Morning Sickness

Burnt Out, ASN, RN · Oct 18, 2003

When I was pregnant, I was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum. My ob/gyn put me on Phenergan and Zofran-I was sick for 16 weeks, but only was hospitalized once for dehydration. I couldn't eat without taking the medication-watching food commercials on TV would make me start gagging. I also had to be put on Pepcid later in my pregnancy as I have a hx. of GERD.

Some dr.s here recommend Emetrol-it is a liquid that you can buy OTC; also they recommend Unisom (or Benadryl) and Vit. B6. But check with her ob first about this....

Some other things that helped me (beside meds) were:

*I know you mentioned crackers were not helping, but I would eat dry toast a lot. I would also eat pretzels before I would get out of bed (it seemed that the salt helped a little-how, I don't know....).

*When your wife can eat, she needs to just eat without sipping liquids with meals-save the liquids for after. This will help her from getting too full which can trigger the nausea.

*Lemons-I know you are thinking :confused: but, I would suck on lemon slices some when I was nauseated..I also never went anywhere without lemon drops in my purse. It was just a clean taste for me..it would help some.

*Her foods need to be ice cold or steaming hot-lukewarm foods can cause nausea.

Encourage her to drink clear liquids-jello, apple juice, Sprite/7-Up, gatorade...

And the nausea does get better eventually. :) Good luck!

JJFROG · Oct 18, 2003

What about the bands that you wear around your wrist that trigger an accupressure point. I think they are called "sea-bands".

Erin RN · Oct 18, 2003

During my first pregnancy I switched from taking my prenatal vit from the AM to the PM that made a world of difference.. think it was the iron that was upsetting my stomach? During the second..I was basically sick for 8 months...nothing I did helped!!

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Oct 18, 2003

Oh, morning sickness......with me, it was ALL DAY sickness! With my first 2 pregnancies, I threw up for months......that was when I became a Pepto-Bismolaholic. (I wasn't a nurse then, and I didn't know any better.) I started with the dainty spoonfuls, then quickly went to drinking it straight from the bottle! I kept the stuff with me at work, at home, in my purse, and everywhere I went.....more than once I was observed pulling at the bottle, and Lord only knows how I would've fared had things not gotten better after the first three months. A day when I threw up only 3-4 times was a good day. The Pepto helped, as did saltine crackers........neither of which I will even go near any more. They remind me too much of the bad old days when all it took was the scent of grapefruit in the supermarket, or even the thought of hair near food, to send me in search of the porcelain goddess. Thank God my last three pregnancies were easier---wasn't sick a day, just did funny things like fall asleep in my egg salad sandwich........but that's a story for another thread.

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Oct 20, 2003

I tried everything... the phenergan along with the periodic IV fluid boost helped but the thing that helped me the most was a nice soft pillow and rug on the bathroom floor! Sleep was the only escape and don't even think of turning on the tv or radio..I never knew how much food they advertize and show on tv... I hated the smell of everything...soap, my husband, my dog, working a nursing home was no picnic either (I had to quit because I spent at least 4 hrs of an 8 hr shift vomiting) Just remember.... Its only for 9 months max. I was lucky for my first and went at 36 weeks (another story... c section for toxemia)

Hope your wife's getting better...

tonchitoRN · Oct 20, 2003

i know this is a little off the subject. i have 2 boys and 2 girls. with my girls i was sick, sick, sick. no food would stay down. with the boys i only had mild morning sickness. i also polled my friends. they reported the same: horrible morning sickness with girls and mild with boys.

so if the stats are correct, then good luck with your baby girl!

colleen10 · Oct 20, 2003

Tonchito,

I saw a few years ago some scientists did research into morning sickness and they concluded that when you are pregnant with a girl you have much worse morning sickness symptoms for longer periods of time. They likened it to all the hormones created by a femal fetus compared to a male.

KaroSnowQueen, RN · Oct 20, 2003

I believe that. With my girls I puked for months. Hardly one day with my boys.

Ginger ale, and fast food fries were the only food I could tolerate for months.

smk1, LPN · Oct 20, 2003

hi just though i'd offer my non-medical/nursing tips. when i was pregnant i threw up at LEAST 2x per day for 5 months. I learned that eating 2 slatine crackers immediately upon waking and before brushing my teeth (eww i know) would keep me from puking while brushing teeth. I drank plenty of calcium fortified orage and grapefruit juice as milk curdled in my stomach the instant it went down. Please wash all dishes immediately after use and open windows for fresh air. I i walked into a room and it smelled different from the last room I'd been in I was running for the toilet. TUMS is a god sent i took 3 before bed and 3 mid day this is a great source of calcium and helps if you are going to have heart burn as well. sip ginger tea also. Good luck to you and your wife, i know its rough but take heart it usually disappears in the 2nd trimester.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Oct 20, 2003

WOW.......I'd never heard that carrying a female fetus made one more likely to have morning sickness! Interesting theory.......it was exactly that way with me, although I was sick only once with the third girl. With the boys, I was merely extremely tired and SLEPT through those first few months. Of course, I thought at the time it was because I was a little older (early 30s), but other than sleepwalking through the holidays and falling asleep in my lunch, I was so NOT ill that I couldn't believe I could possibly be pregnant. In fact, once I made it into the second trimester, I'd never felt better or had so much energy in all my life! I was a total health nut during those pregnancies, as opposed to when I was carrying my girls and felt more or less crappy the entire nine (actually closer to ten) months......only wanted to eat junk food, gained tons of weight, and felt like a very large bump on a log. With the boys, I only gained about 20#, didn't even WANT pizza and Coke, and had more "pep" than I knew what to do with. Strange......

Azdream'nRN · Oct 20, 2003

I have heard that taking vitamin B6 can relieve nausea in pregnancy to a great degree. Better to give it a try before you try phenergan, dramamine or anything like that. Vitamin B6 is a water-soluable vitamin and I am not sure of the pregnancy nausea relieving dose.

TennNurse · Oct 20, 2003

If it's a non-medical approach you're looking for, a lot of my OB pts would drink Pregnancy Tea. That is actually the name of it, and you can get it in health food stores. I'm told it trememdously relieves nausea, but is not much help when you actually start to vomit. (FYI, the same company makes PMS Tea, which makes the world a safer place for a lot of people.)

One of the midwives in the practice I used to work in fully believed in the sickness difference bewteen boys and girls. She would say that it's the increased estrogen levels that make you hypersensitive to gastric acid, especially when your stomach is empty, and girl babies just contribute to that. She also said that protein (like beans) would bind to the estrogen and minimize the nausea. I'm not sure where she got her information, but I did have a lot of pts who reported relief when they tried it. And for some reason salt really does help settle a queasy stomach. Just sucking on sunflower seeds has worked for me.

Best of luck, and remember that in just 40 short weeks, this will all be behind you.