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.

Hey. You’re doing better than I was at 8 weeks. I literally couldn’t eat a thing. I managed to sip minestrone cuppa soup! Only that flavour. I used to melt ice lollies in my mouth to try and stay hydrated. A little later on all I could drink was grapefruit juice or fizzy water.

Have a look at Pregnancy Sickness Support too.

Do you work? Are you aware that employers must (by law, The Maternity Act), record pregnancy related sickness separately, and can not use it in disciplinary action against you.

Don't let yourself get hungry was the only thing I ever found to help. I hadn't discovered that in my first pregnancy so also lost weight from all the vomiting. For me hunger very quickly became overwhelming nausea, and it would then be too late to stop it by eating at that point. I had to nibble food from the moment I woke up and stay nibbling throughout the day. Snacking before meals in order to keep the meal down was helpful. Stay hydrated too and try to get outside. Oh and avoid scrolling on screens as that feels like motion and can set it all off!

You drank your own bath water whilst in the bath?....

@Yodellayhehooit was literally the only water that I could get down all day! Only a few sips - when you can’t eat or drink it’s so unbelievably awful you are desperate. (I ended up in hospital severely dehydrated)

I had HG 18 months ago and ended up admitted more than a few times…

get yourself back to the GP and add another antiemetic in there, you can take two and it will help. Have you spoken to pregnancy sickness support? Watsapp them, they’ll hold your hand through the meds decisions. Ondanestran actually allowed me to eat in the morning and hold it down.

prioritise fluids - they dont care about your weight loss or not eating at this point, but fluids matter. When i wasnt at my worst, my husband had to open a can of lemonade about an hour before i got up so it was flat, then it would need to be ice cold. When I was horricie all i could manage was ice chips.

on a good day id feel better for grazing cashew nuts, literally all day, one or two every few minutes.

dont bother with iron tablets, they can give you an IV. Takes 20 mins, gave me a headache and my blood pressure dropped even lower but no sickness (i had about 6 IVs of iron and b12)

I lost a whopping two stone. Baby came at 36 weeks weighing 5 pounds - so would have been about 7 pounds id gone to term. Baby did fine. What did send me into early labour was chronic dehydration they think anyway, focus on the fluids

HG is absolute hell - sending a huge hug and a hand hold x

Ps if you have HG - please dont try all the tips here, you’ll just make it worse. There’s a huge difference between a rough pregnancy (my first) and an HG pregnancy (my second). If something feels like it might help instinctively, try it. But dont anger the beast, and dont beat yourself up if someone elses remedy doesnt help x

I am so so sorry you’re dealing with this. Hyperemesis sufferer here having done two pregnancies so firstly, well done. It is hands down the worst thing I’ve ever had to do.

On the food front, for a good few weeks all I could eat was completely plain McDonald’s. I also found I could only eat things that were prepped exactly as I pictured so if the dry toast was over done it would make me heave. Sounds bonkers but there we go. Other things that worked, cream crackers, breadsticks, and constant low level eating so nibbling a dry biscuit. Plain salted crisps also worked like walkers french fries.

But mainly focus on fluids, I mostly stayed out of hospital by forcing small amounts of fluid in. Also the sickness support charity are amazing if it’s getting too much. They sorted me out and made me go to hospital the first time which was the only thing that got me through.

Solidarity though, it is the ABSOLUTE PITS. Ps congrats on your pregnancy!

It's so awful, I remember it well even though my babies are now teens. I went for food that came up as smoothly as it went down and on the worst days lived off jelly, homemade milkshakes (Milo with ice cubes in was a fave but I can't bear it now!) and a thick kind of potato or pumpkin soup that I'd add as many veg to as I could. Hopefully you'll turn a corner soon. I saw a big improvement at about 13 weeks and another shift towards normal eating around 22 weeks. Good luck!

I was on the verge of being hospitalised for dehydration, but jelly and ice lollies helped me enough that I was getting just enough liquid to avoid it. I think ice lollies are good because you absorb the liquid slowly. So sorry you're going through this .

Look up Better You multi vit spray - sold online I think. It has 200% of your daily methylfolate / folic acid requirements. High in vit A so maybe take with your doctors advise. I haven't seen any prenatal ones specifically.

If you're struggling with nausea iron doesn't help, so if you can swallow a pill even the plain folic acid might be a better bet.

Solidarity, morning sickness is just kicking in with my third & I forgot how bad this gets. 🥲 Eyes on the prize, you'll be holding a beautiful newborn and a cheeseboard for Christmas this year!

