Severe morning sickness - please help me eat

[Ellahbellah29]

I'm almost 8 weeks pregnant and the nausea has hit me like a truck. I'm now on Xonvea which has stopped some of the heaving/vomiting but everything smells and I'm struggling to eat.

I've lost 4lbs in about 10 days but the GP isn't bothered as long as i am keeping food down. I feel awful as my current foods are cereal, pretzels and rice. I also have low iron and the GP said I need to take supplements, but I daren't as I feel so ill now. I can't take my multivitamin as I'm not eating meals. I also cant find anything I want to drink.

Please can anyone advise what might help? I feel so low everyday and guilty that I'm not eating anything with actual nutrients in and worried that my pregnancy will end because of it.

Thank you.

Personal experience:

snacky foods you don’t notice you are eating,
yoghurts
I also bought complan which are meal replacement drinks.

I went to the chemist about complan and they literally snatched it out of my hands as it has vitamin A in it

The only nutrients I could stand were in the form of homemade smoothies.

One recipe could be:

Some form of milk (almond was good)
Banana
Nut butter - almond or peanut or mixed
Avocado
Cacao or cocoa powder
Frozen berries (mixed)
Dates to sweeten even more
Spinach (can't taste it)

If you're feeling brave, also add in black beans (can't taste this).

I was going to suggest milkshake or a smoothie. Tbh I survived on wotsits and really chilled strawberry nesquick for 1 of my pregnancies, i sometimes added Ice cream for calories.

Breadsticks. I used to keep some in a box by the bed and would nibble 1-2 before I even got out of bed in the morning. Not sure they offer much in the way of nutrition but took the edge of the sickness .

I was throwing up multiple times 24/7 I survived on dry rice crispies for several weeks before I could cope with plain cake and biscuits. I progressed to ready meals as that reduced cooking smells and was back to normal by 17 weeks.
Watered down, very cold apple juice to drink.

Baby was fine.

I’m so so sorry you’re feeling like this… solidarity as I am going through the exact same thing and it’s truly terrible. (Also have been prescribed iron and no idea how I’m going to take it without throwing up…) I am trying not to worry about the nutrients, focus on what stays down / what you can manage- eventually it will get better and you can incorporate more healthy foods (maybe after 11/12 weeks). I found that coke helped to settle my tummy and is the one thing that doesn’t make me feel sick. Otherwise biscuits, crisps, chips… cereal.

You can also go back to the GP and get a second anti sickness to incorporate with xonvea schedule. I think they can offer combinations.

I hope you improve soon.. hang in there. It will get better

I was hospitalised with HG. I know how you’re feeling.

They never were bothered that I wasn’t eating - only when I wasn’t drinking.

McDonald’s coke helped a lot.

If you get worse, push for Ondansetron.

If all you can eat without wanting to vomit are carbs, ask your DP to make you oat bread. It was all I could eat pregnancy #1 - just oats, seeds and yoghurt but baked it tastes like bread.

Baby will literally zap all the goodness from you so they'll be thriving in there. Once second trimester hits hopefully you'll be able to keep the vitamin down to replenish yourself. If you can get the vit sprays, easier to stomach.

Thank you so much. I honestly feel like noone gets it and as though I'm being dramatic at the GP.

Thanks for this - never heard of vit sprays before? Where do you get those?

Thank you so much and sorry to hear that you ended up in hospital. Hope it all went okay for you.

Holland and Barret and Boots sell sprays I use a vit d 1. But you can get multivitamins

Dehydration can make you feel worse - the only way I could take in liquids was by having ice cubes as they didn’t need swallowing - my mouth sort of absorbed the water. Also in the bath sometimes I could drink the bath water through the sponge - although I realise this is quite niche (although my sister in law was the same!)

He’s just turned 10!

Good luck OP.

I could eat skips, plain rice, raw peppers and sometimes mcdonalds milk shake.

