Heartburn, I have tried everything I know to get rid or minimise it.

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I have had awful heartburn with this pg and today it is just unbearable. I have tried gaviscon, peppermint cordial and tea, not laying down.

Anyone got any remedies that actually work??

Hello
Fully sympathise, have also suffered with bad HB for last 3 months. Here are some things I've kind of worked out, remedies and things to avoid.

I'd say avoid tea/ coffee and stick to just cold still water and sip it constantly to keep acid diluted. When i've had really bad days I've taken some left over peppermint oil caps (can make heartburn worse if unlucky) before dinner that have really helped me to move my gfood down inside me but its not a definate remedy as such.

I now take daily zantac (ranitidine) self medicating, but told GP and he didnt tell me to stop (though not recommended in preg) it helps a bit but but I still get it badly. Best remedies for me are to eat little and often, avoiding gulping down large volumes of fluid in one go. Most importantly avoid certain foods but there is no logic behind it. Things that would seem fine are killers and vice versa

Absolute killers for me are:
cold with milk (like branflakes)
soup
dinner that is rich/ saucy like stew bolognaise type thing (have to have lots of rice to mop up- rice better than pasta for some reason)
pastry of any kind esp croissants
too much bread - like toast and jam is killer
Marmite
Tea- too liquidy and sloshy in stomach if having a bad day.
Diet coke is pure acid in a can but real coke is better.
icecream - prob too rich

Things that seem to help- but not much;
weak hot chocolate, no cream! (not on full stomach)
plain meals of meat and veg in small quantities are very tolerable
water cold, still, sipped slowly
Eating early on in evening
Sitting up in bed
Gaviscon tablets after each meal and before bed

GOod luck! Hope you havent got long to go.

Thanks GY, I am only 21+2 so got a while to go yet.

At the minute I cant eat anything without getting HB, it's horrible isn't it.

I will get some of those gaviscon tablets though as I haven't tried them yet.

It's hideous, isn't it? Me and my SIL reckon we should have bought shares in Gaviscon before getting pregnant. My tips:

• get the GP to prescribe Gavo since you get it free
• avoid tomatoes like the plague
• try lemon and ginger herbal tea
• or milk/milkshake
• work out ways to sleep propped up; we have two "Joey and Chandler" chairs and by the end of pregnancy I was sleeping in one of those, semi-reclined.

Best of luck - it's theoretically (i.e. old wives tale) linked to babies with lots of hair. All I can say is ds had a right mop when he was born.

I used to take rennies and eat lots of ice cream.

I think you should speak to your doctor, but I have the same problem and scoured all the threads on here and came up with the following!

If you have got it really badly, you need:

• ranitidine (which is the generic name - marketed as Zantac but Boots etc do their own brand. If it's really bad you can take up to 150mg twice a day, morning and night. The GP may well prescribe it for you but she may want you to try just Gaviscon Advance on its own first (see below). You can buy Ranitidine over the counter at pharmacies.

AND

• Gaviscon Advance Liquid - not the tablets. Basically swig this before and after every meal and just before sleeping!

Then, eat small quantities regularly (try eating 6 meals a day instead of 3) and sleep propped up on pillows at night so your head is higher than your chest/body!

Do have a word with your GP though.

Heartburn/reflux is caused both by a lack of physical space but also by surges in progesterone which makes the little trap door bewteen oesophagus and stomach go a bit floppy and stop working so well. At your stage its probably more hormonal than space-related and so you might find when your hormones calm down a bit it gets a bit better.

I had it mildly (I guess - felt horrible though) with DS. This time, I saw an osteopath at about 22 weeks about lower back pain, and she asked me if I'd had heartburn last time round as the point on my back where the diaphragm lies was v tight. She did a bit of loosening up. Anyway, may be pure coincidence, but I haven't had heartburn this time round (everything else has been worse second time!), so if you're desperate a visit to an osteopath might be worth a go?

Go to the doctors. There are two medications that you can take for heartburn while pg. Rinitidine, which is a lot better than gaviscon or Omeprazole, which would sort the problem out completely. If you ask a MW they have no idea though. But honestly it's something that you don't have to suffer with! Gaviscon is crap, it makes me feel sick even thinking about taking it. I find it just dissolves the acid and makes it slosh around more. Yeuk.

Would second Brettgirl's recommendation to go to your GP and get Omeprazole. It works much better than Ranitidine, and is safe to take. I suffered horribly with indigestion in my first pregnancy, and have barely had it at all this time, except when I forget to take my Omeprazole, then its shreikingly horrible again!

Sorry to disagree but ranitdine doesnt always sort it out completely although it might do in earlier pregancy. Now Im at 39wks (yikes!) I dont believe any drugs do relieve it completely (been same since about 29wkes) due to the pressure of the baby.

Some days I take 2 tablets and Im still up all night.

Not being negative but realistic as to what to expect from these medicines.

Rinitine doesn't work for me either. Omeprazole is MUCH better.

Thats interesting to know. Does the Omeprazole still work at the end when the baby is pushing all your stomach contents into your throat? (sorry to be graphic but thats how it feels for me 99% of the time!)

Well I'm 35 weeks - I have also had that but it feels less acidic and as a result doesn't burn. It wouldn't completely get rid of all reflux, but makes it more bearable. Omeprazole drastically reduces the amount of acid your stomach makes. It is fact that it is a lot more effective than rinitidine, but obviously it's impossible to know with individual cases.

I speak rather than from 'pregnancy' experience but from 'general' experience. I have hiatus hernia and as a result have had heartburn for the past 4 years. tbh other than a bit of stomach pressing on and off since 32 weeks mine has been no worse than usual. The progesterone in the second half of normal cycle sets mine off terribly.

If you're 39 weeks though - hopefully the welcome relief will come soon. Hasn't the baby started to drop - shouldn't that help a bit?

Thats interesting about progesterone making it worse.

Baby has dropped and I think I had slight improvement but its still there and my list of non-eating foods still exists.

I cant wait to be able to have a bowl of soup for lunch etc!

Will go for the Omeprazole next time, should there be one!

Good luck with your last few weeks!

And good luck with your birth - not long now!!!!

I couldn't take any of those liquid antacids when I was pregnant - was prescribed both (whatever they're called) and they used to make me throw up.

The thing I found helped the most was milk. But not drinking it in one go, drinking it down very, very slowly. It didn't make it go away completely but made it considerably better than it was.

We went through eight litres of milk a week when I was pregnant. [shock[]

Lol wannabe, when I was pg with dd1 I could quite easily polish off a 6 litre carton of milk in a day. Thankfully am slightly less crazed for it this time!