Need suggestions: what to eat when I feel so sick

[trinityroyal]

Hello everyone,

Sorry I've been MIA lately, but I've been absorbing some major life changes and haven't been on the board as much as usual.

I'm having a bit of a dilemma, and figured that you all are the best people to come to for advice.

As mentioned in my post on Watercooler, I found out recently that I'm pregnant with twins. One of the lovely side effects is that I feel nauseated all the time. It's so bad that it sometimes wakes me up in the night. My ob-doctor has given me vitamin B6, which seems to help a little, but it's still pretty strong.

Although I feel like I'm eating all the time, I don't think I'm eating enough, and I seem to be dropping weight. According to my doctor, I'm supposed to add 600 to 800 calories per day, over and above what I normally eat.

So...I'm throwing it out there. All suggestions are welcome.

What can I eat that's nutritious and healthy, that will add another 600 calories on top of the 2000 or so I already eat, that won't make me hurl?

Thanks Ladies!

Trinity

 

[Andy]

For the nausea, saltine crackers. I also heard jelly beans work wonders but I never tried those and they are high in sugar. If you can find sugar free ones they might be worth trying.

For nutrients without the upchucks - chicken noodle soup, apples, applesauce,bananas, dry cereal (milk may not make your tummy happy)

For calories - trail mix, oatmeal, apple juice,

 

[LittleDudesMom]

Geeze, i don't know.....cheesies.....

But seriously, you need nutrient/protein packed calories right? Let's think on this ladies and give trinity and twins some ideas.......

Sharon

 

[Bugsy]

I was told by 2 different pharmasists that sugar helps nausea. That some over the counter medication for it is full of sugar. Sucking mints can help and eating sugary foods in general.

Feel good

 

[1905]

TRINITY!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! That is so exciting! My brother-in-law and his new wife (both in their 40's) just has a baby girl on the 4th. His son is in his 20's.

Here is what helped me when I had that debilitating nausea. Grapefruits! Try eating one when the nausea hits, or any citrus fruit.

Cheerios- at one point during chemo, that was the only thing I could keep down.

Buffalo wings, and potato chips with onion dip- ok they're not the most healthy things, but helped me with nausea. And you're not watching your weight at the moment.

Chocolate- eat a piece of chocolate before you eat something that you want to stay down.

Drink some lemon tea, I drank this all day, It helped at the time I drank it.

Chicken cut into little strips, put them on a salad. I had someone make these for me, I was too sick to cook, even. Put them in the freezer in little baggies, take one out at a time- put it in the microwve to heat. It's a fast meal, one that won't make it possible to linger near nauseating foods in the kitchen.

I hope this helps,-Alyssa

 

[Marguerite]

The chocolate is a great idea. make it dark chocolate and break it into small aquares. Limit yourself to one square at a time (good dark choc gives you a strong choc hit with very little).

I remember when I was pregnant with difficult child 1, I munched on carob-coated sunflower seeds. It was easy to nibble just a couple of them, enough to keep my bloodsugar levels up enough to ease the nausea.

Sorry you're losing weight - but don't worry about the babies. They will be piling the weight on even if you're not. Even people who have been starving while pregnant generlly go on to have normal weigh babies.

Keep taking your vitamins, it's the best way to compensate for not keeping enough food down.

Marg

 

[ML]

Ginger. You can cut it up and boil it for about 45 minutes and add honey. You could make ginger snaps or just even ginger ale.

 

[klmno]

I don't know if this would be recommended by your dr, so check with him/her first, but I drank ensure for a couple of weeks to get added nutrients, weight, etc.

 

[trinityroyal]

Thanks so much for the ideas everybody. I was just drawing a blank. I think I've gotten so used to following husband's diet plan that I wasn't prepared for the dietary changes I would need to make.

I've already tried a couple of the suggestions (chicken noodle soup, ginger) and they do seem to be helping.

Marg, thanks for the reassurance about the weight loss. I have been panicking a bit, and now realize that I might be overreacting. I've been taking a pre-natal vitamin daily, so I hope my nutrient levels are okay.

Funny...despite being a certified chocolate addict, I have completely lost my taste for it. I have a case of belgian chocolate in my freezer at home, and I haven't touched it for a few weeks now. Just can't bear the thought. Maybe later on...

Thanks again ladies. I knew I could count on you.

Trinity

 

[Marguerite]

I remember when I fell pregnant with easy child 2/difficult child 2, it was just before Christmas and I'd bought an entire box of mangoes, the perfume of them filled the house. But quite suddenly when I was about 6 weeks pregnant, the smell of them turned my stomach. I had to walk up and down the street, giving away beautifully ripe mangoes.

When I was pregnant with difficult child 3, I found he was draining me of iron. I became more and more anaemic, despite trying to get iron in my diet in any form. even before he was born, he was very demanding.

When I was pregnant with easy child, there was a woman I met in hospital, she was already a grandmother but surprisingly pregnant. She told us how she had been very sick, they didn't know with what, and hadn't been able to keep any food down. Then she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and tey started treatment. She did surprisingly well, with insulin. A lot of gestational diabetes cases have blood sugar levels all over the place, but hers were very stable. By the time I met her, we were both in hospital. She was very thin, all the weight she'd lost had still not gone back on. The pregnancy was proceeding really well though, even if she did look like a broomstick with a pumpkin stuck on it. And the mother was still smoking - I was horrified. We were in hospital in the pre-natal ward, I was needing to be away from cigarette smoke (I was eventually moved to a smoke-free ward), the woman had diabetes and was still a walking skeleton, and yet she continued to smoke.

OK, the story doesn't have a happy ending for the woman. It turned out she didn't have gestational diabetes, she had pancreatic cancer. That was why her levels were so stable. These days there would be a great deal more could have been done for her, but not 27 years ago. She went into a coma, I don't know the full details. But that Christmas we were in the church of husband's hometown (also this woman's home church) and I heard the story from the priest. She had known that she was having a boy so there was nothing more she wanted for her husband. I believe by the end she was happy to be an incubator for the baby and was ready to die. But they kept her on life support as long as they could and she died after they delivered the baby by caesarean. The baby was perfectly healthy and a good weight, the priest said. He saw the family every week in church, the boy was doing really well. He was growing up in an extended family that ranged from his grandmother to nieces. But the thing is - despite the mother's emaciation, despite her cancer, the baby was really well. The biggest risk to him from his mother's acquired diabetes 9due to the cancer detroying her pancreas) was that he might put on TOO MUCH weight. But because her diabetes was so well-controlled, even tat wasn't a problem.

Now, her story is extreme, but I hope it can assure you that if you lose a little bit of weight, it won't be hurting the baby. The baby will take what it needs form your body, so YOU will suffer for it maybe. Just as difficult child 3 drained all the spare iron from my system and left me anaemic and yet had a very healthy iron level when he was born, so your babies won't suffer in any way, but will still be getting everything they need.

Marg

 

[Ropefree]

Plain crackers nibbled in bed befor you get up. Also take water by drops, rather than drinking it down when their is that risk of well dehydration the hard way. The mouth will absorb a surprising lot of water without the complication of swallowing when that may defeat the point.