Real Food Meets Real Life: Getting Through Morning Sickness
Y‘all know that I am a huge proponent of simple, real foods and taking the time to prepare them. But some times our ideals meet up with a real life situation that forces us to just do the best we can.
Last week someone asked me how I am surviving the cooking and eating that is often a challenge during morning sickness. The short answer is not as well as I hoped.
Just before the nausea set in, at about five weeks, I was drinking a quart of raw milk per day; eating plenty of good red meat, eggs, and even liver; and getting in all of the coconut oil, butter, and vegetables recommended. I was so excited that I was pregnant and getting all of these good foods in.
And then it hit. One morning I woke up and the act of simply moving made my stomach never want to hold food again. Those nutrient-dense smoothies full of egg yolks, raw milk, and coconut oil… no thanks. In fact they made my stomach angry more than anything else.
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The smell of eggs cooking, raw meat, or anything with an odor resembling food made it difficult to eat anything. For a while I just opted not to eat when I felt awful, but that was actually making things worse.
I found that if I could keep my blood sugar up and even then the nausea wouldn’t be nearly as severe. But I simply could not stand the site of another burger, smoothie, or piece of liver let alone eat it.
So I just decided to eat foods that actually did sound appealing and try to avoid foods that I know have very little nutrients. I ate a lot of the same things over and over, but I got the calories and protein and energy that I needed to make it through and at 12 weeks the nausea and extreme fatigue just melted away as they have in both of my previous pregnancies.
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The foods that helped me make it through were…
- Turkey sandwiches with fermented pickles on gluten-free toast.
- Peanut butter and jam on gluten-free toast.
- Potatoes with lots of butter and sea salt.
- Very bland chicken salads.
- Oats with bananas and peanut butter.
All very bland, carb-heavy foods but foods that helped me get through none-the-less. Another thing that really helped was some papaya enzyme tablets a sweet friend sent me. I had taken them for late-pregnancy heartburn in the past and found that they really eased the symptoms of the nausea.
Of course now I am trying to get back into consciously choosing more nutrient-dense foods since it is no longer a matter of simple survival. I definitely crave meat every day and am finally eating fried eggs again without the smell making me want to run.
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I think the biggest challenge was not what I should eat, but what I could feed my family. The smells of cooking made things much worse so having a husband who gladly grills burgers many nights a week is such a blessing.
Sometimes we are given situations that challenge our thinking and ideals. Sometimes we learn what the true meaning of open-mindedness is and that our ideals are not His. Sometimes just getting in enough calories to function is all that we can think about.
And I think that’s okay. What do you think?
I didn’t have severe morning sickness with either of my pregnancies, but I did have major food aversions…I ended up baking honey oatmeal bread and eating it every day with loads of butter…and that seemed to sustain me for at least the first 6 weeks of nausea 🙂
Thanks for your very interesting and informative post. While I will never be worrying about dealing with morning sickness again, I have clients and family that will. I also am dealing with lack of appetite issues- do not know if it is just the heat or heat and a lot of stress, but my whole schedule, and way of eating is off. I am not eating “bad” things, just not enough of anything, and can’t seem to get the right balance with supplementation either. Trying to keep stress down-but there is only so much I can do about it! I am sticking with foods I crave, and not worrying about combinations too much as long as my stomach does revolt. Thanks again for covering such an interesting topic!
ABSOLUTELY!!!!!! It’s totally ok.
The body knows, right? If your diet was excellent leading up to pregnancy, and excellent after week 12, I’m sure you can’t go wrong. Bland, boring but not crap is an excellent compromise. Very wise. Should I become pregnant again, I may print this post and stick it to my fridge.
I’ve only been pregnant once and it coincided with an international move. This was a mixed blessing, as stressed-out pregnant me had a Bionic Nose – my sense of smell was boosted to Beagle status – and I was being fed from other people’s kitchens so did not have to stand in the cooking smell. Pregnant me also had heavy limbs apparently made of jello. Lead jello. I did not have to get off the sofa and get a meal on the table at regular intervals, but also had no control over what was available or when.
Congrats on getting through Phase 1: Fog. On to Phase 2: Looking Blooming and Cute, and Phase 3: Fending Off Advice!
