MOLO Advice: Morning Sickness, Scoff or Skip?

Suffering from morning sickness? We feel your pain. We’ve been there with bells on and we know there’s nothing “morning” about the 24-hour nausea that plagues early, middle and late pregnancy for those unlucky mothers-to-be.

But there’s good news. Amazingly you get used to losing your breakfast… and lunch… and tea… and every snack in between. It’s never pleasant but there’s things you can do, and stuff you can eat, that will make it slightly more bearable.

We canvassed our 2,000+ Motherload mums to bring you The Motherload® guide to morning sickness: What to scoff and what to skip while suffering the effects of the dreaded morning sickness.

Some foods taste better on the way back up than others and getting it right can mean the difference between a burned oesophagus and a second chance at a tasty treat (ok, not quite, but at least your oesophagus isn’t on fire, right?)

Top tips for coping with morning sickness

• Drink plenty of water: “Anything where you haven’t had a lot of liquid is badddddd!!! Drink loads of water so the sick slides out nicely!” Emma
• Avoid acid foods: “Fruits and citrussy things burn the back of your throat for hours” Orla
• Stick to sweet: “Sweet flavours seem to survive the trip and the after taste isn’t nearly as bad” Anne
• Take your vits with something you can stick: “Prenatal vitamins are torture! I could only keep them down with dessert as long as I went straight to bed afterwards” Coralie
• Dairy is the enemy – unless it’s frozen: “Ice cream good. Milk or cheese bad” Beth
• Take the meds: If all else fails your GP can prescribe special anti-sickness meds
• Weight loss isn’t always a plus. See your GP if you can’t even keep down water: “I puked so much that I lost too much weight and my morning sickness was upgraded to hyperemesis gravidarum (HP). Ended up in hospital on a drip! It was OK in the end but those first fifteen weeks weren’t great.” Coco

Scoff

Jam Sandwiches

“Taste the same on the way out” – Faye

Ice Cream

“Always pleasant. Going down and going up” – Leanne

“Actually pretty refreshing the second time round” – Claire

Orange Lollies

“Goes down as a lolly, comes back as juice” – Nicola

Juice

“Juice vom is definitely the best vom” – Chloe

Chocolate

“Creates happiness. Eat as much as you can” – Joy

“Milk or dark, white chocolate is a no!” – Rose

Cake

“As long as it’s moist, dry cake just gets stuck” – Clare

Diet Coke and Carbs

“Anything healthy made me gag” – Alexa

Cheap Frankfurter Sausages

“Virtually no difference in flavour in either direction” – Kay

Ready Brek

“Easy to throw up – looks and tastes exactly as it did the first time it was in your mouth” – Rachel

Jelly

“Smooth and silky, exactly what you want in a vom!” – Charlotte

Skip

Milk

“Comes back as cottage cheese! Bleuuugh” – Anna

Cheapy Freezer Dinners

“So stodgy it’s hard to bring them back up” – Stephanie

Fruit

“Burrrrrns!” – Christy

Rich Tea Biscuits

“Just awful” – Steph

“Feels like suffocating!” – Amanda

Weetabix

“Comes up like something the dog ate” – Emily

Cheese Burgers & Fries

“Actually anything that came from Macdonalds” – Christy

Jacobs Crackers

“Great for sorting out the nausea. Hard work getting back out though” – Tyra

Tuna Mayo

“Really fancied it despite feeling so sick so I felt a tad betrayed as it shot it’s way back! Second hand fish!! Rank! – Katherine

Watermelon

“A lovely craving but coming back up it bloody hurt! – Charlii

Ginger Biscuits

“Someone told me they’d help the nausea. Perhaps they didn’t mean, eat an entire pack in one go?” – Anna

Tomato Soup

“Felt like acid and looked like a crime scene” – Victoria

Did we forget one? What were your best and worst morning sickness foods? Let us know in the comments or join the banter on our forums now!

About Anna-Belle

Anna-Belle, 35, is a writer, editor and entrepreneur, loves to drink nice wine, eat (and occasionally cook) really interesting, delicious food and the odd dirty burger, leave half-drunk cups of tea around the place and go surfing or snowboarding about once a year to make herself feel cool again
Oh! And she’s a mum to two gorgeous children: Jacques (2015) an Alethea (2012), and wife to Chuck (1983). The family live in Northern California, USA after stints in the UK, Singapore, and France.