Crisps
Water with ice cubes
Porridge or plain rice with soy sauce on. Salty and plain worked
Lots of ice pops
Sooooo much ginger. Ginger nut biscuits, cold ginger tea with ice cubes, ginger beer etc

Sniffing a pack of antibacterial wipes helped me a little through the nausea !! Weird but it worked. And ace bleach for whites smell

But often I'd just have to vom to get it over with as couldn't handle being nauseous for hours
I ended up way less than my pre pregnancy weight.. then breastfeeding meant I gained it all back on
Don't even worry about vitamins and minerals and diet right now, you've got the whole rest of your pregnancy. First trimester is just surviving!

Try liquid iron spatone and don't worry about the orange juice thing yet until you can handle orange!
It should pass soon by 12 weeks you're in the trenches! ❤️

I was looking to see if someone else said this. The nausea kicks in when you have an empty stomach. So just force yourself to eat something bland and never let your stomach get fully empty. I kept digestive biscuits by the bed to eat if I woke up in the night so my stomach wasn't completely empty by the morning.

I had an ice box by my bed and used to suck ice lollies until I felt sleepy and then gave one first thing in the morning. That’s all I have to contribute though. Sorry it is awful

Just eat whatever you can manage
I have had three pregnancies with hyperemesis.
Pregnancy 1 I struggled with fluids. I lived off tinned peaches, salt and vinegar crisps and hot water with honey as I developed an aversion to the taste of water
Pregnancy 2 I couldn't eat but fluids were ok so I lived off soup and smoothies. Unfortunately this ended in miscarriage.
Pregnancy 3 food was ok but moving and fluids were a problem. I lived off toast alternating between buttered with Bovril and chocolate spread whilst lying very still on the sofa. Unfortunately another miscarriage.
I went on to have a 4th pregnancy which gave me my son and escaped hyperemesis

Drank it straight or with water, orange juice was a definite no! I also drank rooibos instead of regular tea because I found it milder and ok without milk (another definite no for me). Gave me the feeling of a cup of tea at least!

I had severe HG in pregnancy and took 6 different anti sickness meds on the same day everyday for about 7 months. You can ask for others, or be on a combination. Also - I lost 3 stone in both pregnancies and lived off spoons of smash (high water content), salted hula hoops and Coca Cola. My 8 and 4 year olds are very healthy and no adverse issues apart from my them both constantly singing (expect nothing to do with HG). I did need a transfusion of something due to anaemia in second pregnancy but I was consultant led for HG and gestational diabetes and it was identified. They can check your blood work .

I hugely sympathise, I remember it well and would take labour over morning sickness everytime.

Random theory I wish I'd heard about when I was pg - nausea can be caused by reflux where the stomach acid is slightly escaping through the loose (due to pg hormones) stomach sphincter muscles. Not enough to cause heartburn but enough to make you feel nauseous.Therefore you should try indigestion medication like Gaviscon to see if it helps.

I only used Gaviscon once when pg but it was post- morning sickness (I'd fancied a glass of orange juice but paid for it all night with the pain) so I cant say if it works but it might be worth a shout....

Cold toast with processed cheese slices

Jacket potato

Bananas

Spaghetti with creamy sauce

I ate a lot of cereal and toast.

I couldn't stand veggies or meat really, especially chicken

🤢

My eldest is coming up for 25 and I still can't face anything ginger and I still gag when brushing my teeth - never a problem pre-HG!

They also didn't do drugs then - or at least I was never offered and with no real internet etc, I wasn't aware of them as an option. I was just signed off work for 3 months!

I have just been having similar, fortunately the meds worked well for me and after a week or so I am able to eat most things.

In the meantime, the things I found easier to eat were:
Ginger nuts
Kefir (I still really struggle with thicker yogurt but kefir is thinner so easier)
Plain chicken
Potatoes with mayo
Plain crackers
Plain lightly salted tortilla chips
Bananas
Apple puree (I used the readymade ones for babies!)
Some smoothies
Toast fingers dipped in houmous
Bread dipped in olive oil

I'd forgotten how sad I was that I longed for the comfort of a nice cup of tea but couldn't face it at all. At least the memory of it fades over time.

Also when I couldn't manage a multivitamin I could sometimes manage the little tablets with just folic acid and vitamin D.

Rich Tea biscuits
Arrowroot biscuits
Macdonalds chicken burger
Ginger and Lemon tea

I had HG and got through the first 6 months eating Skittles and mini Cheddars

I've just remembered something else that used to help - I wore sea sickness bands. They go on your wrists and press on pressure points. I'm not sure if it really worked or was just psychological, but I definitely felt better with them on. Like others have said on the thread, ginger is also good, if you can stomach it.