9 weeks pregnant and with food aversions. Help!

[Lovelyjubbly95]

Hi im struggling atm with aversions to meat and i dont feel a real need to eat. Im taking antibiotics atm which isnt helping. Am managing with soup and breadfor lunch, plain small dinners i.e. fish couscous and crumpets for brekkie but am concerned im not getting enough protein or other nutrients. Anyone else had this? Thx!

I had this as well. Couldn't eat any meat except sausages, couldn't eat much veg, pretty much lived on carbs like toast and potatoes, with some fish for the first trimester. I'm pretty sure baby will be ok - some people can barely eat at all with hyperemesis so as long as you eat something. I made sure I kept taking prenatal vitamins and hoped it would improve, and it has. I am now 36 weeks and my appetite is pretty much back to normal (although I tolerate meat now, I don't enjoy it - which is not like me normally).

In my first pregnancy I basically lived off Wotsits and ice from week 5-28+
My diet hasn't been much better this time around either. My almost 2 year old eats more (and better) than I do.

Of course trying to eat a healthy balanced diet is important but that's not always easy during pregnancy and as long as you're eating something you will be fine. The baby takes whatever it needs before you get so much as a look in nutrient wise.

Hopefully the food aversions will taper off over the next few weeks. In the meantime just eat whatever it is your fancy.

Hi Op,

I had HG and it was awful. I fully understand your issues with food aversion. I lost over a stone in weight in the first three months and I weighed less when I had her than pre pregancy. I had two hospital admissions. It's really tough however DD is now 18 months old and perfectly healthy. There was no negative immpact on her and she actually weighed in at 8lb when she was born. My consultant told me the baby was fine. The baby takes everything they need from you. The only person that suffers is you.

Your MW will do ketosix wee tests on you and one of the things they can identify is whether or not you are heading for trouble as a result of not eating. If there is a problem your ketone levels will be high.

Here are some of the things I was able to manage. Try sticking to plain food, eat little but often if possible and hopefully it will improve in time.

• plain boiled baby potatoes (could only managed 3/4 at a time)
• mango
• sucked on ice cubes because drinking water made in throw up at times
• plan boiled veg (sprouts, sweetcorn etc.)
• I couldnt face meat until I was into my second trimester but even then I only had a little. The only fish I could face a bit of was Seabream but it had to be oven cooked and plain.
• Belvior lime and lemongrass with freshly grated ginger root and hot water really helped the sickness and bloating. They also do a lemon and ginger one. I just made a cup and sipped it.

www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/groceries/belvoir-lime---lemongrass-cordial-500ml?langId=44&storeId=10151&krypto=tV6XT7KFHwMqp%2B1cDaw%2F5qc8vmGxvhQFIFjUuQ1dMHOZ4k3JFLTDRksIqVLnS3Dk45s8EHuEjmG9%0AeaQFk0293szzSHzVHepzikNC7F87ISmKIDGdfywnz6x7GNmjog4e&ddkey=http:gb/groceries/belvoir-lime---lemongrass-cordial-500ml

Don't worry I am sure your baby will be just fine but if concerned then please speak to your MW. GPs can sometime prescribe medication for really bad sickness but it doesn't really help aversion. I didn't want to take it though.

Eat whatever you can its not healthy but I lived off toast and cereal for a few weeks this and my preg with dd. I was able to start eating normally again after a few weeks.

Lots of pregnant women throughout human history have had healthy pregnancies and babies without eating meat. There are pregnant women who are vegetarians.

I was averse to red meat during my pregnancy with DD. The thought of the smell of raw beef turned my stomach. You probably don't want to force yourself to eat stuff that you're averse to- it probably won't stay down, anyway, so it's hard to see how that would do any good.

There is no food that you have to eat during pregnancy. You name a food, and there is some group of people who didn't or don't eat it, and they've still managed to have babies.

Eat what you can for now - I had meat aversion as well but managed fine with pulses, chickpeas and lentils and the like. So I just worked around it (when I wasn't eating ice lollies or toast). It improved a great deal at about 15 weeks, and now I'm 27 weeks and can't get enough fruit, veg and fish into me, it's all I want!

So just relax about it a bit for now, and don't 'overface' yourself with food you just can't manage. Sympathies, it's rubbish.

Aversions to meat are common in pregnancy. The theory is that this is because meat is likely to harbor harmful bacteria, especially if there is no refrigeration (which there of course wasn't for most of human history), so pregnant women who avoided it were more likely to have their babies survive and pass on their genes. If avoiding meat were really likely to harm you or your baby, it's unlikely that aversions to meat would be so common in pregnancy.

If you're worried about protein, there are lots of other sources for that. Fish, peanut butter (current thinking is that there's no need to avoid peanuts during pregnancy unless you're allergic to them), tofu, combinations of foods like rice and beans, et cetera, all have protein.

GymBum that's really interesting, I hadn't realised it was a 'thing' but I remember one awful week where almost all I could eat was mangoes, I couldn't get enough of them.