Am I crazy... Strong aversion to cooking, eating, touching or even thinking about food?

[texmati]

I've been wanting to ask this for some time. Ever since I became pregnant its so difficult for me to 'deal' with food-- even something like menu planning. I feel hungry and nauseous at the same time, and most of what I eat is packaged/fast food junk.

I think it feels comfortable since packaged food always tastes the same. Needless to say I feel run down, and I've gained more weight than I should have.

Could this be due to pregnancy, even though it's not directed at certain foods?

[nova22]

I had that problem in a big way during the first 3-4 months of this pregnancy, and it came back every once in a while since then but not as badly.

We ate out A LOT. I ate an embarrassing amount of junk food. I tried to sneak in healthy things when I could but it was so hard to cook, shop, or even prepare something that was already mostly made because the thought of any food made me so sick. I don't know what it was that made fast food okay but homecooked meals so appalling.

When I finally did feel better, I took that opportunity to eat as healthily as possible (although I still gave in to junk food cravings every now and then so I didn't feel deprived - which is not the word I'm looking for but I'm drawing a blank, so I hope that makes sense). I also doubled meals as often as I could so I could eat half that night and freeze the rest for another time. That came in handy when I started feeling like that again; I could thaw something out and have DH make it, and I'd get a homecooked meal from scratch without having to stand in the kitchen and look at it while it was being made. That helped a little bit. In fact, DH helped a lot because food always tasted better when I wasn't the one who had to make it.

[ILoveMyBabyBird]

Originally Posted by texmati

I've been wanting to ask this for some time. Ever since I became pregnant its so difficult for me to 'deal' with food-- even something like menu planning. I feel hungry and nauseous at the same time, and most of what I eat is packaged/fast food junk.

I think it feels comfortable since packaged food always tastes the same. Needless to say I feel run down, and I've gained more weight than I should have.

Could this be due to pregnancy, even though it's not directed at certain foods?

Hi, nice to reply to one of your threads, since you have been super helpful on mine lately!

I am the exact same way right now. I think it is just the cooking process that gets me grossed out or something. It has gotten better, but I do get a little nervous when i look at the pantry. Sometimes I will just eat a snack for dinner because real food sounds so gross, but I will still cook, it is so odd to cook whole meals and then not even eat one bite. I have figured, I can cook it or I can eat it, but I can't do both. I guess it must have something to do with hormones. I find myself eating a lot of nuts to keep me full, and greasy foods and carbs, blech, I love them but don't eat them much, until recently. Luckily I sahm, so I don't go out much so I resist the fast food most the time. I make myself eat a couple servings of fruit and veggies each day to balance out my not so great diet.

[kittywitty]

I had the same thing the first almost 5 months of this pregnancy. It was crazy.

[lillymonster]

Everytime I get pregnant, my diet goes out the window. I want fast food, take out, I can't cook at all. I didn't start cooking until recently - at like 27 weeks or so. Before then cooking made me sick to my stomach

Right now I want Stouffers creamed chip beef or whatever it's called - sh!t on a shingle. Yeah, that sounds good. I have got a ton on super good stuff I could cook, but I hardly do it anymore, I just can't.

[Artichokie]

This is me on most days. I can eat some things if they are put in front of me, but if I cook, I cannot then eat it, too. If something cooks in the crockpot and I have to smell it all day, I cannot eat it. After I have eaten, I can't even discuss food for several hours and I cannot think about menu planning. My poor dh has been cooking for us for months. I miss loving food!

[rockycrop]

I was the same way from about week 5 to week 14. It was AWFUL. I think it's a circle of hell to be constantly hungry and at the same time disgusted by food.
We ate out a lot more than usual. I cried a lot. I ate stuff I would have never eaten pre-pregnancy (cough..mcdonalds...cough). One day I cried tears of joy (to mix it up) because I made myself some ramen noodles and they tasted good to me. I hadn't tasted anything good in several days at least.
Eat what you can, try not to feel horribly guilty and just make it through!

[texmati]

I guess this is brought on by my most recent houseguests asking... what *do* you guys eat for dinner? I stammered out some reply about not feeling well the past couple of weeks, but frankly, the idea of cooking food disgusts me. I did make pancakes for bf over the weekend, but couldn't eat any of them.

Houseguests need to leave, but that's another thread.

thanks to everyone who took the time to reply despite the typo's in the title!

[SWhite]

Ughh. I feel exactly the same way and unfortunately cooking is part of my job. I am a nanny and I cook healthy meals for the family throughout the week. Today I managed to throw (literally) chicken breast in a casserole dish and toss on a jar of store bought sauce until they were drowning. I baked the sh** out of it and served it on top of plain pasta. It was a disgrace! I pride myself on making everything from scratch, adding tons of veggies and upping healthy foods like beans and spinach in their diets but I just CANNOT think about food without feeling like I am going to DIE and throw up all at the same time. Then I have to come home to my DH (who is amazing and understanding and wonderful) and feel terrible for asking him to pick up take out or make something frozen. This is so far the most unfortunate symptom for me. It is hindering my work quite a bit and Im praying it doesn't last forever!!!

[Weevil]

Yes! I've been the same way, and it's been driving me nuts. I tend to eat things that are very quick and easy, that involve minimal cooking. When I do take the time to cook (poor DH, he's used to having homecooked meals all the time since he works full time and I don't have a job), I often end up not even eating it. Like tonight I made an entire pan of lasagna for DH and I heated up some spring rolls and seitan sausages I pulled out of the freezer for myself.

