How To Avoid Vomiting During Pregnancy

This article is copyright of The Phoenix

My theory is that the strange all-day long vomiting I've been experiencing is caused by bad chemistry between the food and my juices when they mix in my stomach.

Either the chemistry is so bad it upsets the stomach and forces my body to expunge the offending mixture, OR, the chemistry creates so much gas that it pushes the food out before peristalsis has a chance to push it safely down.

A sample of my pain. This is actually the most pleasant looking puke pile I've photographed since this ordeal started

This type of vomiting is not to be confused with regular morning sickness or regular nausea which can be alleviated by keeping your blood sugar levels up. This is NOT the same thing, so it does NOT go away after the 1st trimester.

I am 6 months pregnant now, and it's still here. The vomiting, the nausea, the migraines. Only now, I've learned what the triggers are and how to avoid them.

It's definitely caused by the ever mysterious rise in hormones which plague pregnant women. We then have to listen to helpful statements from everyone like, "No one knows what causes it. Just hang on till 2nd trimester."

Well, what if the vomiting and nausea doesn't stop after entering the 2nd trimester? What then? Same answer. Wait and see. In fact, you become one of the statistics. One of the "1 in 1,000 women" who vomit till they deliver.

Fuck that. Being a statistic doesn't soothe me, or make the experience any better! I have to fucking live with this every hour of every fucking day. There is no reprieve for sufferers. And while it's easy for everyone to say I should wait it out, or it'll be over before I know it, lemme tell you something : You try going through this and see if you can continue to be so fucking dismissive!!

The repeated reflux of acid was affecting my throat and my voice. I was starting to lose weight. I was literally scared to look at food. I'm supposed to enjoy the guilt-free eating that comes with pregnancy, not cringe in a corner at every mealtime. I couldn't even skip meals because an empty stomach would make me vomit, too - but this is more painful because it involves regurgitating sizzling gastric juices.

None of the books I've read helps. There's nothing on the web. And unless you're so sick you need to be put on drip, doctors can't help either. Solutions from modern medicine always involve some form of drugs (which I admit, I would rather continue vomiting than take) or medical equipment, as these solutions are ingrained in them by the bloody greedy drug companies. Forget about natural, nutritional solutions.

So far, I've managed to avoid being admitted to hospital by making sure I experimented, documented and theorised what caused the vomiting. I've not touched any anti-nausea medication or anything synthetic from modern medicine - as long as I'm not vomiting blood, I don't want anything from the drug companies to come near me.

The only reason I'm putting on weight again is because after 4 months of terrified eating-then-vomiting, I've figured out how to minimise my exposure to the Vomit Triggers.

I've actually got it down to a science now. But it's exhausting to keep this up everyday, especially when people around you complain that you're being too anal about it, or that it's all in your head ... until I vomit in front of them. They leave me alone after that.

Now, please note that the following is by no means an exhaustive list, but it's all the stuff I've experimented with and learned the hard way during my pregnancy. I may add to it as I find out more. Feel free to send me suggestions based on your own experiences.

These may or may not work for you, but I figured I'd document this anyway so I'll remember what to do if / when I get pregnant again.

GENERAL TIPS
- Eat a cracker the moment you wake up. Nothing else can keep the empty stomach puking at bay.
- Do not drink any water / liquids while you are eating. Leave the gastric juices undiluted so they can do their work more efficiently. I have vomited out food that I had eaten 6 hours ago, still sitting in my stomach because my diluted juices made digestion even slower.
- Drink very hot or very cold water only 1 - 2 hours after food.
- Allow up to 4 hours to digest the food, depending on what you ate. The digestive tract works much slower during pregnancy.
- Keep yourself upright for as long as possible after eating. Do not lie flat on your back. Side is sometimes ok. During this time, do not bend, double over, lean forward, squat or twist at the waist to do things. Avoid doing anything that twists the digestive tract and might squeeze the food back out.
- Be aware of your stomach for 30min - 1 hour after eating, as the stomach often doesn't get upset immediately and the vomiting usually starts later. You want to be near a toilet when it does.
- Pop a stick of Spearmint or Peppermint chewing gum after food. Literature says it's the mint that helps, but from experience I'd say it's the chewing and production of alkalitic saliva that helps calm and keep down my gastric acids. I go thru a 5-stick pack of gum a day. I've tried taking actual mint sweets (e.g. Eclipse), but they cause more gas to be released, and my food comes up again with the constant burping. It's horrible because you never know which one is going to be a burp, and which one is going to be regurgitated food. (EDIT 19 SEPT 2012: Only chew full flavour gum. NO SUGARFREE. I discovered during my 2nd pregnancy that ASPARTAME makes the nausea and gas and vomiting worse)
- Do not eat fruits right before or after meals. If you must eat, eat one or two pieces after a meal. It creates a lot of gas and uncomfortable acid reflux, and sometimes leads to vomiting. (EDIT 27 OCT 2016 : I'm on my 3rd pregnancy now. I never learned my lesson. This baby is totally different, and a lot of the food I could eat with my earlier 2 pregnancies now make me sick, but meat and steamed or boiled veggies go down pretty well still. No raw veggies! Still no fruits. Fruits are puke and gas city)

