No longer "just" heartburn!

[MyFullHouse]

I've been taking Zantac 75 2x/day, with Tums chasers as-needed. It was really helping for a while there.

For the past couple of days, I've been having actual reflux, if that's the right term, when bending over for any reason, even if not all the way to the floor. I can feel stuff coming half-way up.

Last night, I actually woke up twice with the whole puking-in-the-mouth deal (sorry!)

I've had major heartburn with every pregnancy, but this is by far the worst. I'm not sure what else to do, since I can only manage to sleep for about 20 minutes at a time when propped up. Not that I've been sleeping all THAT much better when not.

I'm going to put a call in to my mws later today, but thought I'd check in here first.

[lillymonster]

I have stomach ulcers that seem to come back with each pregnancy. Probiotics for the stomach helped me a lot. Natures Way Optima has strains that help stomach issues, ulcers and things like that. Low protease enzymes (not papaya - too strong) are good

Tums does make it worse, it causes rebound effect.

[my kidlets and me]

Check with your mw/dr - I think you can take 150 mg of Zantac/Ranitidine (generic version) 2x a day during pregnancy. If this doesn't work for you, then you might consider another kind of acid blocker. I took Ranitidine with my 2nd pregnancy and it worked really well, but tried with my 3rd pregnancy and it didn't work at all! (according to the pharmacist, it can happen in pregnancy that a drug will work one time and not another) I switched to Nexium, another Class B Drug (that might be a Canadian designation, but it denotes a drug that is safe for humans but hasn't been specifically tested on pregnant women. Zantac/Ranitidine has the same designation) and it did wonders. My heartburn at that point (I had been trying Rani for a month), the heartburn was so bad it felt like I was having a heart attack.

This pregnancy, I waited as long as I could before filling the prescription for Nexium (I made it to almost 29 weeks). Warning - it is an expensive drug - we are lucky to have a great prescription drug plan through dh's work. But your dr/mw might be able to recommend something else similar. I also have some liquid Maalox that you can take *occasionally* during pregnancy. I have used it twice this pregnancy, for the days (before Nexium) that I couldn't function.

Sorry for the novel - hope it helps!

[lunarlady]

I had reflux with my recent pregnancy. It sucks! I found that while Tums helped in the short term, they actually made it worse in the long run. What helped for me was papaya enzyme frequently (I carried them around and ate 2-3 whenever the heartburn acted up) and taking a liquid cal/mag supplement twice daily. That helped right until the last couple weeks, when nothing worked. Of course, then I had the baby and poof, no more issues. Good luck!

[NewMaMaZenLovin]

When the nausea first hit in the beginning I realized my body was rejecting ANYTHING acidic(sp?) and all of the acidicity would gather to the top and just come up leaving all solids in my stomache. As the nausea went away the problem with the acidic foods stayed but it wouldnt come up anymore. it would just sit there on top in my stomache laughing at me. the tiniest bit of air would send off fire alarms causing me to jolt up in bed and burb myself(moving your abdomen around in a spiral motion really helps to get stuck air bubbles out) then one night it was so bad that i forced myself to do the deed and puke. I instantly felt better (nothing but acididc liquid came up, all the food i had eaten that night stayed down). This is about a once a week recurrance for me when it gets so bad i cant even sleep. Of course i try to avoid the acidic liquid in the first place( eat/drink lots of dairy. Dont down water before bed if you had something acidic that night, drink milk or yougurt, or oatmilk. something that will coat your esophagus. CHEW YOUR FOOD REALLY WELL!!! chunky food makes your digestion system have to work harder and being pg puts a damper on how fast thigs move through you, so keep that balance! watch out for greasy oily stuff. that will casue heartburn too! and TRY to eat smaller more meals instead of society's 3 meal a day thing(no animal ((that means us too)) is supposed to eat 3 square meals a day, our system just dosnt work that way)

If you do have to get to the unfortunate point of yacking on purpose drink something coating and brush your teeth after. hope this helps!

PS IT IS PROVEN THAT TUMS WILL SCREW YOU IN THE LONG RUN.