How to balance diet during pregnancy?

[rifaatsalemmd]

My wife is recommended to increase her diet since she is pregnant as her body weight is only 45 Kgs, but if she eat little bit extra, feel very stuffed and even vomit.

I ask her to divide her diet in small meals as currently she is eating three time and i suggest to feed 5 times a day.

Any suggestions to this simple for her please? If someone has gone through the same situation?

I think your advice is good - eating more often rather than trying to eat bigger meals. I have been recommended three meals per day and three snacks.

Hi Victoria, Thank you for your response!

What kind of snacks would you recommend for a pregnant woman?

The same as the snacks a non pregnant woman would eat, as long as it’s not on the NHS list of foods to avoid.

www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/917.aspx

I was 45kg when I fell pregnant as well. I put on a stone in the first 2 trimesters without doing anything any differently other than just following what my body was asking for. I ate absolutely rubbish in the first trimester because nausea was horrific - I think I mostly consumed sweets, chocolate, crisps and plain pasta. Not exactly a diet I would recommend to anyone but it was all I could manage. It didn’t stop me putting on weight! Things improved in the second trimester and I actually felt MUCH hungrier. I ate proper meals again (decent sized portions) and snacked when I was hungry - sometimes on healthy snacks, other times on things I just fancied. Now I’m in the third trimester I’m back to not really eating much in one go because of baby taking up space but I’m still able to eat sensibly and healthily, just small meals and healthy snacks (and treats too!).

I have growth scans to monitor baby’s growth and baby is small but within average range and following the correct growth pattern so nothing to worry about where baby is concerned.

I think the best thing she can do is just to try and get something down her in these early days. They’re so horrid in terms of feeling unwell and you just need to get through. The second trimester will be much easier for managing a balanced, healthy diet.

All the best to you both

All I could eat for the first trimester was jam on toast! I haven’t been able to eat it since, it just reminds me of the constant nauseous feeling I had.

@OP , you may well have posted on your wife's specific request, but just in case, I do think the most important thing here is that you support your wife.

Your wife has been advised to put on weight - similarly there is plenty of advice to pregnant women about not putting on too much weight and/or making sure to eat a healthy diet etc. The great majority of pregnant women do not manage to be both the right weight and maintaining a perfect balanced diet during the first trimester. This does not mean that their babies are in grave danger.

During the first trimester, most women, like your wife, experience nausea, vomiting and food aversions/cravings. In the circumstances, it is your wife who will know best (1) what food she can stomach without feeling sick (2) how much food she can stomach without feeling sick. I personally ate lots of bland carbohydrates regularly as this helped the nausea. But it wasn't ideal in the sense that a diet made up of 70% crackers/crisps/bread would not strictly speaking be recommended. The point is that I could not have kept down a perfectly balanced diet if I tried, and salted carbohydrates were better for the sickness than say carrots, which I might well have vomited up.

If my husband had attempted to offer me nutritional advice or "encourage" me to eat more or less of any foods while I was in that state I would have found it really unhelpful. It is very easy to tell someone what they should ideally be eating and how much when you are not the one who is on the verge of vomiting. Your wife should know her own body best, and the best thing you can do is support her. A lack of support from my husband would have caused me stress, and that is similarly unhelpful for pregnancy.

In general I think there's a huge gap between expectation and reality during 1st trimester as far as diet is concerned. I found when reading books about what I should be eating it was all about making sure I was eating nutrient and protein packed foods (edemame beans came up a lot) which was great in theory but in reality I could only keep down sugary foods and bland carbs (I spent about 2 weeks living solely on jam donuts and plain boiled potatoes, anything else made me feel very queasy, cooked veg was the absolute worst and the only thing that made me actually throw up) It's not the same for everyone but based on what I've read here and talking to my friends, my experience reflects a lot (if not the majority) of women's experience during the first trimester. I think the advice above is good, eat smaller and more frequent meals but most importantly, I think is to not feel guilty about eating unhealthy food, the best food is the food that stays down and that you fancy eating in the first place.

My advice to you on how best to support her is to keep stocked up on donuts, white bread and sugary treats (coca cola is another good one) and don't encourage her to eat anything she hasn't asked for. I also felt a lot worse when I wasn't having any caffeine, if she has suddenly gone cold turkey on the tea and coffee then that's probably adding to the problem, a glass of coke or a latte a day is under the recommended intake and did me the world of good.

Congrats to you both

cooked veg was the absolute worst and the only thing that made me actually throw up

The smell of onion and garlic made me vom every time. Which wasn’t great as I was living in Italy at the time, where quite a few dishes are onion and garlic based.

Thank you everyone for the information and for sure i will leave it on my wife to eat what she want and how much she want as i just want her to be comfortable.

Thank you
Rifaat Salem