FOOD YOU CAN'T EAT
- Pork (roast pork, suckling pig, sweet meat) (EDIT 27 OCT 2016 : 3rd baby survived on roast pork, it was one of the only foods I could eat! But I'm in a different country now, so I suspect it was the seasoning on the pork that made me vomit for the 1st 2 pregnancies .... the pork I'm eating now is only seasoned with salt and brown sauce, none of the Chinese 5 spice seasoning and MSG)
- Chicken. Sometimes ok, but you'll experience a very acidic feeling in your stomach. You will burp sour acid and you will feel sick the whole time it's digesting.
- Beef. Same reason as chicken. (EDIT 27 OCT 2016 : Same as above. Seasoning with salt is fine, goes down well)
- Venison. Similar effects as beef and chicken, but slightly milder.
- Lamb. Apparently Chinese believe this is toxic and no good for the baby. Also, my new superhuman pregnancy nose can't stand the stinky smell.
- Vegetables- Dairy products (Milk or anything containing milk)
- Ice cream
- Milk chocolates
- Cheese (cheddar)
- Coconut or anything containing coconut and all its by-products (e.g. santan). This one feels the worst when being vomited out.
- Nasi Lemak- Sour plums / sum boi. For some strange reason this makes me puke. I suspect it's the body's reaction to too much salt.
- Garlic or anything that contains garlic (Thai Chilli sauce, Nando's Peri Peri sauce, chicken rice from various shops etc...). It leaves a horrible taste in your mouth for a day or so after you bite into a small, diced piece, making the nausea worse.
- Onions. Similar effect as garlic, but not as extreme if eaten raw or pan fried.
- Fried Onions. The type used to garnish or add flavour to porridge and chinese dishes. Very similar effect to garlic.
- Any form of nuts (peanuts, almonds, etc...) - (EDIT 27 OCT 2016 : I survived on peanuts and macadamias on this 3rd pregnancy)
- Fried Sesame seeds
- Bread (white, wholemeal). Causes acidic roiling in stomach.
- Homemade Chicken essence soup
- Chinese food. Usually because of all the MSG and garlic used in preparation. Yuck.
- Oranges
- Apples- Guavas
- Pears. This is intermittent.
- (EDIT 19 SEPT 2012) Anything sugarfree that contains ASPARTAME.

DRINKS YOU CAN'T DRINK
 - Carbonated drinks (Coke, Sprite, Root Beer, Ginger Beer etc ...)
- Coffee
- Milo
- Milk
- Orange juice
- Carrot juice with milk
- Lemon / Lime juice. This causes a lot of gas. (EDIT 19 SEPT 2012) But drinking a small amount, pure & super concentrated, after a meal, tends to help digestion. No sugar.
- Lukewarm water. This seems to join with the bile and unite in volume to expedite the climb out of my throat.


FOOD YOU CAN EAT
- Jacob's high-calcium crackers. Other types of crackers either make me puke or doesn't keep the gastric vomiting at bay.
- Eggs (in any form, but sparingly)
- Potatoes (baked, fried)
- Potato salad (with macaroni & eggs & mayonnaise)
- Chips (especially with tomato sauce)
- Tuna (in water & mayonnaise)
- Fish (steamed, fried)
- Chillis & Tabasco sauce. This includes spicy food made with chilli padi or dried chilli (very spicy & dry char kuey teow, Kin Kin chilli pan mee, Domino's Beef Pepperoni pizza drowned in Tabasco sauce). I was told by a doctor friend that chillis are actually good for upset stomachs as it has been found that chilli blocks acid production and increases blood flow to the stomach tissue which can aid both prevention and healing of ulcers. Epidemiological studies show (don't quote me on this) the incidence of stomach ulceration is three times lower in countries with a high intake of chilli compared with those that don't. Just make sure there is no santan or any form of milk mixed in there, or you'll vomit anyway.
- Selected fruits in small quantities (One persimmon per seating, very sour mangoes, one small banana --- not all at the same time!)
- Selected vegetables (long beans, cauliflower, broccoli)
- Clear soup (Carrot soup, clear Tom Yam soup)
- Campbells' canned mushroom soup (with water, not milk)
- Campbells' canned New England Clam Chowder soup (with water, but sometimes milk is ok too. Go figure)
- Sweet pastries (sponge cake, suji cake, chocolate cake, cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies)

