can at least keep on top of the diabetes. You are correct and she is on the 5mg folic acid tablets which she still won't touch. We shall use trial and error with all of your suggestions and hopefully help calm this morning sickness.

Thankyou so much for the advice, my mind is now a lot more at ease and more importantly we can get back on top of her meds again.

Cheers :)

Sea bands acupressure bands for nausea can help

I hope your DW feels better soon, I'm glad that you and she have managed to access some RL help.