Constantly hungry - can't stand cooked food

[Shynslk]

My nausea was absolutely awful from about boxing day up until the end of last week. I could hardly eat, and when I did I'd feel sick, but I'd feel sick if I didn't eat too so was kind of stuck. I was just going from bed to the sofa and had no energy at all. By the end of last week I managed to get my appetite back. I wasn't ravenous then, but I felt hungry and able to eat, and my energy started picking up.

From about Tuesday this week, as soon as I hit the 8 week mark, I've been starving. I'll eat some toast for breakfast, about half an hour later my stomach is going again. I'll have cereal. Still hungry. I'll have a bowl of fruit and some nuts. It'll last me about an hour before I just need food again. It's like my stomach is a black hole.

The biggest problem is I cannot bear the smell of cooked food or the fridge. My husband has cleaned the fridge twice for me, there's nothing bad in there, but there's a smell about it that makes me retch over the sink as soon as the doors open. I'm having to hold my breath, grab what I need and run out the kitchen to breathe again. I noticed a few days ago the smell of cooked mince makes me feel sick too, and cooking oil. Some tinned soup also made me feel nauseous. So I can't tolerate cooking a proper meal. By the time it's dinner time, my husband is usually at work so it's me who does the cooking most of the time, but we have been ordering or going out to eat instead. I think since I got the positive pregnancy test I've only cooked a handful of times. Now, we've since bought a lot of ready meals and microwaveable rice and tinned soups to last us and for the hubby to take to work.

To be honest, I didn't expect the hunger to start so early. I did expect certain food aversions, but not to not be able to cook at all. I feel guilty because I'm mostly snacking on rubbish and just throwing in the odd fruit here and there for nutrition. What scares me is my weight already isn't the best, and if I keep carrying on like this then it'll obviously get worse and we've been trying a long time for this pregnancy and I just wanted to be as careful as I could. But yesterday, we had went out for a walk and I had only just eaten before we left, and about not even an hour into it my stomach was aching as if I hadn't ate in hours. Is this normal?

I think to an extent you have to just do whatever you can to get through, and be as mindful as you can of what you’re putting into your body.

I had quite intense hunger briefly in my first trimester once the sickness passed and it then came back in my third trimester and I just as much as possible tried to make good choices about what I was eating and made sure I always had a healthy snack option handy in my bag/pocket so that if I needed something I didn’t have to always grab a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps.

I was always told most women don’t actually need any extra calories in pregnancy until the third trimester and so my bigger appetite then did make more sense and that’s “normal”.

It’s likely if you’re snacking on junk/rubbish or even on some fruit that that’s why you’re feeling hungry again so quickly afterwards. Crisps/chocolate/a banana doesn’t fill you up or make you feel full for very long, and it’s also the sugar hit that then when it wears off you crave more. Eating a sandwich or a wrap, or a meal bulked out with plenty of veg/pasta/meat will help keep you fuller for longer. I struggled with the smell of meat cooking so used to use the slow cooker and make things like bolognese so the smell is more the smell of a meal rather than meat.

I was very much the same in my first pregnancy - my main food aversion was meat. I couldn't bear the smell of it and couldn't even be in the same room as someone eating it.

Don't be hard on yourself, this won't last forever. I survived basically the entire first trimester on crackers and crisps - maybe the odd bite of fruit thrown in. I'd feel starving but couldn't actually manage much.
Just remind yourself that something is better than nothing and the most important thing is not to get dehydrated so keep drinking.