15 Morning Sickness Remedies
Nobody knows what causes morning sickness (or in some cases, all-frickin'-day sickness) and, therefore, nobody really knows a cure. Typically, this is when my grandmother would have chimed in to say "If men had this you know damn well they'd have it figured out by now." True enough.
Either way, nearly three-quarters of pregnant women have morning sickness at some point and to some degree during their pregnancy. It is more common in first pregnancies, but can also happen in subsequent pregnancies. The most common treatment for morning sickness is "suck it up, Buttercup" which is always nice advice to give along with eating leafy greens and deep breathing when it isn't you that's suffering from it.
In my highly sophisticated research of trolling the web, here are the ones that didn't sound too over-the-top or stupid:
1. Anything ginger. It's sounds like this is go to herb to quell the barfs. Anything from ginger ale, ginger snaps, candied ginger to boiling fresh ginger in water with a bit of honey to make tea. Sounds very hippyish which makes me think that last one might work.
2. B6. 25 milligrams of vitamin B6 three times a day (a total of 75 milligrams per day) for three days is supposed to reduce nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy although they don't know why. What's that? You can't make a billion dollars off vitamin B? Screw the studies then. Thanks pharmaceutical companies.
3. Lemon Sniffing. Fresh lemons in water and lemonade popsicles seem to help some gals but if you're sniffing lemons, you know, you may want to do it in private.
4. Don't get hungry. Eat all the time. Even keep something like crackers to nibble on beside your bed before you get up in the morning. I like this one.
5. Lots of little meals. Have a snack every hour or two, keeping the servings small.
6. Take your prenatal vitamins with food to help them stay down. Even a cracker will do the trick.
7. Avoid fried, fatty foods. Okay, they need to back the hell off with this one because they're not even sure if it does anything which makes me think they're just trying to get all preachy about what you should eat. That said, I've included it because it did come up a few times. Dumb.
8. Protein-rich snack before bed. This will help keep your blood sugar up during the night and might stave off a wave of ew the next day.
9. Cider vinegar. Supposedly drinking 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon honey in cold water before bed is helpful. Personally, I think this would *make* me barf.
10. Increase the iron-rich foods in your diet. Foods such as beef, sardines (ew), eggs, dried fruit and green leafy vegetables. I think this one sucks.
11. The BRAT diet. Bananas, rice, applesauce, toast and tea.
12. Sucking on lollipops. I think this will also increase your street cred but I'm not sure.
13. Peppermint tea is supposed to help and, if nothing else, your barf will be minty fresh!
14. Anise or fennel seeds. Chewing on these soothes upset stomachs. I imagine these would also get stuck in your teeth but, if it works, I guess it's better than perpetual puking.
15. Acupressure bands. For the record, I firmly believe anything that the Chinese came up with will work. I will try just about anything if an old Chinese woman tells me to do it.
How about you guys? Have you found anything that works?
49 Comments
Reader Comments (49)
I had to take my prenatal vitamin with milk. Other wise I would not be able to get it down.
I swear by Sour Patch Kids...but that's just me. Justified buying the Theater Size box by telling the checkout lady: "Makes the baby happy so I don't barf..." She would just wink at me and smile, whats *that* suppose to mean?!?
I love Sour Patch Kids, too!! I swear its something about the perfect sour/sweet taste combination. Completely took away my nausea every.single.day. for 40 weeks. Love those things. :) This is a great list! I have a good friend who is currently trying to get pregnant, so when it happens for her, I am *so* pointing her to this blog!!
yes!! those sour patch kids stuffs are like super amazing! I tried it all. The crackers right as I woke up made me barf, the ginger/lemon/or peppermint tea made me pee (and while I was peeing I would get sick). the constantly snacking helped, but when I work (in a hospital, 12 hour shifts) it's not practical or feasible. I think if we get PG again, I'm going the direct route for meds. No joke. at my 8 week appointment, I plan on asking for a prescription, just in case. The sour patch kids are like crack for preggies
I tried everything too...bands didn't work, Ginger didn't-nothing seemed to except fried food! I was puking atleast 15 times a day and alot of times it was the only thing that stayed down...and when your throwing up that much you really will do anything to help!!! The prescription didn't do alot for me either!
I have to chime in on the sourpatch kids. In fact any sour candy kept me from puking... although my tongue was rather sore from sucking on them.
When I was pregnant with my son, I always kept a can of pineapple juice on my headboard and a package of saltines. Not many folks can easily get pineapple juice down, but I tell you what, it SERIOUSLY worked for me!
This is amazing! Sour Patch Kids??
Lots of people suggest eating before you get out of bed in the morning, but by then (for me, at least!) that was already too late! I ended up making myself wake up every 2-3 hours throughout the night to have a few bites of something (typically strawberry pop-tarts or pretzel sticks) and that helped with the actual morning-time morning sickness. For the rest of the day sickness, I found that eating FREQUENTLY helped, and sucking on lifesavers really was a life saver during those spontaneous "oh my gosh I suddenly feel like I'm going to vomit right now and I'm at a park doing therapy with a kid and can't leave!" moments ;)
I had Hyperemesis (I vomited 24/7 for 9 months - my record was 25 times in one day, lol) so nothing worked for me but I did find that sucking on sunny boy ice blocks or drinking an orange flavoured sports drink at least made for a 'less unpleasant' barfing experience!
Also sucking on toffee apple lollies helped, I used get this awful metallic taste in my mouth so lollies really helped ease that...I'm intrigued about these Sour Patch Kids...what are they?? We don't have them in Australia..maybe they would have been the magic cure!!
