Foods to combat heartburn?

[TwoBees]

I have had a LOT of heartburn so far this pregnancy. Tums work, but are there any alkaline foods that can help? I know there are foods I can avoid; unfortunately I am also craving those foods. Not bananas though. Bananas give me heartburn for some reason.

[sarahsthreads]

I don't know, but am definitely interested in any answers. I'm seeing my midwife this Friday and I'm going to ask if there's anything stronger than Tums I can take, especially right before bed. Waking up with acid bubbling up in my throat every night is really getting old. And I've already got myself propped up with pillows and I'm sleeping on my left side only, so there's not much more I can do from a sleep position standpoint. I've tried barely eating a very early dinner, eating a snack before bed, and everything in between. Nothing seems to help.

The old wive's tale of baby having a full head of hair after heartburn has held true for me both times, but this time is SO much worse, I'm afraid I'm growing a hairy gorilla in there...

Sarah

[psimpson3-5]

I had terrible acid reflux during pregnancy, so I was prescribed Zantac. It helped immensely. You could also try drinking milk.

[Philly Mom]

I had terrible acid reflux when I was pregnant with DD1. I was also prescribed something. It was life changing. I still had to be careful about what I ate (no acid/spicy foods) but I could drive my car. Before the prescription meds, I literally could not sit up enough to drive in the afternoon. My heartburn was the worse during the pushing part of delivery and then started to act up again about two months after delivery. 10 months later I gave up caffefine, and I could get off the medicine. Oddly, with this pregnancy, the heartburn has been much less severe so the OTC stuff has been fine and I am not avoiding foods. When it is acting up, which it did more early on, I ate a string cheese and that seemed to really help. Milk would do the same I am sure, but I am not much of a milk drinker. When I am exhausted, I have found myself having a cup of iced tea during this pregnancy, but I can't have it more than 2 days in a row otherwise, I can feel the heartburn act up. So if you have any coffee/tea in your diet, I would suggest stopping.

[PunkyBoo]

I also had awful heartburn and acid reflux from the day nausea ended to the day after I gave birth to Punkin (and he has a TON of hair! )
Foods that help: oatmeal, ginger, melon, fennel, poultry (no skin and not fried), celery, parsley is really helpful, and couscous.
I've heard cheese is not good for reflux.

[ArizonaGirl]

With my OB blessing I took Prevacid throughout my 2nd and 3rd trimesters so that I could sleep at night with vomiting and almost aspirating stomach acid. Sleeping elevated helped too.

[amandabea]

I have had a LOT of heartburn so far this pregnancy. Tums work, but are there any alkaline foods that can help? I know there are foods I can avoid; unfortunately I am also craving those foods. Not bananas though. Bananas give me heartburn for some reason.

Apples worked wonders for me! Even water gave me heartburn.

[sarahsthreads]

OK, so not being a milk drinker, I tried having a small serving of vanilla yogurt last night before bed.

It wasn't 100% effective - I was still uncomfortable - but I didn't wake up feeling like I was choking on acid. I suppose it could be whatever else I did or didn't eat yesterday, too, but before I ate the yogurt I felt like I could breathe fire and after it wasn't quite so bad.

I'm still planning to discuss other options with my midwife Friday because I still have 3-6 weeks to go here and baby's only going to get bigger in there and I'm assuming that will make things much worse, but at least I have a possible solution until then.

Oh, and I do drink coffee, but only one cup in the morning to stave off any caffeine headache and try to wake up enough to deal with my two active kids. But I can't imagine how that 10oz cup of coffee at 8am could possibly be causing acid reflux at 1am, kwim?

Sarah

[TwoBees]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I had been taking Protonix for GERD prior to this pregnancy but I stopped because I'm trying to take as few meds as possible (I am already on 3 that I cannot discontinue). So I really don't want to add more meds into the mix except for something here or there when it's really necessary. I'm going to try the food suggestions listed above. Thanks!

[Philly Mom]

I forgot about yogurt. I actually find that it can help if I eat it first thing and last thing. I eat Greek plain when I do. I needed that in the first trimester.

For caffeine, I only need one cup to cause a problem and that was all I was drinking when I decided to cut it out. The first week I went off was hard but then it became fine.