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

Dry toast with salted butter & tea to dunk in

Original flavour lucozade (the one in the red bottle) was the only thing that helped me.
Probably a placebo though as I used to get given it as a kid after tummy bugs - back in the day when you got it from the chemist in glass bottles and it was thought to rehydrate you!
Might be worth a try though, hope it gets better soon.

cream crackers were my hero:)

Salt and vinegar crisps. Not very healthy, but they kept me going during those horrible weeks of nausea. I found forcing myself to eat made the nausea better, it was much worse when I didn't eat.

Mini packets of Cheerios were my saviour!! plus hot water, iced drinks and ham sandwiches

Flapjack!

Rich tea biscuits, ginger nuts, soft fruit, salted or salt & vinegar crisps to snack on, and baked potato at actual mealtimes.

I also have an emergency packet of polos for commuting because the London Underground currently smells truly truly awful. Sucking mints disguises it temporarily.

Ginger biscuits, ginger ale, mango juice and white toast. Anything else made me want to hurl!

Lemon sherbet sand lemon jelly babies were my secret weapon. I used to carry a small bottle of lemon essential oil to sniff which also helped a bit. Also salt & vinegar crisps. And plain biscuits (rich tea/digestives/malted milk). Good luck!

I couldn't stomach anything for weeks when PG so ended up drinking Slimfast shakes to make sure I got some nutrients! Not sure they're the best source of vitamins etc, but I could manage to keep them down and I figured as a 'meal replacement' there must be something useful in them.

Weirdly, since my update this thread has predicted every phase of my what-I-can-stomach-today phase! I've gone through a potato phase, really wanted an orange icelolly today, have only eaten pasta with cheese and spinach some nights, lts of toast, salt and vinegar crisps and am now hankering after flapjack or museli bars...

ginger biscuits

Malted milk biscuits.

Dry crackers helped me. I had MS for 26 weeks!

No foods helped me, but I learned quickly that I would wake up then be sick soon after. I'd then shower and get ready for the day (without breakfast) then by the time I got in to work (say an hour or so after being sick) I would be feeling much better and could down a glass of milk and a breakfast bar (something easy to grab in the few minutes before actually starting work). This little routine got me through 3 months of horrendous morning sickness where I vomited most days !! The nausea and exhaustion would then hit again at about 7pm (but I was home from work by then luckily!) when I would just doze on the sofa until bedtime! 2nd trimester was a total breeze in comparison! Bags of energy and no sickness ;)

I actually think it varies from person to person and from pregnancy to pregnancy. Some things that worked for me: cheese pastries eg cheesy breadsticks and ginger biscuits (the posh kind from M&S). My cousin swore by cheese flavoured popcorn. I also sipped peppermint tea all day. Good luck!

I also found cheese to be the answer. Straight from fridge was fine, but I also made lots of cheese on toast. I would be feeling absolutely wretched while I was making it, but as soon as I had cheese I felt better. Good luck! :-)

Rich tea biscuits for me - well rich tea fingers actually because they're thinner so more palatable for some reason. This has worked for me as long as I can remember for any kind of nausea, so maybe try to think what you've eaten when ill in the past.

Ginger biscuits all the way

Sympathies, op! For me too morning sickness struck abroad where everyone chain smoked everywhere - I thought I was going to pass out so many times.

I didn't find that any foods 'helped' as such (i.e. nothing actually made me feel better), I just found that I could eat certain foods that would not cause additional nausea, and would keep my energy levels up. These were green apples, oranges, grapes, toast and marmite, ice cold freshly squeezed lemonade, plain cornflakes (i.e. dry!), crisps.

Sour things worked for me - grapefruit, sour sweets( along the lines of haribo tangfastics, pickled onions.

Potatoes were settling for me, in any shape or form. But the best thing was a hot Cornish pasty from the local bakers. Mint tea, rich tea biscuits, crostini, bananas.

Salty crackers like ritz crackers

Marmite on toast. And bananas for ds1 and apples for ds2. Keep those cravings savoury and it's less weight to loose the other end! Morning sickness does have a little upside! Hope you feel better soon!

do you have crispbread there,like ryvita.they really helped and you can shush them up with topping od fruit.tomatos.fish,cream cheese or anything you fancy if u suddenyl feel more able appetite wis.but they can be really helpful to keep in a ziplog bag in your pocket to nibble on throughout.
rice pudding really helped.sounds weird but taking teaspoon fulls and slowly almost sucking each mouthful was really helpful letting it slopwly go down it felt so comforting whe i was sick especially helped that i could have it cold because then it really helped my mouth whihc was ever so sore i assume from morning sickness.
plain dry toast was also fantastic!!
ricola sugar free sweets were a comfort for when i just needed something to flavour my dry mouth.
mashed potato in a dish and the surface fluffed with fork then sprinkled some cheddar on and bake till kind of crispy was a dish i had often.