DRINKS YOU CAN DRINK
- Ice cold or boiling hot water. But only in one or two mouthfuls, in between meals. Any more, and you'll puke it out.
- Cold Ribena (not the sparkling type
- (EDIT 27 OCT 2016 : Mineral water. Only certain brands, like Mount Franklin. Spritzer made me puke, makes me wonder if it even IS mineral water. I could not handle anything from the tap, everything made me sick even when filtered or boiled - which now makes me believe that the water I've been drinking all this while is actually not good for my body, since the fetus rejected it)


I'll add more to this list as I remember it.


DISCLAIMER : Given the high amount of search hits for this post (and the number of people who apparently don't know how to READ), I repeat : This is what worked for ME, to stop my vomiting and help me put on weight during pregnancy. This is not an optimal pregnancy diet, and it may not work for you. You should check everything with your own doctor (d-uh).

EDIT 1 July 2015 : My son, Condor 1, whom I was pregnant with in this article, has been diagnosed with mild autism. Now, I do not know whether the autism has external causes (it's a sensitive topic that I won't go into here, but I am sure that it was external causes), or whether the lack of nutrition he got during pregnancy had a hand in it. It's unlikely to be the lack of nutrition, as my own doctor said that the fetus takes all it needs from the mother, and my vomiting hurt ME more than the baby (cuz all my nutrition stores had gone to the baby, and I had none for myself).

BUT .... I think about it all the time, and I want whomever that reads this to have this information so they can make their own choices. 

To balance out this info, my second son, whom I also used this diet for, got a hell lot more nutrition cuz this time I wasn't puking everything out in the first trimester, and I actually gained 7kg, instead of the 2kg I gained with my first son. And my 2nd son does NOT have autism, and is in fact highly intelligent and naughty as hell.

EDIT 27 Oct 2016 : I just had my 3rd child. What the fuck, right? Why am I allowing myself to suffer like this again for the THIRD time?!?! Anyway, a lot of the food I could eat, is now food I can't eat, so I had to test and start all over. I made ammendments above where they were different. This pregnancy made me realise a lot of the vomiting isn't just the food, but also what's been added to it! So keep your food as natural and wholesome as possible (i.e. don't add too many sauces, seasonings etc) and make sure it's all cooked, cuz raw stuff like veggies are harder to digest and upset your tummy more at this stage.

It's still early days, but Condor 3 appears to be neurotypical and doesn't have the markers that Condor 1 had at his age, so here's hoping he's fine.

Doddering and old

Gosh, I've noticed in the last 2 years that I've taken to lecturing people a lot.

Or trying to impart my extensive knowledge to them (like they care).

Or getting frustrated when I see things not being done the way they should, or being done like it was in the good old days.

Then it hit me. I've turned into an old woman!

They say you're only as young as you feel. Well, looks you can apply it in reverse as well. I'm young, but I feel like I'm 70 years old and see my maker coming for me, so I should teach all these young 'uns the ropes before all my years of experience are lost to the world forever.

And in typical fashion, the young 'uns are not listening. Cuz ... "Whaddya YOU know, grandma?" ... life has come full circle for me already, and I haven't even hit menopause yet!

God, I am old ....

Saber Rider : A Fraud ... !

Look familliar?

My brother and I followed this cartoon religiously in the 80's. Myself more so because the title character was hot, had a posh voice and an accent!

Don't forget that cool opening sequence with the macho music! All the SFX of whips cracking to punctuate the end of each verse, the electric guitar, and (what sounds like) Elton John growling his lines. Yeah!

The opening sequence alone is enough to make you wet your pants. OooOOooH!

I tried getting old episodes of Saber Rider & The Star Sherriffs to relive my childhood crush. They weren't easy to find, and my extended digging uncovered a dirty little secret on what I thought was an American series.

It's actually a JAPANESE cartoon!!

The original name is Seijūshi Bisumaruku (Star Musketeer Bismarck).

And ... FIREBALL is the real leader of the team, the Japanese dude in the red costume! Saber Rider (black dude) was just a British sidekick, along with Colt (blue dude) the American cowboy sidekick.

The ORIGINAL Japanese opening sequence

When the rights were purchased by the American network WEP, they tried to turn the blond, blue-eyed Aryan boy Saber Rider into the hero because the rednecks of America couldn't relate to a Japanese hero!