What a great post! I discovered Nourishing Traditions about 8 years ago and totally changed the way I eat. What a revelation real food was! Over the years I had ebbs and flows of intensity in following it’s principles. About a year and a half ago I happily became pregnant and continued a nutrient dense diet. But alas, that pregnancy was not meant to be and ended fairly early at 7 weeks. After that I went through a natural grieving period and decided it felt good to eat whatever the heck I wanted. Still stuff that wasn’t too bad but not as nutrient dense (a lot of croissants made with real butter, chocolate, not reading ingredients just eating what tasted good). Not very long after that (two weeks later to be exact) I became pregnant again. This time the nausea was much more potent. I was in a bit of denial because the other one had ended so early and didn’t want to get too attached to this pregnancy. I still regret the number of Saltines I ate (at least they were organic) and I ate a lot of sourdough bread. Not very nutritious. But like you, the very thought of putting my usual favorites in my mouth made me shudder. After 15 weeks the nausea subsided, and I plunged head first into raw dairy, liver, eggs, grass fed beef, and coconut milk. The rest of the pregnancy was uneventful and pleasant. I gave birth to an 8.8 lb bright and shiny baby girl. She receives endless comments on her focus, bright eyes, strength, and physical advancements. Even though I didn’t eat at nutrient dense as I had hoped in the beginning of the pregnancy, I hope I made up for it in the latter portion. Your post helps me remember that when the nausea sets in, you do the best you can. Congratulations and may you have a happy, healthy pregnancy!
I was exactly the same way- I couldn’t stand any food that, well, smelled during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. Things I normally loved made me feel like running to the bathroom. People were really surprised, though, by the two things I wanted to eat the most- pickles and sauerkraut. Unfortunately I hadn’t discovered traditionally fermented versions (or traditional foods at all) yet, as I’m sure my body actually wanted the probiotic versions. I also wanted bacon and mayo, so I ate a lot of BLT’s. And eggs, which didn’t turn my stomach because they didn’t smell. But you’re right- the real challenge isn’t feeding oneself during this stage, it’s feeding the family. I was lucky (?) that my husband was out of town a lot during that period, so my daughter and I ate out a lot…
And during the last month or so of my pregnancies I also had some weird food aversions. I wasn’t exactly nauseous but my big babies were filling up my short torso to such an extent that I never felt hungry… until I was about to pass out. And when I wasn’t hungry, nothing sounded good. The only things i wanted to eat were mashed potatoes with butter and raw veggies. But at least during that period I could cook.
I’m in the throes of morning sickness now and I just want potatoes all the time. I am worried that I can’t stomach the thought of veggies and barely can tolerate fruit (that seems strange). But if this one is like the past four pregnancies, I should be okay in a few weeks – please let the time pass quickly. And then I hope to “make up for lost time”. The problem is, most of the organ formation is during the first twelve weeks!
Carbs were my saving grace through the first trimester of my pregnancies. I’m grateful that I didn’t have it as bad as many others though, because I was usually still able to cook for the familiy. Glad you are feeling better now!
Hi, Shannon, I hope you feel better soon!
I think you are right on about the hypoglycemia. When I was pregnant, I had the exact same experience. I noticed that I grazed all day, eating *BEFORE* I was really hungry, that actually stopped the morning sickness in its tracks.
I found that to keep nausea away, I had to eat about every 2 hours (8 am breakfast, 10 am mid-morning snack, 12 noon lunch, 2 pm afternoon snack, 4 pm late afternoon snack, 6 pm dinner, 8 pm after dinner snack, 10 pm before bed snack). My husband started calling me a Hobbit (they always have their elevensies snack between breakfast and lunch).
Since I was so tired, the key for me was to prepare stuff in advance. so I had it ready when I needed to eat. I’m planning to get pregnant again so I plan to keep the following on hand: soaked cooked brown rice that I can just warm up and add butter to, arroz con leche (this is a rice pudding made with rice and raw milk and a little honey), smoothies (I can keep a big pitcher full in the fridge), sprouted bread that I can add butter and cheese to to make grilled cheese, deviled eggs or hard-boiled eggs, beef jerky (easy to make in the dehydrator), ice cream (only lightly sweetened with honey, made with raw cream and egg yolks), grain-free granola and full-fat yogurt, chicken nuggets made with coconut flour and cooked in coconut oil (I can eat these cold, right out of a freezer bag — so good!), grass-fed cheese and sprouted flour or nut/seed crackers, liverwurst and crackers, soaked nuts.
There was also a thread on morning sickness in my local WAPFLA Yahoo group so I thought I’d share what was posted there:
“I had terrible morning sickness with my last pregnancy too. Raw milk didn’t help, infact I think it made it worse. My morning sickness seemed to be caused by a magnesium deficiency. Since milk is high in calcium, it made it worse.