With #2 chocolate milk and vanilla ice cream both helped with the shocking heartburn I had, it was revolting! I get it really easily now too since being pregnant :S
Mint. Gum.
Then again, I use it whenever my tums upset anyway.
Kept my breakfast in my tum instead of in my bosses lap while we flew through turbulence into LGA.
Ginger ale helped sometimes, but it had to be a good quality ginger ale (like Vernors or Schwepps).
I recommended lemon candies to my friend who had horrible MS and it was the only thing that worked for her.
Sea Bands=Bunk.
Sour things helped but it's good to point out that when you JUST.CAN'T.TAKE.IT! ANYMORE! that you should ask your doctor for help. There's "morning sickness" and then there's "the sickness to the point of dehydration" which lands your sick behind in the hospital!
I know if I even so much looked at a cracker I would puke - so here's to the begining of "DON'T DOUBT YOURSELF!" if you think it's BAD...ask!!
But take a bottle of ginger ale (with real ginger) and some sour patch kids with you everywhere you go!
AND! if you crave it...EAT IT!! McDonalds be damned those nasty chicken sandwiches were the only thing I wanted - and stayed down!!
For me ginger made me MORE sick, it was just awful. But lemonade was ok and mint gum seemed to help when I was driving. I just mainly lived on crackers and pretzles my first trimester, after that I didn't get sick anymore. Oh, and I also had to take my prenatal with milk, otherwise it wouldn't stay down.
I realized that my new "hunger" was nausea. So whenever I felt like throwing up I ate. That seemed to work, although it took awhile to figure out the backwards logic of all this.
Hi, I was hideously sick while I was preggo with my daughter. I lost 35 lbs in 7 weeks - no small wonder as the porcelain god and me were best o'friends. The one thing I found that worked was Limeade from Crystal Light. When I got concerned about all the artificial sugars I was drinking - not concerned enough to stop because hey - no more barfing every time I turned around but started to nightmare about what could happen I tried lemon-water and lime-water and they worked too. I think it was the sourness that worked for me.
In the end, with the pregnancy weight I only gained 2 lbs for my pregnancy... mind you losing 35 lbs in 7 weeks also ruined my gallbladder. I had emergency gallbladder surgery when my daughter was 5 months. So coming out thin - yea! Emergency surgery and not being able to pick up my child for 3 weeks - seriously nay!
M
I too, had hyperemesis with my daughter. Taking in 120 oz of liquid every day and still being hospitalized for dehydration. Oh it was horrible. Not even sour patch kids worked for me. Just Zofran. That stuff was amazing! I tried to be all "I don't take drugs to make me feel better. It's all about my baby!". And then reality slapped me in the face. I threw up all 10 months including delivery, but if I took a zofran it could usually be contained to nausea.
I found that flat, caffeine free coke helped and carbs. I would start my day with a bagel (not toasted or with anything on it) and a can of coke. The sour candy worked for me too. I was sick my first and second trimester all day and night long. My husband was a trooper, whenever he would shower I would be in there upchucking...
For me, nope. I had exorcist style vomiting my entire pregnancy. Lost 20lbs the first few weeks. My arse of a doctor wouldn't prescribe Zofran because "most insurance doesn't cover it." Jerk wad wouldn't even bother to try to get approval. I had to go to a midwife in the same office to get some relief. Zofran stopped the barfing, but I still dry heaved for the rest of the pregnancy. Nasty.
I have to pipe up with the commenter who said McD's chicken sandwiches - in my pukey-est phase it was only the WORST foods that would actually stay down - Sbarro pizza, fried chicken, Wendy's...at some point I was repulsed by almost everything, so if fast food sounded remotely appealing, I'd eat it. And it worked.
Sour patch also makes watermelons, not quite as abrasive but still the sour/sweet sucking sensation. I've got a bag in my car at all times.
Careful tho!! Peppermint tea is used to help your milk dry up! And it is used as a digestive muscle relaxant so it can cause heartburn :(
I will tell what works that isn't on those websites! Drugs! That's what works. Zofran is the best thing out there. Your insurance company won't want to pay for it (because it is overpriced) unless that's changed from last year so you have to try something else first and then go tell you doctor that it doesn't work. Zofran was developed for chemotherapy patients. I used it for the flu or I got food poisoning during my pregnancy and it stopped me from throwing up from that too. Took a little time but it's better than nothing which is what I normally get. I am sold! Also I had a very healthy happy baby for those who want to know.
Just coming back to say that yes Zofran is AMAZING! It didn't take away the nausea but it did stop the vomiting. I'm in Australia and its hard to get here too and expensive. We pretty much spent our life savings on the stuff but it kept me and the bubba's alive so thats all that matters. And I have 2 very healthy kiddlets, no side effects for any of us :)
Ginger Ale, saltine crackers, Sour Patch Kids, hard Jolly Ranchers....those are my saving grace right now! Although my tongue is a bit raw at times! With my first 2 children I was never sick, this time I can't shake the all day nausea.
I found just plain old milk helped most with the heartburn, and for me ginger beer (as opposed to ginger ale) did it for the nausea. Ginger beer has real ginger and LOTS of it...so if you don't like ginger it will probably make you puke right then and there. Just sayin'. Me, I like ginger :> I'll have to try sour patch kids next time!
With my first pregnancy, the only thing that helped was Sprite and crackers. Even the smell of fatty foods would send me running to the bathroom, though I only lost my lunch a handful of times. With my second pregnancy, I was nauseous all the time, but never got sick. At that point, I drank obsene amounts of peppermint tea, and would eat bagels about 3 times a day for the first 3 months.