Can't keep water down

[APMamaBear]

Hi Y'all, I'm newly pregnant and the thought of drinking water makes me sick to my stomach. This happened to me during my last pregnancy, and I think I got by that first trimester sipping on a lot of pop, but also gained 44 lbs with that pregnancy (too much for me!).

I know I should be drinking water and my body and baby need it. Does anybody have any good suggestions? I'm also trying to avoid pop (or anything in cans) because they line them with BPA usually and that freaks me out too.

OK, I'm already anxious and I have a long time to go.

Thanks for your help!

SAHM to DS 23mos

[Tiffanoodle]

Wish I had great advice for you. I couldn't drink water at all during my first tri. I drank a LOT of soda throughout my pregnancies.

What about Gatorade or something like that?

[Strong Mama]

I just started becoming able to drink water. Im 10 weeks. With my last preg, i lived off pepsi the whole 9 months. water just came up.everytime.....

I would recommend ice. Just get some ice from the store and crush it up and just eat ice. snow cones are really good, too. koolaid is another good idea, dont sweeten it too much. im tolerating grape koolaid pretty well. pop is actually making me sick this pregnancy. i have to drink some pepsi everyday because it helps with my terrible headaches and i cant hardly stomach it.

[Twinklefae]

Iced tea and Lemonade.

[wholebreath]

What about carbonated, unsweetened water? You can get it plain or flavored. The flavored kind really helps keep me away from soda. Crystal geyser and arrowhead and calistoga, as well as Trader Joes make them. Read the label and make sure it's completely unsweetened. There are brands that use Splenda and nastiness to make the water sweet.

[kythryne]

I got seltzer water and mixed it with lemonade when I was at that stage of this pregnancy. Or I'd just put a little lemon juice or unsweetened cranberry juice in plain water sometimes. And I went through a few weeks where the only thing I could get down was mint tea.

You might try super-cold ice water, too - I still can't tolerate tepid or even cool water very well, but cold cold cold ice water is fine.

[nova22]

What about tea, can you drink that? You can make hot or cold herbal mint tea, which has the added bonus of soothing nausea with mint.

[~Adorkable~]

Drinking water is sooo important, things with sugar or caffeine have the reverse effect on your body, but I'm sure you understand that.

Try out a few things:
Different brands of carbonated water, some you can find in glass and they all tase a bit different. Avoid the ones with sugar or specially fake sugars, they are a no no in pregnancy

Add a bit of lemon or mint to the water, it can be wonderful, other folks like cucumber in it as another option.

Look at low sugar options that give you fluids, coconut water is one option, but they all are less then water in terms of how good they are for you.

Good luck, it must be frustrating

[m0xxie]

I had the same problem, not wanting to drink water, and not keeping water down when I did manage to drink it. What worked best for me was a couple of nice thick slices of juicy orange floating in a big glass of room temperature filtered water. Something about just that little bit of sweet orange scent and flavor really changed the nature of the water for me, and enabled me to get several tall glasses a day into me. Hang in there, it will get easier in time!

P.S. Also, separating eating and drinking by at least a half hour to an hour also seemed to help, that is, try not drinking anything when you eat food.

[LM96]

When I wasn't able to tolerate plain water, I drank unsweetened, flavored seltzer water. You can also try adding lemon to tap water. I also drink unsweetened decaf iced tea right now because I get tired of drinking plain water (something that doesn't happen when I'm not pregnant). Warm chamomile tea was another drink that I had daily during my first trimester when nothing else sounded good.

[Ellen Griswold]

When I had this problem, I would crush ice in my blender - kinda like an unflavored snowcone. For some reason I could do that but not water. It did get better - hope it does for you too!

[AFWife]

My first tri was like that with this one. I drank a lot of iced tea (decaf) and crystal light...and OJ. Can you eat water rich foods like watermelon? It's a way to sneak it in without drinking it straight up.

[rparker]

Watered down juice, iced herbal tea, even iced black/green tea is better than soda and/or not drinking. Watermelon! I really like iced red raspberry leaf tea, but I think it's probably an acquired taste (like black coffee).

[APMamaBear]

Wow, Thanks for the Water Tips

I totally forgot about decaf iced tea. I did try ice chips with a bit of water and freshly squeezed lemon and that went down well, but I'll have to experiment with the ratios because I ended up getting a wee bit sick from too much acid.

I appreciate everybody's advice and well wishes!

[mediumcrunch]

plain water is often a nausea/vomiting trigger. citrus is often a good remedy.slice orange/lemon or lime into water. lemon/orange/lime-ade often go down well too. different herbal teas may appeal. it is a trial and error.
the key is to stay hydrated, and that isn't necessarily accomplished by drinking water.

[HeatherB]

I love citrus in water - it definitely helps it go down and STAY down better! Also, thinly sliced cucumber in water is VERY refreshing! Cucumber is good for nausea, anyway, so it's a great combo for pregnant mamas. Other fruits are delicious when steeped in plain ice water, too, like strawberries.

Hope you find something that works well for you! It's so important to stay hydrated - and can be so hard in the summer!

[happysmileylady]

Originally Posted by mediumcrunch

the key is to stay hydrated, and that isn't necessarily accomplished by drinking water.

This is exactly what my OB has said. It's not necessarily the water itself that is important, it's the staying hydrated. So, water rich foods like watermelon, are good. Natural juices are ok to. If you are worried about about sugar content of fruit juices, dilute them with water. Even milk can provide hydration.

Things like pop, coffee and other "bad for you" drinks DO provide hydration, the problem is that they also can cause you to go pee more, and likely add a lot of sugar and other negative things to your diet, that's why they should be avoided. But the reality is that pop still contains a lot of water too...I happened to check out the ingredient list on my cherry coke tonight and the very first ingredient is water.

One thing I do is drink a lot of pop, more than I should (I have had more dental work than anyone should, due to the amout of pop I drink) but I chase it with water. That makes the plain water easier to tolerate.

[emilysuek]

I did the unflavored seltzer water thing with my first, more to break me of my cola habit than anything. But I would add apple cider to it, so yummy!

[EnchantedMamma]

Plain water = gag, lemon water = tolerable

I actually brought lemon juice to work. Later I found out that the lemon may help with bloating/water retention