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For many women, morning sickness is an unavoidable (and uncomfortable) part of being pregnant. And it only gets worse when it's hot and sticky outside. So to help you prepare for the warmer months, here are the best tips from the parents of iVillage on beating the morning sickness blues. Here's to your enjoyable pregnancy.
Morning Sickness Remedies
"I suffered awful all-day sickness with my last child. I know this is going to sound crazy but one thing that helped me was sipping on a Dr. Pepper -- it has a natural agent that will help settle your stomach. You might also try sucking on a salted lemon. I don't know why this helped but it did. I have since shared it with a couple of friends who say they also received some relief this way. Just know that when they hand you that wonderful sweet baby it will all have been worth it."
-- momcamp
"The things that helped me were lots of water with a squeeze of fresh lemon (refreshing and good for getting that taste out of your mouth after throwing up) and sucking on peppermints after eating to help digestion. I also found I was super sensitive to smells so I kept a fan running to create a breeze on me at all times and tried to keep a lemon or peppermint handy as these are refreshing, clean smells."
-- tonic2
A Possible Culprit
"I have had two sons now and both times I was fine, with no morning sickness, until I saw the doctor and I started taking the pre-natal vitamins. Then I would get so sick that I could not work. I just felt like lying on the couch all day and moaning. What my doctor and I eventually determined was that the iron in the vitamins was doing me in. The doctor switched me to low-iron vitamins and then everything was normal again. Hurray!"
-- tvivian
Timing is Key
"If you take your vitamin with dinner, or the biggest meal of your day, the nausea is minimized. Some say take it before bed, but it would then make me so nauseous I would wake up. Another tip: the last time you get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (around 4 or 5 a.m.), eat something small. These two tricks nipped my morning sickness in the bud."
-- kookies
"I had the queasies during my pregnancy and hated it. I finally determined that it was the pre-natal vitamins doing it to me. Once I started taking the vitamins at bedtime, I had no more problems! "
-- mladyc
An Alternative to Vitamins
"My doctor suggested Flintstones chewables, with iron. I was to take two a day, one in the morning and one at night. I was a paranoid pregnant woman to an extreme so I worried that the aspartame would make my baby born without limbs so I asked the pharmacist. He assured me it was FINE. My daughter was born very healthy with all her limbs and in very good shape. I think the best advice is balance and eat what you can. In the early weeks, eating a little bit of everything is best. I can't imagine what the evolutionary benefit of morning sickness is, but there must be one to be so prevalent in so many women."
-- tautery
