Constant nausea. Any tips for relief?

[Hortonlovesahoo]

Hi all, I'm 9 weeks pregnant and this is a rainbow baby after losing my previous baby at 10 weeks. I had massive nausea with that pregnancy and this one is no different. I've tried every natural remedy I can think of (ginger, flat coke, bananas, eating smaller meals) but nothing is working.

Have you got any advice? I'm a little worried to go back to work when I can hardly focus and driving makes me sick.

Thanks in advance!

Milkshakes helped me because they were thicker. Can you get public transport?

I'll give them a shot. Public transport makes it even worse. I tried the train last week and was sick on the journey, in a car it's just the nausea.

Ask your GP for cyclizine. It's anti sickness/nausea medication and it saved my life. I was so ill from weeks 8 to 12 and off work in bed but the medication helped take the edge off. Xoxo

I was sick the whole pregnancy so really do sympathise. The honest answer is nothing worked.

I felt worse when I wasn't eating, so I ate a lot.

Fizzy water, ice cubes, chips and gravy, breadsticks. That's what I mainly lived on.

I went on to cyclizine and ondanestrone. Neither helped.

I was on the table having my ELective CS and started to feel sick and told the anaesthetist. He put something in the IV and within 5 secs the nausea had gone. I remember yelling 'why couldn't I have had that for the last 9 months'. No idea what it was. Was fucking ace.

Thanks! I'll definitely be asking when I go in on Thursday for something. They've only offered me one hardcore medication which means I can't drive (and I drive for my work so it's impossible to take it).

Have any of you had any success with the anti sickness bands? I've tried them but they don't seem to do a thing for me?

Bands did nothing for me. Honestly I tried EVERYTHING. Stem ginger, peppermint tea, ever old wives tale and nothing worked, sorry. Hope it's only a passing phase of sickness and not like mine!

@colabottle10: my last time was the same. I was sick constantly. I'll ask at my next doctor's appointment if they can give me the medicine you've advised and go from there.

I found the sickness bands lessened it a bit but definitely didn't get rid of it.
I found a few salted crisps every hour or so helped a bit, and fizzy drinks. In my last pregnancy slowly sucking on a haribo sweet helped but it did nothing this time.
I'm 15 weeks now and only have slight nausea after eating too much in one go (still less than I ate in one go before pregnancy though). Try to stay positive that it's very unlikely you'll have it for much longer.

Anti sickness bands helped me a lot, noticed when they were off ie shower etc the nausea was so much worse. Also snacking a lot helped even though I didn’t want to eat - mostly carbs like crackers & lightly salted crisps etc ... and LOTS of apples! I slept so much in first trimester too... couldn’t function half the time!

I'll definitely try the crisps tomorrow. I've been living on toast and bananas as they're the only things that don't make me want to heave.

I honestly just try to take one day at a time and see what's feasible to manage and what I can't do which is easier over Christmas when I can rest whenever I need to!

Has anyone got any tips for keeping the nausea/sickness hidden from colleagues? Due to my history, I really don't want to tell anyone yet.

I've got a bottle of ribena with me at all times! I think the sugar is helping. I have a swig first thing in the morning and then throughout the day when I'm feeling rough. The colder the better too. The lady in the pharmacy also recommended trying lucazade tablets (said it helped in her pregnancy) I think to help with energy levels and keeping blood sugar up... I remember drinking a lot of milkshakes in my last pregnancy too. I hope you can find something that helps and I feel your pain I'm 9wks and feel like death. Had exactly the same with my first pregnancy until about 20wks and can't bear the thought of feeling like this for another 2-3 months!! Especially with a toddler in tow...
Going to give sea bands a go tomorrow. Sending love!

I’ve found the sea bands used to help a little - it was perhaps mostly psychological, but I’m pretty sure it did actually ease the nausea a bit, too. Now (16 weeks) they can sometimes pretty much eliminate the nausea.

For me, 9 weeks was the worst. I had 2 days when I didn’t manage to get dressed, and spent an awful lot of time lying on the floor. I found that eating Rice Krispies as soon as I woke up helped a lot (sometimes woke as early as 4.30, which was fun), and ate up to three breakfasts if necessary. But you might find that things begin to ease next week, as 9 weeks seems like it’s the worst week for quite a few people. Mine started to ease at 12 weeks, and by 14 weeks my whole digestive system was starting to behave a lot more like its usual self. I’m now feeling mostly normal for many hours at a time. Hang on in there - you’ll probably feel a lot better soon!

Ice lollies can help, and Tic Tacs were my especial favourites - they are small enough that they weren’t really food, but the mint helped to reduce the nausea a bit.

Another “food” which helped was half a Kallo chicken stock cube in boiling water. It’s easier than most things to consume, and feels like some food has gone in, so makes things less bad for a little bit. If you’re feeling adventurous, rice noodles can be a fun addition (I’ve not been adventurous while pregnant!)

Good luck! I hope you feel better soon!

@Hortonlovesahoo

Lots of help and advice here Pregnancy Sickness Support / also, be advised, that if you need to take time off work for pregnancy related illness, then it must be recorded separately to other sick leave, and can not be used in disciplinary action - but your employer must know you are pregnant.

