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Pregnant with the Stomach Flu

post #1 of 6
Thread Starter 

I am just under 9 weeks pregnant, and I came down with the stomach flu the day before last: mostly vomiting and a little diarrhea.  The vomiting mostly let up yesterday afternoon, but I still feel very nauseous.  The problem is, before this started I would get really nauseous from the pregnancy if I didn't eat often enough, and I think that might be what's going on now, but I don't know what I should eat.  Nothing sounds good.  I just woke up to go to the bathroom, drank a little water, and threw up again.  I had about five bites of rice last night that I felt like I had to force down.  I think my body needs protein, but will that stay down?  thanks for reading.  :o

 

ps - I should mention that I'm out of the country for the week: when should I go see a doctor here anyway?

post #2 of 6

Oh sweetie, this happened to me TWICE with this last pregnancy.  It was the pits.  No doubt about it.  It's that total catch 22 of do I eat to make myself feel "better" because I'm pregnant, or do I NOT eat because I have the flu and my stomach needs to be empty to heal.  I'm guessing that at this point, you just need to get as much as possible DOWN so that  your pregnant body can start to be "just" pregnant again.  Here are the things that helped me:

 

Chicken broth or soup (yes, this mostly vegetarian was in combat mode...anything that stays down and has protein is GOOD)...if you can find home made chicken broth (where people brewed the bones in there to get the marrow in the broth) so much the better.  Good for protein, not so hideous if it comes back up.

 

Miso soup--replaces salts and stuff, has protein, doesn't suck coming back up.

 

Vegetable broth.  It's not as high protein, but is still good for salts.

 

Gatorade--same as veggie broth, but is good for "variety".  Ick.

 

Fruit juice.

 

Yogurt smoothies (or plain yogurt).  Throw in protein powder if you can stomach it.

 

Do you notice a trend?  All things that are "pleasant" if you throw them back up.  I hate throwing up chunky things.  (Ah the things you learn about yourself when pregnant).  I drank as much protein as I could until I hadn't thrown up for a while, and then I tried adding things like eggs that put the protein on quickly to try to get back on my regular pregnant eating schedule.

 

I think you should go to the doctor if you can't keep stuff down for 24 hours after the flu should be gone...your dh said everyone else was mostly done after 24 hours, yes?  So give yourself an extra 12-24 hours to pack stuff in, but if you aren't keeping stuff down you do need to go to the doctor.  I had to do that the second time I got the flu 'cause I just COULDN"T keep anything down.  Not even brothy protein filled things.  And if you can't keep anything down because you have a very empty pregnant belly, you can't get better.  And you need to get better to feed your babies!

 

My doctor prescribed me a "zofran" generic called "Ondansetron 8mg tablet."  I had to take two several hours apart before I could keep things down for long enough to get my feet under me.  I'm sorry that you're feeling so crummy!!!  I hope the chicken broth does it for you, but if not, do go to the doc to help yourself keep stuff down.  Just make sure to tell him/her that you're pregnant.  I love you!  MWUH!

post #3 of 6

Not sure where you are, but medical care somewhere else could be an adventure in itself! I have expeirnced...LOL 

 

I'd try very hard with sips and small bites of things, Carlyle has all kinds of great food suggestions. Broth is good because it has salt and you need that along with the fluid to get your body back on level.

 

I've btdt at least once in every one of my pregnancies (except this one....knock on wood!!). I ended up needing an IV to perk me back up each time. My cue was when I wasn't keeping anything in and feeling dizzy/weak and my urine output slowed down. I knew that I needed the fluids and IV Zofran to get me back to where I could eat. Every time, it worked like a charm, and I felt great walking out of the ER a few hours later.

post #4 of 6

Hey, are you okay?  Post, so I know you're not puking up your left lung, okay?  I don't even know how to get a hold of you right now...

post #5 of 6
Thread Starter 
Hi you guys, thanks so much for you responses! DH read them to me last night, and they really helped me feel at ease that things would be ok. Sorry for not responding; I was in survival mode. Last night I ate chicken soup: it tasted and felt SOOooooo good going in. For the next four hours-ish I felt really sick, but it stayed down, and it didn't even come out the other end though I wished it would. I finally fell asleep at around 2am and sleep until late morning (hence the no posting--sorry to worry you, Carlyle blowkiss.gif). This morning, I had some eggs and they seem to be staying down too. Oh thank goodness. Hopefully our babies are ok: I definitely wasn't keeping up with my vitamins, baby aspirin, and levothyroxine routine for a couple days. I tried once, but threw them up. Stay strong, little ones! Again, thank you so much for taking the time for such thoughtful responses. Carlyle, thinking of you, sis! luxlove.gif
post #6 of 6

Oh good, I'm so glad that you're starting to keep things down again!!!  It is ROUGH to come back from the flu when you are pregnant.  Yikes.  No fun either. Nell is antsy so I can't type as much as I want to. I didn't keep up with vitamins my whole 1st trimester.  The only thing I could keep down (even when without the flu, when I didn't keep anything down) was my tiny folic acid tabs.  I'm sure you're fine without the baby asprin for a few days, and I have no idea what the levo-craziness is about, but I'm sure you're fine there too.  In my (not-so-expert) opinion, you're over the hump and your babies are strong enough to weather this.  Besides, your body has good healthy stores that will keep your babies going well during this pukey time.  You eat very well when not puking.  So yeah, I think you are fine (although it does help me feel better knowing that Maggie weathered this twice in one pregnancy).  HUGS!

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