I have no idea if this would work for someone else but I found if I could get and stay really cold it helped. So I held an ice pack to my chest over my heart a lot of the time (to cool the circulating blood as much as possible). I also got a metal water bottle and filled it with ice water to sip.

Much sympathy, it’s so draining, I had the same. Midwives were very reassuring that your body has sufficient stores of most vitamins to get you through the first stages of pregnancy so no need to worry about baby as long as you’re hydrated.

like other so found cold things easier, not so much smell. I ate a lot of ready salted crisps, because that was what I could tolerate. And my partner took responsibility for always keeping the freezer stocked with ice cubes.

For iron you can buy a liquid iron supplement called spatone which I found much easier to tolerate than the tablets. Tasteless liquid in a sachet.

and don’t be afraid to go back to the GP if the first line medication isn’t helping, there are other options available.

I had HG with both of mine, breadsticks and watermelon were lifesavers. Watermelon helped with hydration too. And I second Coke, later in the pregnancies! I lost a fair bit of weight and worried the whole time, hospitalised with each, but 2 very healthy, very big babies (10lb 2oz and 8lb 10oz!)
Cyclizine helped to stop the sickness, still felt nauseous but definitely helped keep food down. Good luck, reach out for support if you need to!

Thank you so much. I did read that you should take Spatone with orange juice but im not sure i can manage orange at the moment. How did you take it?

In my country they are called “saltine crackers”. I don’t know the equivalent uk name. Keep them by your bed and eat a couple before you even move.

suck on hard candy.

if you have a craving, it is your partner’s job to acquire that food immediately. It doesn’t matter if it is healthy or ridiculous. It doesn’t matter if it is inconvenient. If you manage to eat something, there Is a very good chance you will be able to eat a second thing and then you can worry about nutrition.

I had hyperemesis. I was sick every day until delivery. It was awful, but baby and I were ultimately fine.

the best days were always the days after I had a craving for a steak. The protein boost really helped.

Sorry you’re feeling like this, it’s awful! 🫶

I found that sparkling water was much easier to get down than normal water. I think it’s meant to settle your stomach in some way so that might be why..so you could try that?

Ice pops provide very temporary relief, literally only while you’re eating them though…
after that I would say it’s probably very personal, I couldn’t stand anything dry like toast or crackers. But I would sometimes just really fancy a chicken burger from Burger King or McDonald’s and if I had the craving it usually went down well, it seemed to be that it was what my body wanted! Then other days I just survived on thin air basically. It was really rough. 12 weeks can be a real turning point. I still felt really ill at times and would still be sick but it was better for sure. I hope it’s same for you.
Do keep an eye on your weight and hydration though. You might need a drip!

i had grinding nausea with my second and third baby but the first one was grim sickness for most of the first trimester and I was in hospital for a couple of nights on a drip at one point.. I basically ate a couple of mctvities triple chocolate digestive biscuits, fruit gums and drank ice cold caffeine free Diet Coke with a straw with the occasional satsuma / clementine thrown in for good measure for about 12 weeks. If I could manage them some salty crackers like ritz or some ready salted crisps.
He arrived at 38 weeks weighing just under 9lbs so I don’t think my shocking food consumption affected him like I did me.
can sympathise it is rotten.

Thank you so much i may try and find some sparkling water.

Sympathies, it's vile. I ate plain fairy cakes (just sponge). My sister in law swore by cheesecake because she said it tasted the same coming back up as it did going down. I think ritz crackers are ok and ginger biscuits. Anything gingery might help - try ginger cordial with ice and a squeeze of lemon. Hope it gets better soon.

I ate a lot of dry cereal with my first. Cereal is often fortified with vitamins and iron so not as awful for you as it may first seem. I think one 30g bowl (which is a really tiny bowl!) gives you 17% of your daily requirement for iron.

And remember - babies are parasites. They will strip the nutrients from you so they will be fine.