@Colabottle10 - could have been IV cyclizine. It’s marvellous, the only thing that stopped me feeling sick in either pregnancy, but does have to be delivered by drip, so you do have to be in hospital. About a million times more effective than cyclizine tablets.

Thank you all. This has been really helpful. I'm feeling "ok" so far (not the crippling nausea that I've had the past few days). I'm trying one new thing a day to see if it helps.

I really appreciate every single reply. It helps to know that I'm not the only one going through this.

Ginger biscuits did it for me, I nibbles them and one a morning helped x

I second the ice lollies!! I've found the fruit pastille ones to help quite a bit.

I even had 3 different meds and nothing worked but thankfully at 15 weeks the nausea has eased a bit from being an all day thing and I can deal with the vomiting better than the nausea. It's horrendous and I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy, hopefully it clears up for you soon! If you think you need time off work definitely take it!

Also, there's some great tips over on the Hyperemesis Support thread, I've found their advice and support to be a total lifesaver!

Oh yes! Despite not having hyperemesis (just overwhelming nausea), the hyperemesis board has helped me a lot! Actually, I think that the biggest tips I got from there (other than that, in retrospect, perhaps I should have tried medication and being able to function, instead of hiding from the world for 9 weeks, eating into the last of our money!) were concerning keeping my teeth clean.

It was recommended not to use an electric toothbrush, to use children’s toothpaste (I’m tending to use stuff from age 6 or 8, to keep the fluoride as high as possible while having a less challenging flavour), and to use children’s mouthwash. I’m on a listerine mouthwash, and sometimes it actually reverses the gagging which cleaning my teeth often brings on. Also, I clean my teeth starting with the outsides, moving to the top inside, and doing the bottom inside last. When my nausea was at its worst, I rinsed out the toothpaste and continued cleaning without as soon as it became apparent that it was time, and gave up completely on a cleaning session as soon as it was clear the gagging was about to start. I’d sometimes sit quietly with a glass of water afterwards (before attempting mouthwash) if I didn’t manage to avoid the gagging. And then I’d often need food again afterwards, but I just decided that my teeth would have to cope with that, because I wasn’t in a position to offer them any other options!

9 weeks was the peak of my sickness, then it gradually slightly improved so that I wasn't vomiting everyday. Last week (week 25) I was given cyclezine for vertigo and it's stopped the morning sickness too, I can't explain how wonderful it feels to not feel sick. I'm hoping they will let me continue with it for the morning sickness. Was assured by obstriatician who prescribed it that it's completely safe for baby. Other than that nothing helped that much. Constant grazing and drinking water helped a bit, fizzy drinks helped a bit crisps were about the only breakfast I could keep down (super healthy breakfasts of crisps and lemonade!)

Today, I've managed ribena and crisps but after dinner, I'm feeling quite rough and have a bucket beside me. Tomorrow is scan day so will be asking for the meds suggested here and hope that they'll give it to me. When I spoke to another friend who had it with her last pregnancy, she said that they'll only give it if you're consistently throwing up for over 5 days and not for nausea.

I don't know what the threshold for prescribing is, I'd resigned myself to throwing up the whole pregnancy, because I wasn't dehydrated or loosing weight there were no concerns from the midwife. It was ending up in hospital with vertigo that ended up with a prescription.

I'm only 5+6 with just nausea it started at 5 weeks, this is my 2nd pregnancy and it started at about 7-8 weeks last time, but was round the clock and there were a few weeks where I couldn't do anything.

I've found so far that consuming any of the following at regular intervals helps:
Sipping water most of the time
Jacket potatoes
Heinz leek and potato soup or other bland tinned soup
Most fruit (i.e. Apples, grapes, strawberry, melon, banana)
Eggs cooked in any way
Plain Toast
Salted crackers
Sucking boiled sweets.
Near constant sips of water
Ice lollies
Jelly
Yoghurt
Early Grey decaf

I use the sickness bands, which do take the edge off, because like a PP I notice a change when I take them off in the shower. I take my pregnancy vitamins at night rather than the day (a tip I picked up on another forum).

This all just keeps it in check enough to just about function. I am lucky that I've not vomited🤭. I'll check out the HG thread.

Hope you feel better soon OP💐.

OP they should prescribe if its having a debilitating effect on your life, whether vomiting or not. Nausea for me was so much worse than vomiting - it was up to 10 hrs a day. I was sick 3 times in 6 weeks (so not a lot by any means) doctor just asked what id tried so far and then was happy to preacribe phenergan (promethazine) - i had it for 30 days and it made a massive difference, meant I could eat normal food and function better. you are entitled to the medication if you want it :)

@Hortonlovesahoo
I found sucking mints helped but did speak to my GP who prescribed me cyclizine and that made me feel much better. I still vomited a few times a day with it until second trimester but was so much better than before I had it. I hope you find something that helps you soon

Hi all, thanks for replying and giving me your advice. I had the scan and everything is going well! The doctor didn't want to give me cyclizine but has given me Emesafene to take as she said its their recommended protocol for nausea. She reiterated not eating too late, avoiding spicy/acidic foods and eating no meals but grazing over the day.

I'm going to try it over the weekend as one possible side effect is drowsiness :/