What can I eat to feel better?

[redexpat]

Hello all
Am 8 weeks pregnant. I've been feeling weak, and really tired, which leads to nausea. I'm training to be a social worker and am on placement atm, and it's at a cafe for drug addicts. Some of them don't have the best personal hygiene, and (am in a forrin' country) there is a smoking room, which means that smoke is always in the air. these things also bring on nausea. I've been sent home twice when my energy just ran out, and have taken today off too as I nearly threw up my breakfast. But I'm only allowed 12 days off, or I wont pass, and I'll have to do it all again when I go back from maternity leave. I finish placement on the 20th June, so a while to go yet.

What can I eat to help keep my going? If any of you have tips for small things to snack on that would be great. No hummous in resident country

Ready salted crisps (hula hoops were best for me) and grapes. Orange juice ice lollies if you can store them, fizzy water.

I found little bits of plain protein were good to keep me going and take the edge off the nausea. E.g. Little bits of grilled chicken or cheese.

I also found sour/citrusy things quite good. Like plums, grapes, tangerine or pear drops or similar to suck on.

Plain digestives and sucking Cherry Drops worked for me. You could try sucking a mint or something with a strong smell to help with having to be around bad smells?

Those are all excellent ideas thank you. Keep them coming! Am clearly going to be taking an enormous lunch box with me :)

I'm seconding grapes, plus satsumas, fruity ice lollies (sour pastille ones are lovely!) toast and plenty of chewing gum! And not eating anything unless I fancy it - a bit of a pain but has kept the nausea to a minimum so far!

I also found crisps and boiled sweets to be lifesavers when the wave of nausea hits! Very good luck to you :)

With my first nothing helped apart from just being sick.

With this one i just feel sick. But it's constant. Definitely worse.

Fruit lollies and really really cold ginger ale with ice

ithoughtof that sounds awful. So far the winners are apples, salt and vinegar crisps, and orange juice - I have to eat something every 2 hours. Fortunately we are coming up to silly season with lots and lots of public holidays, so I wont have many 5 day weeks for a while.

I always had a Babybel cheese with me. Didn't necessarily stop the nausea but was the only thing I could stomach when it was bad.

Pear drops worked for a bit. Ginger biscuits? Soda water.

Cheap salt and vinegar corn chips ( like chipsticks ). The cheaper the better usually, these saved me on many many occassions.
Also, don't get hungry, just graze constantly.

Salt and vinegar pringles, remember eating copious amounts in the bath when I was struggling! Agree about the grazing, make sure you are not hungry. Flat lemonade as well was a good thing. Still fresh lemonade was good.

Poor you! My first thought was some cooked things that helped me (fish fingers and fried bananas) but on the go my best bet was actually macadamias and dried cranberries. Little nibbles constantly helps. Best of luck to get through this sicky patch.

Boiled sweets were my saviour this time. And sandwiches.

Pretzels, real lemonade (not the fizzy kind) and shreddies were pretty much all I could manage for a long time. Vegetables were completely unpalatable in all forms except soup so I used to make big vats of it to have throughout the day. In fact, any kind of soup was good...maybe because of the salty broth?

English muffins were good for me, as was porridge. I also found citrus essential oils to sniff (e.g. on hanky) were good to reduce smell-related nausea - might be worth a try. Lying down flat also seemed to help a lot. I found weeks 8 and 9 the worst so you may find you're doing better later in your placement.

Can you do Marmite? Marmite on toast cut into triangles. Must be triangles. Strips or squares don't work. Have some before you get up if you can to ward off the nausea at the start of the day, and as others have said, graze and don't get hungry. I got through a LOT of those ice pop things, and I found salty things (followed by lots of water or weak ribena - which I can no longer drink because it makes me nauseous!) or bland things worked well. Like rice cakes. Ooooh and you can get marmite rice cakes too...

Hope it passes quickly for you, and that all this food chat isn't making you feel queasy. Congratulations on your pregnancy!

As an absolute veteran of severe morning sickness , I can promise baked potatoes work. Did for me, anyway.

Ice poles! Once sent dh out in a snowstorm to stock up as they were the only thing that worked

Toast, ginger biscuits (I used to suck them) watermelon was great for me. And sometimes a mint.
Little and often is the key I think.
I feel for you, it's the worst.
I'm due in 2 weeks and still get waves of it.

Best of luck with your career and pregnancy

First time round, I could only stomach potato for a while.

Second time, mints and orange juice. Any of those appeal?

For me, plain crisps.
For a friend who was so ill she was hospitalised for two pregnancies, Cheesy Wotsits. She says she doesn't understand why her DS isn't orange!

Melon cubes (good source of folic acid too)
Ginger biscuits

I had terrible morning sickness and practically lived on these.

OK bit gross, didn't help with getting rid of morning sickness but did help with the symptom of morning sickness, a pint of milk before even getting out of bed, then I'd get up and immediately rush to the loo. second time around I didn't even get morning sickness.

Weak squash and rich tea biscuits. Mints for when I'm trying to be discreet!

I bought travel sickness bands and wore them most of the time, they put pressure on the pressure points on your wrists which can stop you from feeling nauseous. I found they worked really well. I also had plenty of ginger drinks which can help to settle the stomach - ginger tea and also Bottlegreen do a ginger and lemongrass cordial that is good with fizzy water.

I definitely agree with not getting hungry at all, so just nibble whatever takes your fancy. Good luck and i hope it passes soon, mine only lasted until 3 months.