I started supplementing with Maga-Mag ionic magesium by Trace Minerals Research and it made me feel a lot better. I just added it to my water and drank it throughout the day.
I’ve heard morning sickness can also be caused by a deficiency in vitamin B6. Brewer’s yeast might help, but it has a pretty strong flavor, so may be hard to take when you are feeling nauseous.
Sea-Band (those wristbands they make for motion sickness) also helped me. You can buy them at any drugstore.
— Suzanne”
“31 years ago, when I was very newly pregnant with my second child, I followed the advice given by Adelle Davis in the book Let’s Have Healthy Children. She said to take Vitamin B6, starting with 50mg and adding more if needed to a maximum of 250 mg. I believe she said to take a B complex vitamin as well. The 50 mg of B6 worked beautifully for me. I had morning sickness every morning with the previous pregnancy, but none at all with that one.
When that second child got pregnant, I told her about the B6. For her it took 100mg of B6 to not have morning sickness, but again, that worked beautifully for her as long as she took it every night.
— Gloria”
“My mother had an Adelle Davis book (I don’t remember which one) which I loved to read as a kid. The one remedy that I remember helping me was to take calcium supplements for menstrual cramps. I have given the advice to my 21 year old niece and it works for her too.
I realize this isn’t helpful information for morning sickness. But I wanted to affirm the accuracy and value of Davis’ advice. 🙂
— Martha”
“My mom tried hypnosis early in her third pregnancy and it worked like a charm. She had been totally sick her whole second pregnancy. She said it worked immediately and lasted throughout the whole pregnancy.
— Kristen”
I can personally vouch for the hypnosis. I did hypnobirthing and it was amazing!
People also recommended homeopathy and accupuncture.
my midwife thinks it is good for the body to go through this as it keeps the placenta smaller and there is less chance of too big of a baby growing along with gestational diabetes. she says that she thinks it is more of a norm, esp if it is relatively short lived and mom was well nouished beforehand. kinda makes sense to me, but living through those weeks is so awful. I ended up hospitalized for fluids twice last time. glad to see you are feeling better!
Shannon, thank you so much for this. Not sure if you were referring to me, but I did ask you about this last week! I spent all week last week throwing up, and so I called my midwife Saturday. She said I need to eat protein every hour. I have low blood sugar and low blood pressure normally, so those combined with pregnancy are quite the combo for nausea and vomiting. Yesterday was the first day I didn’t throw up! Yay!
I’ve eaten a lot of sourdough toast lately and I feel very bloated..I can’t wait to eat salad again!
I’m hoping to make chicken stock today because potato soup sounds soo good…yes, it’s 105 degrees here in Texas but it’s what my body wants!
Thanks for the great advice and encouragement for all of us pregnant mama’s!!
Amanda
Those are great Ideas, Anne Marie! Oh, those chicken nuggets sound amazing!! I’m going to have to make some of those!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this!! I am 8 weeks pregnant, exhausted, nauseous and hardly feel like eating anything. I was exactly the same – eating grass-fed meat, coconut oil, pastured eggs etc. and then the morning sickness hit and *bam* the only thing I can possibly even think of tolerating is carbs… especially bread, which I hadn’t eaten for over a year before now. And I just keep thinking about how I am supposed to be nourishing this baby! Not to mention my other three children (adopted, so I never had morning sickness with them 😉 When my husband is home he cooks and I stay as far away from the kitchen as possible. Then when he is gone to work I pray I can get through even heating something up for my family. It would be hilarious if it weren’t so awful.
Am curious what kind of gf bread you use?
Thank you so much for writing this! I am dead in the middle of the morning sickness weeks and have been harboring tremendous guilt over my families eating habits the last few weeks. Luckily my husband can cook decently and he supports healthy eating so his first instinct is not to run to McDonald’s or something. Still though… the smell of him cooking is awful and sometimes I have to leave the house or lock myself in our bedroom! There are some days when any sort of fresh veggies turn my stomach completely. I simply cannot force them down no matter how much I know the baby needs them! Bananas have been my saving grace, and oatmeal. Hopefully the sickness will be over soon and we can get back on track!
Kudos to you for listening to your body, Shannon. That’s not always easy to do, especially when our body seems to be saying something different than we want it to.
I also grazed constantly during my pregnancies. It really helped keep morning sickness at bay. Eating something small first thing in the morning seemed to help as well. If I felt slightly sick to my stomach, I would try to eat something palatable as soon as possible to prevent it from getting worse. It worked very well for the most part. In fact, to this day I still associate slight nausea with being hungry! I guess some habits die hard. 🙂
Shannon,
Great article as usual! I went through terrible morning sickness last winter and into a bit of the summer. It was so strange not to crave my usual colorful diet. I’m a private chef – so being around food was just awful! I had to take a good bit of time off to get through it!
