What I Ate During Severe Morning Sickness: Hyperemesis Gravidarum

What I Ate During Severe Morning Sickness: Hyperemesis Gravidarum

Tara Carpenter, NC, PES.

Nutrition Consultant supporting people of all ages with therapeutic nutrition to heal.

I’ve had severe morning sickness (a.k.a. hyperemesis gravidarum or HG) a total of three times. During those times, no one could cook in the kitchen because the smell made me vomit. We ate take-out or processed food. I could only eat fresh, made on the spot food that was made somewhere else. Thank God that during my 2nd and some of my 3rd pregnancy we lived next to a giant Whole Foods with a salad bar to choose near anything and still I would sometimes walk away with only cottage cheese and fruit. I couldn’t eat a thing unless I craved in every cell of my being, had to be the very exact thing, otherwise I would throw it up as I couldn’t fathom eating.

Steak Story

I remember when I hadn’t eaten in 3 days, suddenly all I could think about was steak and mashed potatoes from a particular restaurant; a fancy place. Salivating, I opened the container and saw that it garnished with scallions. I nearly puked. This slivered green addition was not what I had mentally imagined and craved and there was no way I could eat it. My husband went back for another steak without scallions.

You can read my story about having severe morning sickness three times here.

Lobster Roll

Another time, I craved a lobster roll from Legal Seafoods in Faneuil Hall. I called my husband, who was in class at graduate school. He left early to drive (in rush-hour) because he knew I had not eaten anything of substance – and nothing that had stayed down in my stomach – for 5 days. This was a moment of celebration and an urgent one at that. I couldn’t wait another minute. If you know Boston, you know traffic. I didn’t care, nor did my husband. Queasy and vomiting in a bag as he drove, I obsessed the entire ride to the moment when I would put the lobster roll in my mouth. By the time we got there I was drooling. I ate three lobster rolls standing at the counter and then we went home. He parked the car at the entrance and talked with the security guard who was puzzled why I was getting door to door service!

This is how my eating patterns went. Agonizing minute after minute. Hour after hour. Day after day. Eventually a month would pass. I was lucky to crave something. If I could not then I agonized about what I could eat and starved in the meantime. Torture. I spent hours leafing through food magazines hoping to find something to perk me. Healthy eating flew out window. I just needed to eat. This was ironic as I was a trained Therapeutic Chef and about to train as a Holistic Nutritionist to help people heal with nutrition. I actually planned to write a book about eating well during pregnancy. That went out the window, like most of the food I ate.

Miriam Erick is the author of the book “managing morning sickness” and a registered dietitian at Brigham & Women’s for women with HG.

Fast Food 

I ate double cheeseburgers with extra pickles from Burger King, fish fillets with tartar sauce from McDonald’s, chef salad with ranch dressing from a gas station, toasted cinnamon-raisin bagels with cream cheese from Bruegger’s Bagels, cheese curls with peanut butter, eel sushi with tomato slices, hungry man t.v. dinners, canned spaghettiOs with meatballs, french fries with mayonnaise, chocolate shakes from Friendly’s. There was no rhyme or reason as to what I craved, I just waited for a craving to consume me and then I would consume that food and not vomit at all.

Not A Pig

This post makes me sound like a pig. I wasn’t. I was 5’6″ and weighed 110 pounds. I waited days on end to crave any one food and sometimes then a whole more few hours for that craving to build up large enough in my body to physically be able to eat it. It was a mental thing and hard to explain. Then I’d go hungry again – the curled up in a fetal position kind of hungry – with stomach pains so bad you must press a pillow into your belly and there I would wait for another craving to hit.

Tiny footprints is all I have left of my baby girl miscarried after 16 weeks of pregnancy with severe morning sickness.

Find An Angel

I spent a lot of time in the ER at Brigham & Women’s Hospital for re-hydration treatments. It was here I met Miriam (I highly recommend you look her up to consult or buy her book); an angel of the highest kind with a bag of tricks for HG moms. Like keeping a slice of lemon in my pocket to smell or sucking on peppermint tea ice cubes. Or using crushed ice for more hydration. She reminded me over and over that this sickness was not in my head and to make sure I didn’t fall into the trap of believing that’s true. It’s not. She reassured me that my 5 year old son would be okay even if I stuck him in front of the t.v. for 12 hours a day while I lay on the bathroom floor growing a baby brother or sister for him.

Everything is okay, you simply have a severe health condition called Hyperemesis gravidarum.

Hello Cavities

I went from 1 cavity to 13 the year after my 1st was born. With my 2nd pregnancy whom I ended up miscarrying I had 2 teeth pulled. With my 3rd pregnancy, I had another 4 teeth pulled plus 15 more cavities. I had to get put under to have my teeth cleaned because my teeth were sensitive from losing my teeth enamel from vomiting while pregnant. I threw up every few minutes around clock for months on end. I was lucky to go an hour without throwing up or dry heaving what tasted like battery acid. Worse if I had an empty stomach. The throwing up caused my gums to recede. I was in a state of malnutrition WHILE growing a total of three babies.

I had hyperemesis gravidarum for the full 40 weeks with my third child, a boy, seen here when he was a year old. You can do this!!!

Support

I have experienced severe morning sickness three times. I have huge empathy for women (and the people supporting them) as they move through HG. I now devote myself in various ways to help others in this boat; sometimes writing posts like this one, sometimes offering phone support. Share this post. There’s not enough help for women with HG.

If you know a mom in the throes of this HELP HER. Don’t wait for her to ask you for help. She probably won’t; she’s lost in a hole of survival. By helping her cope, you can stop a condition which when left to itself can require hospitalization. Dehydration occurs after just 1-2 days of persistent vomiting, watch for this along with malnutrition and consult her doctor in case she needs hospitalization. Though there can be underlying physical causes for severe vomiting during pregnancy, please don’t think for a second that her vomiting is psychically based.

May all bellies be happy!