Indigestion and acid reflux - what should I eat??

[heartburnhelp]

Seven weeks pregnant and the indigestion is absolute hell. Feels like I'm constantly full of acid and I'm terrified of eating or drinking anything in case it flares up.

Any suggestions on what I can eat? At the moment I am surviving on glasses of milk! I've cut out all fluids except for milk and water. Will a plain sandwich be ok? I'm hungry and want to eat but it's really not worth it.

Any advice would be very gratefully received! Thank you.

Get some ranitidine!

Ime eating (constantly) made it better, not worse. It was like the food helped sop up acid. The internet will tell you to eat six small meals a day. I ate six massive meals a day and didn't gain any weight, despite being too tired to exercise. I think early pregnancy does funny things to your metabolism.

Antacid tablets like Rennie's are fine to take, ditto Gaviscon. For me they didn't touch the sides though, so eventually I got the doctor to prescribe omeprazole, which gave me my life back.

@PatrickMerricksGoshawk I've tried gaviscon, it made little difference. Is this something different? Tried google and it wasn't clear. It came up with something called Zantac?

@Tableclothing thanks, it's good to hear your experience. I'm giving myself until Friday before I go to the GP. I'm going to follow the rules until then as I don't want them to send me away. I agree that gaviscon is making no difference. I ate hardly anything last night yet still woke up this morning feeling full and very uncomfortable. I might try a sandwich and see how that settles.

Zantac is the brand name for the drug ranitidine and is safe in pregnancy (although the box will tell you to consult your GP). I’ve taken it in both pregnancies and it’s very helpful! Zantac is 75mg tablets, 3x per day but the GP can prescribe 150mg tablets 3x a day if needed.

Phone your gp. I had omeprazole last time and it was amazing.

I take prescription ranitidine on an empty stomach and gaviscon (awful stuff) after meals. If this doesnt help with the acid the last resort will be omeprazole according to my doctor. Over the counter 75mg ranitidine didn't even touch it for me. See your GP

Definitely Ranitidine or similar! I had liquid when I was pregnant with DD and tablets with DS. Both saved me from horrendous acid reflux - I had it all the way through and really suffered.

Eating a little bit of something is better as well, like PP said. With both pregnancies I survived on dry cereal, Cheddars, Ritz crackers and Pot Noodles. I also ate a LOT of Love Hearts sweets, they really seemed to help temporarily.

Hope it gets better soon, it's the pits!

Thank you all for your help. GP appointment it is. Really appreciate your replies.

Definitely get ranitidine. Gaviscon didn't touch mine. Sadly it gets worse around 2nd trimester.

Avoid citrus, tomatoes and peppers
Eat little and often - grazing
Different things affect people differently but i found bananas, apples and eggs helped.
Peppermint tea if you can stomach it too.

ranitidine

I had this with dd - she's nearly 19 and I still bloody remember!!

Check with dr but I went down the alkaline foods route (dairy, unprocessed fruit and veg, pulses, grains (but not wheat), natural fats and sugars

Because the antacids didn't help a jot! And I was getting fed up living on milk and cottage cheese!!

I didn’t know and drank lots of milk, which seems soothing at the time but made it worse. Eat alkaline foods, celery and watermelon and similar foods are also great when you are experiencing heartburn. Eat more of a plant based diet, cut out or cut down on meat, dairy and sugar.