hyperemesis gravidarum

pigpen

People will harp on about ginger and arrowroot.. these people did NOT have HG!!! .. after a few months your daughter will want to kill anyone who mentions either! pmsl.. the rants my daughter had!

HG is not just morning sickness!! It is totally debilitating and acute illness and can have detrimental effects on the physical and mental health of the mother and baby.

I never had any sickness with any of my children.. my daughter was hospitalised several times with both of her pregnancies.

Her best friend was a bowl! She couldn't keep down water, was severely dehydrated, lost loads of weight and was very very poorly.. Depressed she couldn't go anywhere or do anything and a lot of the time simply getting out of bed was all she could manage to do that day. But.. that's all ok.. if that's all she can manage then fine.. her health is more important!

My daughter had 3 lots of medication during the second pregnancy (I'm not mentioning names because most can be bought OTC and they should be prescribed for the baby's safety). One of which is known to cause heart defects/irregular heartbeat.. so there are extra checks and the medical staff are a bit more attentive.. she had a couple of scans because the heartbeat of her daughter sounded a bit odd a few times.. she has a totally harmles ectopic heartbeat which is actually hereditary and nothing at all to do with the medication.. she was born 2 days before her due date weighing 8lb 6oz.. so not even little.. my daughter had lost over 2 stone by this point!!

As a parent there is nothing you can do to make it any easier.. visitors exhaust them, going round to do anything to help exhausts them and makes them feel bad they can't do it themselves.

With her first DD1 was really miserable at about 14 weeks pg.. so I went round.. armed with a stack of christmas baubles and lights and as silly as it sounds.. a pair of really cheap silver earrings... my younger girls decorated her christmas tree and I put her earrings in... she slept for 2 days after we left but that was the best day ever she told me recently (it was 4 years ago!) .. She had reached the point where she just wanted to not wake up in a morning. She lived closer with the second and had medication much sooner so was less unhappy despite being more unwell.


The recent Call the Midwife series had her in bits.. had she been pregnant in the early 60's her babies would have been effected by the thalidomide she would have been prescribed.. the words 'but you weren't' don't seem to register when she could identify so closely with those desperate women.. it doesn't just affect the pregnancy, it has repercussions through other aspects of life, ongoing long after the baby is born.

She had maybe one day a week when she could eat something, every other day she was terribly ill.. apparently cornflakes are best avoided.. they are hideous to bring up.

The other problem she has had as a result of HG is her teeth.. the constant acid burned through the enamel resulting in her 2 front teeth being see-through. The dentist suggested using a mouthwash when she couldn't actually brush her teeth.. she has since had ALL the gaps in her teeth filled at the back just in case she ever decides a third child is a good idea.. she had a few areas which were looking dodgy so they were filled just in case too. It may be worth advising your daughter to get her teeth checked now and some advice about protecting them during the pregnancy to prevent her going through the same.

How do you help... You don't suggest trying this or trying that.. you step in when they are at their lowest, you take their laundry home and bring it back clean and folded, you don't wear smells when you visit and if they want to eat nothing but cake because it is the only thing they can keep down on a Tuesday morning you give them cake.. you do what is necessary to get through it.

Congratulations!! The medical world doesn't know everything.. I hope her pregnancy is as boring as possible.. and the sicking stops for her!

dinky_dragon

I had sever HG with my first pregnancy, was hospitalised 6 times and was off work for about 18 weeks. Everytime I was in the hospital and on a drip, the sickness would stop and then as soon as I was back at home the horrendous sickness would start again. I've never experinced "normal" morning sickness, but I know HG is not it. I was absolutely miserable, depressed, I had thoughts of wishing I would miscarry so the misery was over....it was the worst time of my life!

After my 6th hospital admission I was prescribed steroids (Prednisolone) and the sickness stopped IMMEDIATELY. It is prescribed for all kinds of illnesses, and for some reason it cures HG. It was prescribed to me by a Professor at a hospital in Newcastle who has been treating women with HG for 25 years plus....I wasn't sick again once, after that very first tablet.

I went to see him again when I was planning a second baby and he told me to start taking them as soon as the sickess started, which it did at week 5 - Im 30 weeks at the end of this week and apart from a stomach bug, I've been vomit free.

Tell her to eat and drink whatever the heck she can, there were days when all I could stand to even look at let alone eat was mashed potato and coke - just tell her to feed her body whatever it is craving. There is help out there, and it won't last forever...it is also the sign of a very healthy pregnancy but honestly my heart breaks for her I know exactly just how debilitating it is. xx

flipper_72

I had HG in both pregnancies and agree with everything written by the other posters.

In my second pregnancy I tried acupuncture (I have to many allergies to risk medication!), it definitely helped, but it didn't cure it. Now for the "new age" bit, the acupuncturist explained to me about "hot" and "cold" foods, not in temperature but in Chi (I think - it was 8 years ago). Basically foods are classed at hot neutral or cold. The foods I had urges to eat were white - bread, mash, rice cakes and it turned out these are cold and exactly the things I should be eating. Things to avoid were red meat, cheese, tomatoes, garlic. Cucumber was cold, I am struggling to remember others.

I too needed to eat instantly when I wanted to, and couldn't stand the smell of cooking, I never though I would want to drink tea or coffee again, but I do drink it. And if I had the energy I could have strangled the people who told me to eat ginger biscuits or use travel bands.

