Underweight and 27 weeks

[SalG93]

Hi all,

I was underweight before I got pregnant and have always been skinny and petite. It’s very hard to put on weight for me. Now that baby is getting bigger I am having such severe indigestion where I can only eat a little or nothing at all. Got prescribe Omeprazole today so will start taking it tomorrow, Gaviscon was doing nothing for me.

Anyway I’m just wondering if anyone has dealt with being underweight throughout their pregnancy and baby has been okay? Eating when I can but stomach is getting so squished! As if it wasn’t small enough before!
It’s really getting me down now

Try and eat smaller portions more often. I found eating a big meal was uncomfortable but eating snacks around smaller meals more manageable, and over the whole day I then consumed plenty food.

Ensure every mouthful you eat is as calorie dense as possible, so full fat everything, add double cream to milk, lots of butter, cheese etc.

Yes, I've done this - I joked my oldest was going to be made out of chocolate milk because it was the most soothing thing I could stomach.

Look into food recommendations for low appetite - as pp said, dairy can play a huge role.

Also, look into things you can mix into to add nutrients and calories - Meritene is available in most chemists and is basically a vitamin and mineral powder mix. I found that getting those up helps perk up my appetite. There are a lot of shakes and things these days that can give you more bang for you buck -- personally, I focus on the protein ones and adding Meritene or similar to those, the Ensure nutrient style ones I just have never found appetizing but I know others who've found them really helpful.

Try adding in meal replacement shakes, you can get calorie dense ones. Speak to your local pharmacist about them.

I have a friend who struggled. No easy answer in her case, just had to keep snacking away and trying to add in a bit extra where she could. The baby was ok in the end, but small and needed extra monitoring.

There’s a fair bit of advice around for adding nutrition to meals and snacks - you could ask your midwife too if you haven’t already?

www.thh.nhs.uk/documents/_Patients/PatientLeaflets/dietetics/PIID396_Eating_well_with_small_appetite.pdf

Dsis was underweight due to severe morning sickness and her doctor recommended
Full fat milkshakes
Lots of ice cream
Olive oil
Adding extra cheese to meals like pizza
Nuts
Meat