I don't want to cook any veggies at all, and beans are just too much of an effort. I used to make at least one big pot of beans a week (we're vegan) and I think I might have made one pot this month, and DH ate 95% of them because I didn't want to have anything to do with them (and I normally love them). I've been eating lots of canned chickpeas (managed to find some BPA free cans) because they're so simple.

Basically, if I have to put any effort into cooking it I don't want to eat it... even if I've already made it. OTOH, if I eat it at a restaurant I do just fine and eat stuff I wouldn't eat at home. I don't get it!

[Yuba_River]

Very normal, and very, very annoying!

[m0xxie]

Six months into this, my first pregnancy (excepting early m/c) and I'm still largely like this... please, someone who's been through this before, tell me I will eventually enjoy food again? I miss the joy of cooking so much!

[homemademom]

This is me to a "T." Ugh. I hate it. It's so annoying and irrational. The cantaloupe and grapes are sitting right. there. and yet, I can't deal with them. If dh washes and cuts everything up, I'm much more likely to eat them.

I did make dinner twice last week, so maybe it's lifting??

[Kellyh_01]

Originally Posted by m0xxie

Six months into this, my first pregnancy (excepting early m/c) and I'm still largely like this... please, someone who's been through this before, tell me I will eventually enjoy food again? I miss the joy of cooking so much!

For me it ends as soon as the baby comes out.

[lillymonster]

Originally Posted by m0xxie

Six months into this, my first pregnancy (excepting early m/c) and I'm still largely like this... please, someone who's been through this before, tell me I will eventually enjoy food again? I miss the joy of cooking so much!

It's been around 27-28 weeks for both pregnancies. Although my meals aren't "full" meals like before, I can cook meat and some less stinky veggies. I have trouble thinking of ideas because I still have some food aversions still.

[butterflies]

I had much more 1st trimester, morning sickness this time around and one of my drs said "Don't cook! Make someone else do it!" She was only half-kidding. I knew i had found a practice i could work with!

[juneweaver]

I'm a Grandma just back from a 3 week stay with newly pregnant daughter.going thru the same thing Did my best to find , pick up or make the heathiest anything she would eat. Seems it was different everyday!

She is extreemly sensitive to all odors and nauseous most of the time so 'eating out' was not an option. She was so frustrated and miserable (and not sleeping well at night either)

What do any of you do to ensure good nutrition? Any of you able to do healthy smoothies?

How did you get your Dh to 'understand'?

Thanks If I lived closer, I'd be a meals on wheels for them!

[smeep]

I'm 24 weeks and am still dealing with food issues. I have never had the same issues in my last two pregnancies (the second was only 8 1/2 weeks but I did start to get the exact same nausea in the last few days that I had with DS). I didn't have the typical nausea...but WEIRD nausea much later on. My food aversions were also not the same. I've gone through periods where if I missed a 15-20 minute window when I first barely started feeling hungry (as in, I wasn't even sure if I was hungry, so it was VERY easy to miss) I would have massive debilitating hunger pains for a minimum of two hours afterward, no matter what or how much I ate...once it started, it was going to continue. So I had to start eating a handful of peanuts every half hour and meals every couple hours regardless of how I felt to be safe. It lasted for a week or two, and then it was gone. Then I had aversions to almost everything...nothing was tasty, everything made me nauseous, etc. Then I went through massive stress at about 18 weeks which led me to literally choking down maybe a total of two meals in three days, and another three or four meals over the next two and a half days. Now, at 24 weeks, I have no desire to eat. Ever. I get a little hungry at times, but NOTHING sounds enticing. Nothing at all. So I'm sure I don't eat what or how much I should. Yet I've gained a good chunk of weight already.

You're not alone.

[JamieCatheryn]

Oh I had this. Anything food made me miserable especially after 2pm, and it only got worse if I got hungry. My solution was cereal, Stouffers, Taco Bell, and Chinese take-out for several months. At least there were veggies in there. My husband hated it too.

[L&K'smommie]

Originally Posted by juneweaver

I'm a Grandma just back from a 3 week stay with newly pregnant daughter.going thru the same thing Did my best to find , pick up or make the heathiest anything she would eat. Seems it was different everyday!

She is extreemly sensitive to all odors and nauseous most of the time so 'eating out' was not an option. She was so frustrated and miserable (and not sleeping well at night either)

What do any of you do to ensure good nutrition? Any of you able to do healthy smoothies?

How did you get your Dh to 'understand'?

Thanks If I lived closer, I'd be a meals on wheels for them!

For the first trimester I just eat whatever I can keep down(which right now isn't much). I have found I really like orange/banana smoothies that I make in my Vitamix.

As far as dh understanding...I wish I knew...my dh's understanding changes like my mood.

Originally Posted by m0xxie

Six months into this, my first pregnancy (excepting early m/c) and I'm still largely like this... please, someone who's been through this before, tell me I will eventually enjoy food again? I miss the joy of cooking so much!

My SIL loves cooking and for her the love of cooking came back with a vengeance as soon as her baby was born. I wish I lived next door to her right about now as she is always cooking the most amazing things.

Originally Posted by rockycrop

I was the same way from about week 5 to week 14. It was AWFUL. I think it's a circle of hell to be constantly hungry and at the same time disgusted by food.
We ate out a lot more than usual. I cried a lot. I ate stuff I would have never eaten pre-pregnancy (cough..mcdonalds...cough). One day I cried tears of joy (to mix it up) because I made myself some ramen noodles and they tasted good to me. I hadn't tasted anything good in several days at least.
Eat what you can, try not to feel horribly guilty and just make it through!

What a wonderful description of how I feel right now. Needing to eat yet hating all food. It's horrible.

OP: Yes, you sound perfectly normal to me...it's how I'm feeling right now at almost 10 weeks...hoping it ends by the 2nd trimester.