Major vomming in early pregnancy - tips for my poor friend please!

[madamez]

She is not on MN (yet), about 8 weeks PG and puking her ring on a daily basis, several times a day. Apparently it runs in her family. Anyone got any handy hints for her?

those anti-sickness wrist bands things are worth a try - didn't touch the 'ordinary' sickness I had but they did work to combat the beastly travel sickness I endured

Ginger biscuits, flat lemonade (sprite or similar) help with nausea.
You need to keep your sugar levels even - so tell her to eat little and often (sure she doesn't feel like it).
Is a 'good sign' of pregnancy being well established, is it not?

It's always been a 'good' sign in my case - that's the only thing to be said for it!
She could try mints as well - that sometimes works

She is actually going to Dr tomorrow, which may help - ginger biscuits seem to help a bit too, thanks for the tip about the acupressure bands (they worked on me once when I was very icky with food poisioning).

• eat before you get up - my dh brought me rice krispies every morning within 5 mins of waking

keep blood sugar consistent - oatcakes, nuts, seeds pear drops in emergencies acupncture and reflexology if that way inclined - worked for me

As much rest/sleep as possible, no housework. Try sipping sparkling water through a straw and/or sucking icecubes. Tiny frequent snacks of very easily digested food helps too. For example:

One tablespoonful of boiled rice. One hour later, a tablespoonful of mashed potato. Think baby food, not grown up food.

I am a veteran of hyperemesis. Poor thing, I really feel for her. It runs in my family too.

Yes, eating little and often even though it's the last thing in the world you want to do. The 'blooming awful' hyperemesis site is good.

If she has a nice DP/DH/friend, they could make her up a little bento-box-style selection of incredibly bland food in very small, unthreatening portions (two or three thin slices of apple, small slices of banana, a handful of plain crisps, tiny crustless white bread sandwiches with very bland cheese, peeled grapes, little pots of yogurt...) and put it in a sealed box so that she can shut away the smell if necessary. This will enable her to feed herself throughout the day without having to go into the kitchen (the pregnancy vommer's biggest nightmare - well mine anyway).

Oh God yes. I remember being phobic about the kitchen.

Awful isn't it? I swear I used to be able to smell every single individual item of food in the entire kitchen, including anything that had fallen down under the fridge. I literally had to move out at one stage because I'd become so overwhelmed by the smell (DP wasn't exactly Mrs Mop).

It was like being a bloodhound.

quiche and soup were two things I just couldn't abide the thought of - I was even unable to walk past shelves with them on in the supermarket without feeling dreadful!

oh yes and every day dh would say hopefully ' do you fancy x for tea' - to be greeted with loud groans and/or tears!

Hot squash was the only hot drink I could keep down. Couldn't bear coffee or tea. No meat until I got past 20 weeks, just pureed vegetables. I lost loads of weight. Babies all fine! But really, rest was the best thing, and tiredness, or worst of all, trying to hoover, made the sickness much worse.

Must go to bed. Thank goodness i am now post menopausal.

Lots of sympathy for your friend I'm going through the same thing, its awful. I have the fear of the kitchen too (dp doesnt really get it either)

I have tried everything though, even tablets off the GP, I ordered some preggie pops yesterday, not sure if they work but I'm willing to try anything at this point it is litrally taking over my life

I had severe morning sickness until 20 weeks and was in hospital quite a few times on a drip because I got so dehydrated. I couldnt eat anything and had a phobia of water by the end of it cos I kept being sick water everytime I drank it. I tried the ginger biscuits which work for about 5 minutes but dont help when you are sick 24 hours a day. The kitchen phobia is awful, I couldnt drink out of glasses or cups because I was paranoid they were all dirty.

The only thing which really helped were tablets from the doctor which you put under your lip against your gum for two hours. Hence you dont have to swallow them. The doctors have a range of tablets they can give you, some of which dont do anything and some stronger ones which seemed to work better.

Hyperemesis also runs in my family. I would suggest mainly that she rests and people look after her and she should see doctor. Doctor can prescribe things like Dioralite (sp?) which is (I think) a childrens diahorrea remedy. This is totally harmless and may help her stay hydrated/help her salt levels etc if she can actually keep it down. Some doctors are also happy to prescribe anti sickness drugs, but the sickness must be very bad for these. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I could do nothing when I was vomiting I could not even move from bed without being sick, it was so utterly terrible I had trouble speaking. I am really sorry for her.

I found movement, noise, going on pc, watching TV all made my sickness worse. If she hasn't got another little one to look after I would say just lay down as much as possible. I went into hybernation when pregant with ds but this time was so much harder with a toddler to look after and I ended up in hospital alot.

This time I just kept going back to doctors and insisting they gave me zofran - it was the only thing that helped but she'd have to push hard to get it as it's expensive.

Blooming awful website is great- will dig it out for you.

Used to take calls from Mums for that site and happy to chat to her by email if can help at all, have had this horrid thing 4 times.

Best tip? Rest, rest rest. And if the Docs say they can't help, they're wrong.

here you go

Also happy to chat to anyone else going through it btw- women can feel so alone with HG.

if th meds youa re prescribed dont work, please go abck and try others. There's a list on that website, but for example the ones mentioned as fab further down didnt help me at all, but Avomine did. Zofran is perhaps the holy grail but hard to get hold of.

Dont worry about food at all- just fluid, as being on a drip isn;t nice. if water is a problem (was for me) then look for it in other formats- lettuce, melon, ice pops- anything that works.

Poor friend - I'm very sympathetic as endured the dreaded hypremesis as well for 5 and a half months, 4 stays in hospital, chemo sickness drugs, the works. Tell her I know its horrific but to hang on in there. I got to the point where I asked for a termination which I absolutely didn't want but couldnt cope anymore with vomming every 10 minutes 24 hrs a day. Luckily thats when they brought the harcore drugs out which broke the cycle briefly. Am so glad now as expecting dd in 4 days! Reassure her that with most people 13 weeks is the magic number and it will get better and more bearable - and also that horrid though it sounds you do get used to it and become v matter of fact. Doctors can give you up to 3 different combos of anti sickness tablets to take everyday (which I did until 5 months) and they do help a bit.
Please pass on my very best wishes and please get in touch if you need any more advice... lots of love x