First trimester nausea - struggling to eat anything nutritious

[BellaRosex]

Hi all,

I'm 6w6d pregnant and have been struggling with really bad nausea for the last week. I am a very health conscious person and before the nausea hit, I had meal prepped healthy meals for the following week but I can't even bear to touch them! The things that I usually love and eat weekly are making me feel incredibly nauseated. Thankfully I haven't vomited but I think it's only because I've been eating really bland food for the last week- bread, crackers, potatoes.

The only prenatals I take are vit d, folic acid and omegas because my diet was otherwise very good but now I'm a bit worried that I'm going to develop some deficiencies given how the last week has been. I've ordered some new prenatals which arrive tomorrow thankfully.

Anyone else been in this boat and everything been OK?

Tia x

You'll be fine. The baby will take what it needs. Just eat whatever you can stomach!

Congratulations.
I was like this with my little boy. Ate really healthy then from about 4 weeks I just constantly felt nauseous and all I ate was toast, spaghetti hoops, cereal, pizza and McDonald’s!
it does get better I promise, just eat what you can atm x

With dd1 I literally survived of ritzy crackers and water crackers for the first 3 months with only prenatal as my vitamin, I was also strictly vegetarian and can 100% tell you when I started eating normally it wasn't in all the right areas and super carb heavy and low in protiens
She's now 8 going on 18 and healthy!
Baby will get all the nutrients they need from your body first, and so long as you can survive and get food down then the rest will follow eventually x

Thank you @Samthenanny and @LaTable ! These messages are reassuring. I am also plant based so feel even more anxious with the current diet!

I remember reading somewhere that it's ok if you just live on jacket potatoes and lucozade for those tricky first months!

I hope you feel better soon.

Don't worry about it - I lived on beige carbs for a good three to four months and was fine. Baby was fine. I felt so awful that if the limited diet did make me feel unwell, I didn't notice anyway.

Later on when the sickness subsides you might find you start craving things you wouldn't normally eat because your body knows it needs them - I was veggie then and craved protein like crazy. I ended up starting to eat meat and fish regularly when I was pregnant and have carried on, because now whenever I haven't had any for a week or two (partner is veggie so no meat at home) I start to crave it again.

I was sick and nauseous throughout my pregnancy. Randomly I could stomach pasta with cheese sauce, olives and jalapeños later on so had that a lot. I can’t remember what else I used to eat, sometimes cereal. It was bad enough I lost weight.

My baby was nearly 9lb at birth, off the charts for length percentile and is a lively toddler now. So try not to worry.

I could only eat (sometimes) dry rice crispies. That was on a good day. Lasted about 16 weeks.

DS is 23 yo and doing fine!

I was the same as other posters. Was nauseous for my whole pregnancy. I couldn't eat very much at all - was vegetarian then too. My DS is now a 6' rugby player.

You’ll be fine. Please don’t stress.

I was sick so much during early pregnancy. All I could eat during my first trimester was scrambled egg, toast, plain chicken, chips, and ready salted crisps. Oh, and sour sweets! 😂

Sometimes the first trimester is a case of just eating whatever you can stomach. Something is better than nothing. Then when the sickness settles, and you can enjoy food again, you can have a bit more variety.

I was also taking pregnacare (recommended by my midwife), and folic acid (as prescribed by my midwife). I had to have the larger dose of folic acid due to my BMI. So, I wasn’t as worried, as I felt the vitamins would help baby get whatever I wasn’t able to give her, from my limited diet.

Honestly OP don’t worry. The first trimester is all about survival. I survived on bread, cheese, chips, salt and corn flakes during the first trimester with my second. Just eat what you can manage and I promise your appetite will come back! Congrats!

In my first trimesters I ate
Croissants, Cornettos, plain rice, porridge with honey, plain yogurt, crackers with butter and jam, one kind of cheese - maybe port salut, apples and melon. Oh and Rich Teas.
If it was plain I could eat it.

Baby will be fine!

I was the same at 6 weeks. It lasted pretty much the whole first trimester for me. It worried me too, some days all I'd have is a handful of crackers and that's it. But everyone was reassuring telling me the baby gets all the nutrients it needs. 17 weeks now and only just got my appetite back about a fortnight ago, but my 12 week scan showed a happy little baby with a strong heart beat doing somersaults and dancing about in there, so that's something I guess!

Nutrition goes out the window in the first trimester, it's all about survival!

I could only manage salt and vinegar crisps, plain crackers and melon for about 3 month's so lived on tiny bites of them. It's more important that you don't get dehydrated.

Good luck. Try to remember it's not forever no matter how much it can seem like it is when you're right in the middle of it!

You'll be ok. Baby takes everything it needs from you! Hopefully it will ease off soon and you start to feel "normal" again. My nausea eased off around week 13..

Thank you all so much for the reassuring comments 💓

Oh gosh me too!!! I’m surviving on crisps, chips, crisps, chips, fizzy orange. It will change in second trimester, and my diet was fine before so I can go back to healthy eating then hopefully. Trimester one is about survival 💪🏽 baby will be fine (my dc1 was) xx

Congratulations! I lived off tangy cheese doritos throughout week 9 - 11 of my pregnancy as that was the only thing I could stomach. Just eat what you can, don't worry, baby will take what it needs from you.

Oh wow really fancy tangy cheese Doritos now I’ve just read that 🙈🙈🤣🤣

Ginger-biscuits /cordial or whatever can help

I struggled to eat at all and ended up losing 2 stones!
My GP said just eat what you want when you want and take multivits and it will be fine.
It was

Completely agree with everyone else but if it does get unbearable then definitely speak to your GP or the pregnancy sickness support charity for guidance, mine was awful and medication really helped. I was otherwise just in bed the whole time and it eventually developed into sickness

My first child was made up of mostly hula hoops and skittles
Baby two - hula hoops and extra strong mints.
Fresh fruit and veg turned my stomach
I agree with the poster above though, definitely get an anti sickness prescription if you're struggling. It can really help!

If it can’t be helped then don’t worry, but I would try to find some healthy foods you can force down. I used to find I could manage veg if it was doused in gravy, so I put gravy on everything! I could also manage smoothies. YANBU, but at the same time there is evidence to suggest good nutrition is beneficial, so just try to get healthy food where you can manage.

Sounds very familiar. I was the healthiest eater before DS, but could only stomach pasta, apples, fizzy water, and McDonald's in first trimester.
One day, at about 9 weeks pregnant, I decided I needed to try and eat a vegetable as I felt so guilty. I put one piece of lettuce in my mouth and immediately vomited!
Thankfully by about weeks 15 I could eat almost normally again.