Morning Sickness Help

Dear MrsM-My wife is 8 weeks pregnant with our first child and she is really sick. Sometimes she’s just nauseaus and sometimes she is vomiting all over the place, but she’s miserable all the time! What can we do to make it easier on her?

There are a ton of things that are recommended for morning sickness:

*Keep crackers or bread next to your bed and have her eat a couple nibbles before sitting up.

*Ginger (Ginger root is best, but you can also try ginger ale and ginger snaps)

*Peppermint/Cinnamon-Peppermint hard candy and Cinnamon gum

*Sour hard candy-lemonheads, sour jolly ranchers, etc.

*Pedialyte Popsicles-they have electrolytes in them which will help fight dehydration but since they’re frozen she doesn’t have to put a lot in her stomach at once and it helps keep it down.

*Limit or exclude dairy products, fried foods, spicy foods, and foods with a lot of citrus.

In addition to those food choice options you can also make some lifestyle changes like:

*Eat more frequent, smaller meals. Sometimes being overly full or overly hungry can contribute to morning sickness. Try to eat either very small meals (a couple of pieces of toast and a couple of brooccli sprouts) every 2 hours or slightly bigger, or small meals (like half a BLT or a bowl of soup) every 4 hours.

*Get lots of sleep. Overexursion and exhaustion can contribute to morning sickness.

*Drink lots of fluids….orange juice with calcium added if she can stand it, but at the very least water. Don’t drink too much (she’ll get water logged and probably barf) but constantly keep some liquids by her side. She’ll need them if she is throwing up a lot, and they can also keep her stomach calm…er.

Generally, morning sickness will go away around 12 weeks, so she’s only got about 4 weeks until then!

Keep in mind though, that constant violent vomiting could be a sign of hyperemesis gravidum (severe and chronic morning sickness) and she may need to be hospitalized to get IV fluids and nutrients. This can last through her entire pregnancy, and it sucks bad but she can survive it! I’ve had hyperemesis with both of my kids (until almost 8 months with my son and it’s still going strong with this one!) and they’re both healthy even if I was/am a wreck.

Keep an eye out for dizziness, headaches, extreme fatigue, and weakness as they can all be signs of dehydration. If she’s not able to hold down *anything* [liquid or solid] for 72 hours go into the ER.

Don’t worry-even hyperemsis (if treated through IV fluids and nutrients) isn’t dangerous for your baby. They’ll take what they need directly from mommy whether she eats or not! It only serves to her miserable. Eventually it’ll get better though and you will have your beautiful baby! Congrats on your little one!