Input requested: Easy meals in the middle of morning sickness
I am struggling from very intense morning sickness that lasts throughout the day. It is difficult to keep food down right now (I'm 9 weeks pregnant). I know you struggled with morning sickness during your pregnancies. I'm running out of ideas for easy dinners to make for my family during this season. Could you recommend some meal suggestions that you used during your pregnancies? I'm also of course very interested in any easy ideas for new moms. - Julia
Julia, I feel for you. Almost a year ago at this time, I was just beginning a long journey of morning sickness that followed me throughout much of my whole pregnancy. At one of my lowest points, I posted a plea for some five-minute meal ideas and my wonderful readers came to the rescue with lots of great ideas which you can read about here.
Other ideas:
World's Easiest Chicken Roll-Ups
Simple recipes for breakfast, lunches, and dinners
Carryout or frozen dinners - if there ever was a time to have your husband pick up something on his way home from work, now is the time. When I'm in the middle of pregnancy sickness, this is often the only thing I'll be able to eat - something I haven't cooked myself.
Use the crockpot - if you can stomach the smell.
Ask for help - see if a relative or friend could make up some frozen dinners for you. A few people did this for us both times and it was such a huge help and blessing!
What other ideas does everyone else have for Julia or other moms in a similar situation?
Related: For those looking for any ideas to help with morning sickness (or morning, noon, and night sickness like I have!), I posted some thoughts and ideas here and here.
Other ideas:
World's Easiest Chicken Roll-Ups
Simple recipes for breakfast, lunches, and dinners
Carryout or frozen dinners - if there ever was a time to have your husband pick up something on his way home from work, now is the time. When I'm in the middle of pregnancy sickness, this is often the only thing I'll be able to eat - something I haven't cooked myself.
Use the crockpot - if you can stomach the smell.
Ask for help - see if a relative or friend could make up some frozen dinners for you. A few people did this for us both times and it was such a huge help and blessing!
What other ideas does everyone else have for Julia or other moms in a similar situation?
Related: For those looking for any ideas to help with morning sickness (or morning, noon, and night sickness like I have!), I posted some thoughts and ideas here and here.
posted by Crystal Paine at 8:00 AM
17 Comments:
For yourself, steer clear of anything too rich or spicy.
Roasted root vegetables are nice in the cooler weather I guess you're experiencing (In Australia we're heading towards summer) and they aren't to powerfully smelly.
Or get DH to cook on the barbeque...
I posted something very similar today as well! So, I'll be following up to see the great ideas suggested here.
Things that always worked for me when I felt sick were soups and plain breakfast foods like waffles and pancakes.
The perspective my post came from is that this is an area of tremendous opportunity for ministry in the lives of those around us. I hope these two posts will generate a willingness in us to serve in this way!
My morning sickness wasn't terrible but what did finally help was ginger. Ginger ale and ginger snaps are pretty easy ways to get it. A friend of mine was worse with it than I was and she had to eat a little bit off and on all day so that her stomach never really got empty.
I don't really have any suggestions for dinner as I was working and hubby was home so he did it and I didn't have to deal with it. Grilled cheese is always an easy one and it was something that I could stomach.
Good luck and blessings with the new little one!
Tracy
I am pregnant with my first and had bad morning sickness. Once the morning sickness went away I have been plagued by crazy food aversions (basically I am not nauseous, but everything just seems gross). My husband has been extraordinarily understanding...often having cereal for dinner or making some broth with pasta. It is getting easier for me to cook so I am making it up to him by making his favorites.
I was thinking of writing you with nearly the same question. I am 8 weeks right now and miserable. I am sick ALL THE TIME. Luckily, I don't have any children to worry about, or things would be a real disaster! My fiancé fixes his own dinner (which is not how things are usually) because everything he likes (which I usually like) I can't stand the smell of. Last night, I had a very successful dinner of my own--cream of wheat. It was the first dinner I'd kept down in weeks. Maybe it's worth a try for some others. Unfortunately, I have no advice, just sympathy. My nurse/midwife told me just to worry abotu staying hydrated, and anything I could eat would be a bonus; not to worry too much. I manage to keep down a soy protein shake in the morning. We went out to eat with some friends a couple nights ago (and we're not telling anyone I'm pregnant), and let me just say, I ordered the plainest thing on the menu, and it did not go well.
A friend of mine beat morning sickness with Preggie Pops. Here is a website that sells them. They are pretty cheap and for her a lifesaver! http://www.bellybeats.com/preggiepops.htm?osCsid=51d1425af1c759540606dffc1ba49bb9
I would say to eat very small, bland meals about 6 times a day as eating 3 normal sized meals and/or hunger can cause morning sickness. Also, tell the doctor how you feel and don't feel like you have to downplay your morning sickness - so let your doctor know that it is hard for you to function through out the day. There are different medications that are prescribed for morning sickness that I have been told that work. Good luck! I never suffered from morning sickness (I had acid reflux instead!) so I'm sorry I don't really have any great meal ideas but Crystal's ideas look yummy!
I lost lots of weight with both pregnancies in that miserable first trimester. It's horrible, and what's worse is when people tell you, "I never got sick with my pregnancies!" or "Just eat crackers."
My solutions:
*Fresh grated ginger tea--Make a big pitcher and drink with ice and a squeeze of lemon
*Lemonade/Limeade and Ginger ale help curb the nausea a little
*Craisins and almonds for little snacks throughout the day
*Pickles (seeing a theme here? Anything sour or vinegary seemed to help a tiny bit)
*Extra vitamin B6
*Eating whatever sounds good at the time
I totally agree with Crystal that carryout and frozen meals are the way to go. The day you find out you're pregnant with your next kid you should freeze as many meals as possible before the sickness hits. But for now, here are some things I did for my hubby's meals:
*Threw some tortilla chips on a plate, dumped a can of chili on top, added shredded cheese and microwaved for 1 minute.
