Diarrhea in Early Pregnancy

[Bubbabug]

Hi Everyone,

I am currently 8weeks +6days pregnant. This is my first pregnancy and my husband and I are over the moon. Apart from extreme tiredness and sore boobs, I have been lucky to have no other symptoms.

On Tuesday evening, i started to get cramps in my tummy. I felt bloated and thought it was trapped wind. It felt so uncomfortable that i went straight to bed at 8pm with no dinner (I had not eaten since I had a sandwich mid-afternoon). At 1am I awoke and had to run to the bathroom. I had the worst diarrhea i have ever experienced (sorry TMI).

It has not stopped since then and i am still running to the bathroom multiple times a day. I had a telephone consultation with the doctor on Wed who prescribed Codeine Phosphate (30mg) which i took for 2days. By Thurs evening i felt better and was able to eat a little more. I still had cramps but had no bowel movements. At 3am on Friday, I again had to run to the bathroom with diarrhea (made it just in time) and was then in there every hour all morning. I managed to get to the doctor in person yesterday morning who examined my tummy. Her thoughts were that I have Acid Reflux and that is what is causing the diarrhea. She prescribed Ranitidine (150mg) and told me to stop taking the Codeine and that my symptoms were normal for early pregnancy.

Is she right? I worry about the lack of nutrients getting to the baby. Surely if i am not eating or keeping food in, the baby is starving! Doctor said to stop taking my multi-vitamin too.

Also, i had to miss two days of work last week. My boss thinks i have a bug and it will pass but if this continues i wont be making it to work come Monday. Should I just explain whats really going on, even though i'm not passed 12weeks yet?

Any advice or support would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Tx

Sorry that you are going through this. It sounds pretty terrible. Don' worry about taking the time off work. Even if you weren't pregnant you wouldn't be able to go into work anyway but if your boss is understanding then it might be worth telling him/her so they understand the seriousness of it.
I hope you feel better soon. I have had the opposite problem i'm afraid so can't give you any advice. I have really bad constipation but definitely is preferable to what you have.
Hope you start to feel better soon.

Congratulations on your pregnancy !

Sorry that you're going through this, it sounds awful!

I haven't got much advice except to try to make sure that you're drinking plenty so that you don't get dehydrated. It's usually more common to get constipation in early pregnancy but every pregnancy is different and I have read of plenty of women who have had diarrhoea instead.

With regards to the baby getting nutrients from you - well I can only think that it would be a bit similar to morning sickness when people can't keep any food down. People still go on to have perfectly healthy babies that way so I can't imagine it being any different in this case.
Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy! Hope you start feeling better soon!

Don't worry about the baby. It's parasitic, so takes everything it needs from your stores. Hence why you feel 10x worse when ill in pregnancy. Your baby will be fine.

Constipation is well documented in early pregnancy but diarrhoea isn't. But I see it on here a lot, have friends that reported the same problem and I also suffered with terrible diarrhoea in early pregnancy. I don't know if it was just a bug and harder to fight while pg or caused by the pregnancy but I have been pg a couple of times and always had the same reaction.

Drink plenty and avoid dairy. Don't be afraid to go back to the GP if at all worried.

I have a friend who had an awful runny bum when pregnant. It did go... She didn't spend 9 months on the loo. But it wasn't much fun.

As Showofhands says do cut out dairy. White rice with something like abit chicken will give your body nutrients and is gentle on the digestive system.

Hope you feel better soon

I suffered with it with DD and this one, it is horrible, but I have pancreas problems, so am used to the trots and cramps, but it is very scary when expecting.
Drink plenty of water and avoid fatty foods, I can't eat greasy foods when I'm pregnant as it gives me terrible trots, it does when I'm not expecting but I can take something for it then. I do find paracetamol good for the cramping and it aids it drying up as well.

Hope you are feeling better soon.

Congratulations on the pregnancy.

Thank you for all your replies.

It has definitely put my mind at rest. This is the 4th full day struggling with it and its getting me down. I haven't been able to leave the house for any length of time either. I've made it to the doctors and to the local shop for supplies but both times I drove even though it is only 10 minute walk. I didn't want to be caught short and be far from a toilet!

I am hoping that this subsides soon and am putting it down to just being pregnant. It could be worse i suppose. I could be having the whole morning sickness thing aswell. I don't think i could cope.

Thanks again everyone.

I wonder if eggs might help? They tend to bind and hold everything together. You could try making yourself a nice healthy vegetable omelette and get some nutrients