If you had severe nausea, what worked for you?

[georgiegirl]

I have a "friend" who is almost 8 weeks pregnant and has severe nausea. It is her third child and she never had any morning sickness with the other two. This time, nausea started at 5.5 weeks and soon progressed to severe nausea 24/7 (only relief is being asleep, but she feels nauseous when she wakes in the middle of the night to pee.). She feels worse after she eats. There's no vomiting yet. She's lost about 3-4 lbs so far because she can't stomach eating much. She has tried taking zofran a few times, but it didn't really help. OB recommended taking zofran religiously every 6 hours and/or unisom/B6 twice a day.

So, if you had severe nausea, did anything help, or did you just have to suck it up and deal with it until it (hopefully) got better. Poor friend is beginning to get depressed.

[Cam&Clay]

Combination of Zofran and Reglan. Zofran on its own eventually helped but when the hyperemesis was really bad, the combination is the only thing that kept me from heaving my guts out all day. I still had the nausea some of the time, but the vomiting was less severe.

[Minnifer]

I had to take zofran religiously for the entire pregnancy - it's not the kind of thing you can take occasionally for it to work. It provided nominal relief from the constant nausea so I could get through the days - it was more manageable. I don't know that it helped w/the throwing up, since I still did a lot of that every day. Only true relief overall was birth!

[hollissmama]

I had good luck with the unisom/b6 and eating lots of protein. Hunger was not my fried and always made me sicker.

[tmahanes]

For me it was Zofran but the kind that dissolves under the tongue. The pill you swallow didn't seem to work as well.

Sent from my DROID RAZR

[mom2beofboy/girltwins]

Yup, what PPs mentioned - the dissolving zofran taken religiously. Then when the zofran has the nausea somewhat at bay, try to get any kind of food possible in your system. For me it had to be food that had absolutely no smell so anything warm was out of the question.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

[kaitlyns.mom]

I did the Unisom/B6 combo and it saved me. Before that I couldn't even stomach the idea of drinking water. While I was taking it I did feel groggier and it was hard to get moving during the day, but I was actually able to care for my daughter instead of being incapacitated with nausea all day.

[georgiegirl]

Thanks for the suggestions. Seems like taking zofran and unisom/B6 regularly should help.

[annex]

Also, just a reminder if Zofran is used, she most likely must pair it with a stool softener. It can be horribly constipating.

That said, some moms-to-be also have round the clock nausea from undiagnosed heartburn. It can start very early in the first tri for some. Worth looking into seeing if Zantac might help if she's not vomiting (since Zofran is typically more of an anti-emetic than an anti-nausea med.)

[mom2beofboy/girltwins]

Also, just a reminder if Zofran is used, she most likely must pair it with a stool softener. It can be horribly constipating.


The neonatologist told me to take Colace continually.

[lutefisk]

Yup on the Colace and the Zantac (or other proton pump inhibitor) and taking the Zofran regularly. With preg.#2 I needed 12 mg/day to stop vomiting and I heard of women needing up to 32 mg.

There's a hyperemesis site called helpher.org that has discussion threads, if she is able to use the computer. lots of helpful info there and hand-holding and commiseration.

[essnce629]

The B6/Unisom combo completely cured me of my morning sickness when pregnant with DS1. With DS2 it definitely helped and allowed me to be able to eat again, but it didn't make it go away completely. The dose was 50mg of vitamin B6 and a half tablet (blue tablet, not capsule) of Unisom before bed every night.

At 26 weeks, my midwives suggested I try drinking dandelion root tea, and that finally cured me of my morning sickness (after just one cup!). My midwives said it was only for morning sickness that lasted past the 1st trimester though (which they said may be related to poor liver function and dandelion root helps the liver function properly).

Eating no less than every 2 hours and making sure it was something with protein helped as well. Eating something carby/sugary like pancakes with syrup just made me get nauseous again soon after. So I had lots of snacks of shakes made with peanut butter and yogurt, nuts, beef jerky, cheese, etc. Any time I put something in my mouth I tried to make sure there was some protein in it.

[mctlaw]

The unison b6 was not a complete cure but did help me function. Best wishes.

[kdeunc]

Another Zofran user. It definitely helped me.

[arivecchi]

Another Zofran user. It definitely helped me.
:yeahthat: I had to be on zofran for both pregnancies.

[lizzywednesday]

Room temperature seltzer water helped me function & get my stomach settled enough to eat.

The next thing was ensuring I had a "second breakfast" in the morning - I'd mix up a glass of Carnation's "Breakfast Essentials" drink before my hour commute & then I'd buy an egg sandwich at the office cafeteria (scrambled eggs on a hard roll.) The protein helped keep my stomach settled & full so I could drive & then function.

I kept cheese sticks, snack-packs of almonds & snack baggies of pretzels & crackers in a cooler at my desk.

(I did all this because they wouldn't prescribe Zofran for me and I felt freakin' awful. Seriously, I lost weeks of work because I was puking.)

[TxCat]

This is very timely.

With DD, phenergan was the only thing that helped me, and fortunately didn't make me very drowsy - I could still work on it. Zofran did nothing for me.

This time around, constant, unrelenting nausea/sour taste in my mouth, but no throwing up yet. Neither zofran nor phenergan are helping. Lots of small meals, protein is best. Super hot or super cold beverages - lots of ice chips - it's the only way I can get myself to drink. Really, all I want to do is sleep or lie on the cold, hard floor.

Just started the B6 last week. Was on the fence about unisom, but based on the recommendations here, guess I'll pick some up on the way home.

[georgiegirl]

Thanks ladies. After being on zofran 3 times a day for 48+ hours, plus unisom/B6 at night, I finally feel like a semi-normal person again. I still feel pretty icky at night and nauseous on and off all day, but I don't feel like I'm going to puke 24/7 anymore. And I'm able to eat somewhat normal amounts of food. I just need to go out and buy some colace. I'm just so confused as to why I'm so sick this time when I felt great the previous two pregnancies. I'm not officially "out" yet, since I'm only 8 weeks and haven't been to the OB yet (first appointment is next week.)

[MamaMolly]

Zofran like clock work, not getting hungry but nibbling little meals/snacks throughout the day and eating sour gummy candy. My mouth still waters thinking about those sour gummies and honestly I don't like the taste.

[Simon]

I am glad you're feeling better. I haven't seen this mentioned, but I drank *a lot* of ice cold water/sucked on ice nearly constantly to numb my throat and dull my gag reflex. This really helped me get/keep food down.