*Cereal for supper
*Canned soup and grilled cheese
*Sandwiches
*Bland foods with no smell (boil noodles or rice and then when he gets home he can open a can of chow mein or spaghetti sauce to put on top.
One other thing that saved me from losing more weight than I already did was drinking a Boost protein drink every day. The chocolate flavor tasted great and they are small and easy to get down. This helped me get my nutrients and protein when I could hardly eat more than a slice of toast per day.
My nurses recommended Unisom/B6 but I found Unisom to make it worse and konk me out (even just 1/3 of a tiny tablet). Some women have had success with taking the unisom before bed though and then it helps the sickness the following day. Talk to your doctor/midwife about it.
Hi,
I too suffered from fairly severe morning sickness. The ginger is the best suggestion I can come up with as well as the anonymous person had posted.
On the side of caution, beware of goofy treatments to detox your body. Most don't really help and some are harmful. Doctors are now prescribing Zytec, a low dose antihistamine. I'm not sure about it and you might want to do some research.
What you really asked about though was easy meals right?
It won't hurt your family to eat fairly starchy meals and salad for awhile. Pasta, potatoes and breads are all quick and pretty odor free. Also think about making a soup or stew when your husband is home to help and having left overs around.
Hope this helps,
Joanne
One other thing I forgot to mention: I've recently discovered apple juice. You know, plain old kid's apple juice. I never was very into it before. I have some, really cold, before I get out of bed in the morning. It seems to help. Drinking water has been hard for me (makes me want to throw up) and something about the sweetness of the juice, and small amounts of nutrition, I think is helpful. DF the doctor says clear liquids pass through the stomach very quickly, so if you can keep it down for a little bit, you can get the nutrition into you.
Now, of course this isn't a meal idea! (Pathetic how my best meal idea is cream-of-what...) Just a survival tactic...
Crystal's meal ideas would seem lovely to me under normal circumstances, but I, who normally love all kinds of ethnic, weird, spicy, etc., foods, can't tolerate much that isn't clear or white these days.
I've also had minimal relief with Sea-Bands. They work really well for a day or so and then stop. I give them up for a few days, and then they'll begin to work okay again.
I found making popsicles with some popsicle molds I bought at the dollar store and some ginger ale (vernors brand works best) was very helpful. I also ate quite a bit of saltine crackers. I wanted to eat healthy but I soon learned that most of the health recommended food bothered me (broccoli was the worst and to this day I can't eat it without feeling sick). So, my new plan, because I was loosing weight so fast, was to eat whatever stayed down. For me that was mostly bread type things, though salad also felt ok. I also had lots of soup.
I usually made a huge pot of soup, and I would keep it in the fridge and reheat and add cooked noodles to it (I stored the cooked noodles separately in a bag in the fridge).
Praying for you,
Kimberly Eddy
Eggs always helped me in the mornings. I'd have them rolled in a tortilla with a bit of cheese.
I sure feel for you--in the throes of morning sickness I went to Paris for the first time. It was wonderful--and terrible! I found that caffeinated coke helps (just a few sips, really--unless I'm pregnant I hate the stuff) and so did potatoes.
Thanks so much for the great ideas, Crystal. I am definitely going to look over your list of meals later today when my stomach settles a bit and try to do some planning. Unfortunately the crockpot doesn't work too well, because I can't deal with smelling the food all day...but some of the other ideas I will definitely try. Thanks also for your great post homespunheart. What a sweet idea and one I hope to adapt for other friends once I am able to cook again.
Julia
I am pregnant with our first baby and nearing the end, but I had very bad all-day sickness in the beginning. My cousin gave me some tips that really helped: eat a little something every two hours, even if you don't feel like it or you aren't hungry. It truly did help keep the nausea at bay for me. Also, Stash makes a Lemon Ginger tea that is helpful to sip on throughout the day. Drink LOTS of water because even dry-heaving is really hard on your body.
As far as meals go, there's the never-fail can of 'cream of something soup' on top of meat in the oven and serve it with rice or potatoes. My husband really likes it when I do cream of mushroom soup mixed with a little milk and poured over pork chops, bake them, and serve with some microwaved 10 minute stuffing. Sometimes you just really have to lower your cooking and grocery shopping standards (e.g. I swore I'd NEVER buy anything that came out of a box - HA!) and buy stuff that's really easy to make or that your hubby can make. Don't worry - he won't starve and it's likely he'll be much more interested in taking care of you. :-)
Whenever I feel that I am getting sick, or after the birth of a baby. I immediately start defrosting a turkey, easy to cook and produces a ton of meat for the price. The family can eat sandwiches on it for days and it was one of the few meats I could stomach.
Lela
Usually I could eat things if someone else cooked it, as long as I didn't watch or smell it being cooked.
Ginger, lemonade, and dry, bland foods are supposed to help. However, to help prevent morning sickness, eating protein with every meal, and frequently as snacks should help as well.
One thing that really helped me was to have my husband cook a large amount of hamburger and chicken while I was out of the house. I couldn't look or smell it, but once is was cooked and chopped, I could tolerate putting it into casseroles, or making a main dish salad with it for the rest of the family.
I had a friend who used her crockpot a lot ... plugged in out in the garage!
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