I ate a lot of bland foods as well but tried so hard to keep them real and not live on saltines. I went for turkey sandwiches and potatoes as well – funny. I remember not putting really anything on the sandwiches for awhile – like a big pile of arugula or fresh sliced tomato – just plain, please! Nothing sweet – fruit was totally out of the question! I ate bland raw veggies like carrots, celery and cucumber. Forget my usual favs!
We’ll see what the next pregnancy brings!
Thanks for sharing:)
I think there is a wisdom to this. If you think about it, the baby isn’t very big in the first trimester, but your body is literally fashioning a whole new, large complex organ: the placenta.
This takes an extraordinary amount of energy. Kind of like building a brick wall: you not only need the bricks (proteins for structure) but you need energy to power the mason!
Those carby things we crave when pregnant are because we are busy building things!
Susie
My recent advice to my sister was not to force down those super health things (like green smoothies) that she use to be able to have but now makes her throw up. Keeping food inside of you is the key, in my opinion. Do and take what you can healthily but if it pushes the wrong nausea button say good-bye to it till your body is ready. I am 28 weeks and just can’t seem to get enough of all the good stuff that I missed out the first part of my pregnancy!!! 🙂
Shannon, I am so glad you are feeling better. I look back on my three pregnancies, and I wish I knew then what I know now about eating good food instead of just giving into cravings that were empty calories from the start.
Two of my children were healthy, but my third child suffered greatly from my lack of nutrition since I was sick with here for all the 9months of the pregnancy.
I wished that there were women for me to talk to, but the old wives’ tales were prevalent during my pregnancy and it was hard to even consider going against the norm.
My daughter survived, but her disabilities are many and I have finally had to learn that real, good, wholesome foods is really the only way to live.
Thank you for sharing so much wisdom. It brings me so much joy to read all the comments of young women of today that have embraced a healthy lifestyle for their families and themselves.
Be blessed – Maria.
This is nice for me to hear because I’m 18 wks pregnant now, and have been suffering from nausea/vomiting/food aversions since about week 9. I mean, to the point where all I think about is what I can keep down and I throw up at least once, usually twice, and sometimes four times a DAY. I lost weight, and keeping down anything but fruit was very difficult.
Ginger is my main secret. The sickness creeps back in when I don’t take ginger. I take it in fresh-form, which has taken just about all of my sickness away. I’ve also made a tea with it, but it’s not as effective for me. I mince it and put it into a salad dressing: 1 inch piece fresh minced ginger, 2 large cloves minced garlic, 2 tsp honey, 2 tsp dijon (or just plain mustard), 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil, salt, pepper.
I’ve been eating it for about a week and the taste combination is amazing. I’ve been craving crunchy, refreshing iceburg lettuce, so it was a perfect match.
Do you eat any raw diary during pregnancy? I am not finding a whole lot of information on whether or not it is ok. Thanks
Oh man, I hope I don’t get morning sickness! I’m hoping to get pregnant, Lord willing, within the next year (hopefully sooner rather than later, but we’ll see!), and morning sickness is something I’m dreading. This is good advice though, because I also really try to eat healthy. When the sickness hits I guess I’ll go easy on myself like you say and just eat what appeals to me/what my stomach can handle. Thanks for the good advice!
I think AMEN! I am currently week 11 and really hoping that week 12 or 13 will be the end of this food insanity! The story of the past 8 weeks resembles very closely yours…even what actually is edible!
Oh man…this is my first pregnancy, and as a real foodie I thought that I would somehow be exempt from morning sickness. What was I thinking?!? At only 7 weeks, I’ve spent the last week or so barely able to move, and of course sick as a dog.
Nausea does not immediately trigger a response to eat something, but I’m hoping it will soon. In the meantime I’m just trying to make it through the days. Thank you for this post! It’s encouraging.
I’m currently 8 (going on 9) weeks pregnant and I’m so thrilled to read that I’m not the only one who craves carbs and can’t stand the thought of veggies. I also can’t stand the smell and thought of certain foods, but fortunately my husband can cook.
There are a few real food bloggers who make it seem as though if you eat “right” you won’t have any of the typical issues associated with the first trimester. I’m glad to see that this isn’t the case. This makes me feel so much better! Thank you.