Struggling with eating

[bellainthemiddle]

Any advice on this would be very welcome!

I'm 11 weeks pregnant and last week started Sertraline for anxiety and panic attacks. I'm not sure if it's morning sickness, the anxiety, the medication, or a combination of the three, but I've been feeling horribly sick and struggling to eat anything. Even when I'm not feeling nauseous, I can't swallow because of the lump in my throat. On Friday I finally managed to eat something proper, but then I and was sick again (which I think was because I had a really bad panic attack and my tummy got all upset). Yesterday I didn't manage anything apart from sipping drinks and a smoothie.

I'm tired of feeling sick and really worried that I'm going to harm the baby. I'm taking my supplements but I am losing weight and I was a scrawny size 6 to begin with, so it's not ideal.

Any advice would be so welcome!

The first couple of weeks on Sertraline are likely to worsen your symptoms before they get better - antidepressants are weird like that (Ive taken them in the past); so do all you can to hang in there. eat/drink what you can, the baby will take whatever it needs from your reserves so eating less now likely wont harm it - your appetite should come back soon. I went straight to my childhood sickness comfort foods at the beginning, dry cheerios and cheap carton apple juice - just eat anything you can get to stay down at this stage... if the nausea/sickness continues and you lose weight (esp if more than 5-10% of your pre-preg weight) ask GP for anti-sickness tablets. hydration is also important so keep drinking as much as you can.

the nausea was always better if I had food in my stomach, but at first I had to drink lucozade to be able to eat anything.

good luck x

Thank you! I was about 50 kilos pre pregnancy and now am down to 47.2, but even though that comes into the 5-10% range it doesn't seem like enough to be problematic?

The Sertraline has definitely made things worse this week, and although I was prepared for that it has been tough.

Good thought on the childhood sickness foods - I might try Jacob's crackers, which were always the first thing I ate as a kid when I had been ill!

My GP said the same thing yesterday about the baby taking what it needs from my reserves - and also that the baby is tougher than I imagine. She was much more bothered about my blood pressure and blood sugar and all the rest of it!

If you can manage a smoothie, can you also manage any soup? Chicken soup is supposed to be the most nourishing, but I’m sure anything you can get down you would be helpful. Also, Complan exists. I might be tempted to try a meal replacement milkshake, or a Frijj one, as stop-gap solutions.

I lost a stone in a week on Sertraline I just couldn't eat a thing, in fact the first 2 weeks were hell. It passed though and I soon got back to eating. GP recommended lots of veg soup and smoothies.

I think its quite common to lose weight in first trimester cos of sickness etc so maybe they expect it - i guess if you get to 45kg maybe talk to them again and see, they might want you on some high calorie drinks or something. I'm on the lower end of normal weight, bmi 19-20, ive only put on a kilo (2 lbs ish) and I'm 15 weeks today. I probably lost some early on but didnt have scales to check.

Yep jacobs crackers, any plain food, dont worry too much about nutritional value at this point, hopefully you'll get to the other side of it in 2nd tri and start to want veg and healthier foods again once sickness gets easier to manage.

Thanks for all the advice and shared experiences. I am hoping the good effects of Sertraline are going to kick in quite soon because I'm not liking it so far!

My GP also recommended soup and smoothies. I tried soup and couldn't even get a spoonful down but smoothies are OK, so I'm trying to have the ones with kale and carrots and stuff to take on some proper vitamins!

Just got back from Christmas with in laws and I've slightly freaked out realising that I've lost about 2 kilos since I last weighed myself. I feel so bad - I'm sure it can't be good for the baby but I've just been feeling so sick and so anxious that I just can't eat! :( I tried milkshakes and couldn't get it down. Rice made me sick, crackers and toast I'm only managing in tiny nibbles. I just feel like I'm failing and maybe it's better to come off the Sertraline, but the GP wanted me to persevere. Sorry for the huge self-pity fest!

I've lost a stone since being preg midwife wasn't worried.xx

I'd go see your GP and see what they say - given your starting weight I think the weight loss is concerning.

If it's in any way linked to morning sickness rather than just the drug, high protein high fat foods are the things that best settle it for me (cheese and meat in my case). Salty foods stay down better too.