Managing Nausea and Vomiting During Pregnancy

Many women experience some degree of nausea and/or vomiting during pregnancy. Some have it worse than others, and some never experience at all. If you are one of the unlucky ones to experience severe nausea and vomiting, you know that it can be crippling. Some women have nausea and vomiting so bad that they have to be hospitalized (a condition called hyperemisis gravidarum). If you are having nausea and vomiting, forget all the traditional nutrition advice you receive about healthy eating during pregnancy.

If you are experiencing nausea and vomiting, your goal is calories and fluid. Where those calories and fluids come from do not really matter when you cannot keep anything down. This is called "sick day meal management". Ask yourself what you feel like you can eat or drink at any given moment. It might be something cold and bland (how about cottage cheese?), it might be something sour and crunchy (salt and vinegar chips?), it might be something bitter (grapefruit?). Whatever sounds good to you, eat it! And you may have some strange cravings. Even the most deplorable diet of candy, chips, and soda is better than nothing. Eating nothing can get you in the hospital....

Ask yourself what sounds good and try to eat or drink a little something every hour or so, whatever you can manage. Keeping a little food on your stomach at all times can help ease feelings of nausea and may even help you be able to keep more food down when you are feeling better. Drink small sips of whatever you can keep down throughout the day (lemonade, gingerale, fruit juice diluted with water, seltzer, sprite... plain water does not work well for alot of women but it might work for you!) Your goal is to keep from getting dehydrated.

Many pregnant women tell us that they can handle fruit and enjoy eating alot of fruit during their pregnancy. That is a great choice because you get calories AND fluids from fruit. If you cannot drink enough liquids, eat foods that contain liquids if you can handle them. These include foods like yogurt, ice cream, fruit, soups, jello, puddings, and popsicles.

Here are some other tips that might help:

• Taking your prenatal vitamin is important, but it can aggravate a queasy stomach. Try taking your vitamin right before bedtime or try a gummy prenatal vitamin.


• Ask your doctor about certain prescription medicines that can help ease severe nausea and vomiting.


• Some women find that licking or smelling a lemon can calm a quesy stomach. Carry some lemon wedges around with you in your purse if this helps you.


• Nausea and vomiting are often connected with offensive smells. Pregnant women have a stronger sense of smell and you may find yourself bothered by things you have never noticed. Common offensive odors include cooking foods (especially meats), old coffee, perfumes and colognes, etc... Avoid these odors if possible. Let someone else do the cooking if kitchen smells bother you. Kindly ask your partner or coworkers to avoid using perfumes and colognes.


• If you experience nausea and vomiting mainly in the morning ("morning sickness"), it may be connected with low blood sugar from not eating all night. Be sure to eat a bedtime snack right before bed and eat a little something every time you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom (as most pregnant women have to do frequently). It doesn't have to be alot, just a spoonful of cottage cheese or a couple crackers or chips. One of my clients cooked a bunch of hard boiled eggs (a food she liked and felt like she could tolerate) and would eat an egg or two in the middle of the night.


• Also, keeping some food near your bedside and eating a little something before getting up and moving around can help settle your stomach if you tend to have morning sickness.

Be sure to ask for advice from your doctor or nutritionist if you are battling nausea and vomiting. You do not have to fight it alone! For more information check out this book: No More Morning Sickness: A Survival Guide for Pregnant Women by Miriam Erick.

Remember that eating a variety of foods from all the food groups is especially important while you are pregnant. But when you are feeling very ill, this simply is not your focus. Do everything you can to help yourself feel better and you can worry about your food groups later when you can actually keep them down!

-Allison Leonard RD