Keep up with the helping out, don't ask how she is feeling, feed her when she needs it and tell her that even though it is awful at the time, some of us manage to forget it enough to go through it all again!!!

Best wishes to her

pigpen

flipper_72 wrote: »

The foods I had urges to eat were white - bread, mash, rice cakes and it turned out these are cold and exactly the things I should be eating. Things to avoid were red meat, cheese, tomatoes, garlic. Cucumber was cold, I am struggling to remember others.

That makes sense though..


cucumber is high water content to help with dehydration.. melon was probably on that list too.

the other stuff.. potatoes, rice, bread... all complex carbs so raise blood glucose.. one of the symptoms of low blood sugar is nausea.. so eating these increases the blood glucose if it stays down long enough.. and reduces that feeling and hopefully makes you feel slightly better. Wholemeal bread/rice are probably preferred as they have a slightly higher carb content.

I think it gets to the point where you look at food and can only see what it looks like when you bring it back again and that takes over.. toast for example.. everyone says have toast when you've been ill... but I see that slimy grey mass you regurgitate.. toast is then the last thing I want to eat!! I know my daughter was at that point with many foods.. which restricted her further.

dinky_dragon

Absolutely Pigpen, I was absolutely terrified of eating more or less anything because I just imagined how awful it would be to bring them back up. Toast is one of the most horrendous things I have ever vomited, I don't know why it tastes so bad backwards!!

Things which are tolerable to bring back up IMO:
Bananas
Lemonade
Mashed potato
Grapes

Things to avoid:
Strawberries (omg, so bad)
Toast
Chocolate
Tomatoes

If she is going to be sick, may as well make it as tolerable as possible...

margaretclare

Well said, pigpen. HG is NOT just 'morning sickness'. It is a severe and life-threatening illness. It is thought to be what Charlotte Bronte died of. Dehydration, the main side-effect, is highly dangerous.

Different women will find different food/drink items at least tolerable. What one can tolerate will not necessarily be tolerated by another.

pigpen

dinky_dragon wrote: »

Absolutely Pigpen, I was absolutely terrified of eating more or less anything because I just imagined how awful it would be to bring them back up. Toast is one of the most horrendous things I have ever vomited, I don't know why it tastes so bad backwards!!

Things which are tolerable to bring back up IMO:
Bananas
Lemonade
Mashed potato
Grapes

Things to avoid:
Strawberries (omg, so bad)
Toast
Chocolate
Tomatoes

If she is going to be sick, may as well make it as tolerable as possible...

haha..bananas were one thing my daughter couldn't face. Noodles.. don't even go there (Ood!!!) and cornflakes were the absolute worst, she still can't eat them now and GD is 17 months!!

See... there are even points you can almost find humorous much later.

DigForVictory

I'm one of those wicked souls who only threw up after a world cup kebab.

That said, the Duchess of Cambridge had hyperemesis gravidarum & lived. Dunno if the lavender shortbread helped or just didn't stink evilly on its way back, but that got press inches.

I did get "eat *now* or see your toenails" messages from baggage, and carried a can spanner, tin of macaroni cheese & teaspoon for six months. Shocked my colleagues sideways (I did indeed eat it straight from the tin) but baggage liked it.

What Eat Quickly foodstuffs can you arrange to have handy that don't smell? That you are allowed in pregnancy? Not forgotten a fellow NCT mum who carried a freezer bag with 6 big McDonalds vanilla milkshakes in. When her occupant kicked off, that worked for her.

A ginger nut is a reliable distraction, and sometimes that's a good start.

A dab of Vicks on the top lip under the nose confuses the sense of smell & may help?

Whisking SIL off for a full fryup & then policing brushed teeth before returning may be appreciated. Getting used to asynchronous meals may not be a bad idea.

Fingers crossed for you all!

betterlatethannever

pigpen wrote: »

People will harp on about ginger and arrowroot.. these people did NOT have HG!!! .. after a few months your daughter will want to kill anyone who mentions either! pmsl.. the rants my daughter had!

!

:rotfl: I was given a huge mouthful the other day for suggesting this

Your post made me cry and hit such a cord.
I'd never thought about her teeth and the effect it'll have on them, so I'll pass this on.

I'm so pleased your DD managed such a big healthy baby...it truly is a miracle that they can survive an grow.

Many thanks for taking the time to post this. :j

betterlatethannever

dinky_dragon wrote: »

I had sever HG with my first pregnancy, was hospitalised 6 times and was off work for about 18 weeks. Everytime I was in the hospital and on a drip, the sickness would stop and then as soon as I was back at home the horrendous sickness would start again. I've never experinced "normal" morning sickness, but I know HG is not it. I was absolutely miserable, depressed, I had thoughts of wishing I would miscarry so the misery was over....it was the worst time of my life!

After my 6th hospital admission I was prescribed steroids (Prednisolone) and the sickness stopped IMMEDIATELY. It is prescribed for all kinds of illnesses, and for some reason it cures HG. It was prescribed to me by a Professor at a hospital in Newcastle who has been treating women with HG for 25 years plus....I wasn't sick again once, after that very first tablet.

x

Another post that made me cry- she describes it exactly the way you did about being miserable etc.:(

I'm really intrigued by the steroids and will investigate this further.

Many thanks xx