Indigestion - any advice on good ways of curing it? ... Pleeeease

[Wills]

I've recently started chronic indigestion (is this the same heartburn) and its awful. I'm lucky in that I've not suffered from it everyday but oh boy when I do.... I'm crap at taking medicines (liquids)as I hate having something in my mouth so even even the gaviscon suckables make me want to heave! I've now resorted to breaking them up into small pieces and swallowing them with water which can't be as good. Hot drinks sometimes soothes things but does anyone have any other suggestions? The worst thing is that I'm currently starving hungry but I'm under the impression that eating will only make things worse - is this true?

ICE CREAM!!!!! cold, soothing and alkaline. i had it every night in the latter stages of my pregnancy. it reaaly helped with indigestion, but i did put on a fair amount of weight.

Rennies and peppermint tea helped a bit

Obviously gaviscon is the clear winner - just make sure you get it on prescription otherwise you'll be broke at the end of it all.

Don't mean to seem alarmist, but I thought I heard that in certain countries (can't remember where), fresh pineapple was not recommended during pregnancy, and there were some doubts over whether it was good for you/offspring.

Stupidly I can't remember anything useful about this - it's probably just a misremembered snippet from my paranoid 'healthy pregnancy' days. But I seem to recall hearing something about it on the radio and then picking up more info on the internet somewhere. I was horrified, as was about to pop (so to speak), and had eaten loads of fresh pineapple whilst pregnant! (And it didn't do me any harm!)

Ring any bells with anyone else?

Oh - and didn't ANYONE else think that Rennies were great? They taste nice as well - Gaviscon's the pits IMHO!

Fresh pineapple is reputed to bring on labour, so maybe that is the source of the warnings, Griffy. I've no idea of the efficacy of pinepple, though!

Last time round, giving birth was the only thing that really helped. Only another 6 1/2 months to go...

Tell me about it - I can't BELIEVE how awful it is. I'm 23 weeks and this week it's really kicked in. Between 6 pm and now I have drunk 3 pints of full fat milk and am dreading tonight. I haven't slept more than 3 hours a night this week. 19 long, long weeks to go.
Still swear by the pineapple (and my first was 12 days overdue so it certainly didn't bring my labour on!). Only it's a bit fiddly at 3 am in the morning, a slug or 6 of Gaviscon is far more convenient. Does anyone know if you can become imune to Gaviscon's effects? It certainly doesn't seem to be working for very long anymore...

Zantac is far superiour to Gaviscon and OK during pregnancy. This from someone who has to take indigestion remedies due to other medication for Scleroderma and have just taken Zantac through recent pregnancy. Zoton is even better but not allowed during pregnancy.

Cha the more you use any antacid the more you will need to use it in the future. Your stomach just makes more acid the more you artificially neutralise it, so you end up needing more. Er, guess I'm trying to say that it can be a vicious circle!

The 3 things I'm looking forward to most when I have this baby is meeting her, having no more sciatic pain and pouring the damn Gaviscon down the sink.....

Zantac is not an antacid and therefore no danger of "vicious circle", it works on the brain and not the stomach by blocking the message! When first formulated it was considsred a "miracle drug". Highly recommend.

Regarding the milk cure - I'm sure milk is acidic. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure I remember doing tests at Uni which involved acids. One of them (all be it very mild) was cows milk. I may just be remembering wrong coz my Uni days are bit of a blur...

"Pregnancy: Teratogenic Effects: Pregnancy Category B. Reproduction studies have been
performed in rats and rabbits at doses up to 160 times the human dose and have revealed no
evidence of impaired fertility or harm to the fetus due to ZANTAC. There are, however, no
adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women. Because animal reproduction studies
are not always predictive of human response, this drug should be used during pregnancy only if
clearly needed." - taken from manufacturers website.

Davros, whilst Zantac has not been proven unsafe, it has not been proved safe either as no pregnant women have been allowed to take part in the trail.
Personally I will stick to the Gaviscon as I know you can drink the bloody stuff!!!!! Anyhow, only really cure is to have this baby!

GAVISCON!
In both my previous pregnancies I used to get it on prescription - a LITRE at a time! I tried the aniseed but the peppermint is much nicer! I was swigging it behind the midwives back in labour - seriously had a dose of it about 2 mins before dd was born then didnt need it again until pregnant with ds!
So I reckon I'll be on it again this time. Gaviscon is good because it isn't actually absorbed by your body - it just floats on top of the acid to stop it coming up again and slowly sinks down and works its way through inthe 'normal' way - but your gut cant get it into your bloodstream. SO perfectly safe.

I had ranitidine (the active ingredient in zantac) throughout both pregnancies & had it intravenously for 2 weeks (from 9 - 11 weeks) the first time (I had hyperemesis & ruptured my stomache lining). Neither of the kids have had any problems so would have no qualms taking it again.

Yes, Ranitidine is what I should have said really. I was told to use it during pregnancy by a renowned professor at Queen Charlotte's and I asked many times if it was OK as I was taking larger and larger doses. Each time I was assured that it was OK and by more than one doctor.