WTF. All my childhood memories ... destroyed in an instant!

But, it did clear up a lot of confusion I had as a child.

Like, if Saber Rider is the hero, why is he never in the traditional "hero" spots? How come it's always Fireball?? For example ...

• Fireball sits in the middle of Ramrod's (a giant ass Voltron-like robot) control centre, not Saber Rider :

There he is, the guy in red

There's the red dude, in the middle again!

• Fireball operates Ramrod's main controls. HE presses the button which converts Ramrod to "Challenge Mode", not Saber Rider :

That's Fireball's finger, right there ...

• Fireball is in all the "hero" spots, and gets all the psychedelic "hero" background animation during the opening sequence, not Saber Rider :

Fireball in hero pose

Fireball in the hero spot again, right in the middle!

Observe, an Extreme Close Up normally only reserved for the hero!

A cool James Bond-type opening scene ...

... and the traditional Japanese hero's candy-coloured hypno background.

Saber Rider only has lame scenes spliced from the cartoon itself. They didn't bother to draw any special opening scenes for him.

• Fireball got the girl, not Saber Rider! He and April apparently end up together at the close of the series, despite her unrequited crush on Saber Rider. She probably didn't realise Saber Rider was gay :

I think he preferred to use his "sabre" on the Outriders ... hur ... hur

All this had created so much confusion in my fevered 12-year old mind that I'd come to the conclusion Saber Rider and Fireball SHARED the hero position in this cartoon. Yes. They were both the heroes, and only Colt was the sidekick. Er ... Yes ... Yes ...

Poor little me, living with this misconception all these years - but now WEP's sneaky attempt at rebranding the hero of the cartoon has finally been revealed, and the wool has fallen from my (and hopefully, YOUR) eyes!

I'm glad to say that if a child could spot the inconsistencies, WEP had hopefully failed in their efforts to make the hero a white dude. All those "creative" edits (including a re-drawing of 6 episodes) and I STILL thought Fireball was the hero.

And now I know that poncy ol' Saber Rider was a phony!

So much for white supremacy. And my childhood crush.

Macho macho man ...

Just got back from the 22-week ultrasound and sonogram.

Our baby has a penis!

We're gonna save this picture for his wedding day ... yeah ...

I really wanted a girl, so I didn't know how I'd feel if it turned out to be a boy. Now that I know, I didn't expect to feel happy. I feel so happy. On top of the world! I know what sex my baby is! Guess it didn't really matter whether it was a girl or boy. I just needed to know.

Am sure blue is traditionally the colour in which to make or buy stuff for boys, but ... really ... do we need to follow tradition? As long as it's not pink, I don't see why he can't wear or see purple, green, red, yellow etc...

Now we can start looking harder at boy names, thinking of manly things for daddy and son to bond over etc... lucky I didn't buy any Disney Princess dresses yet. :P

We might have to buy Superman stuff though. Unless he can still use his daddy's ... hehe :

So CUUUUUTE! .... "Up, up and awaaaaay ..."

On Top Of The World

There are many perspectives from which to look at the weird shit happening to my pregnant body. This is one of them ...

"Arrr ... "

2008 - An Eventful Year

Everyone's doing a 2008 recap.

While I hate jumping on any bandwagon, I'm gonna do one too since it's the easiest way to talk about all the stuff that happened last year without posting them one by one - so here goes :

1. Ran a half-marathon with Chris

One of the things on my To Do List in life is complete a full marathon. We started with a half marathon in the KL International Marathon - a mere bone-crushing 21km.

Our stamina was fine, but we didn't expect our limbs to give out. The knees and fibula (or whatever you call the bones of the feet) gave way under the strain and we were hobbling to the finish after only 10km. Walking was excruciating.

We managed to make it under the qualifying time of 3.5 hours, but only barely. I was reminded of similar suffering and tears when we approached the peak of Mt Kinabalu only a year ago - seeing the peak within reach, but no longer having the strength or bone density to reach it.

Read Chris' account of the harrowing experience here.

2. OMFG I married Chris !
That which I had not thought possible, has become a reality. I actually found a lovely man to fall in love with and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. And ... he feels the same way about me. Shocking!

I planned to do a day-to-day The Making Of our wedding, but I shall now condense it into a few visual aids.

Making the wedding cards. Very kindly printed by my uncle, but a very manual process to put together.

"AAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGHHHH!!!!" .... Losing it after cutting 500 little name labels.

Roped in some strangely cheerful help ...

And some ... not-so-cheerful ...

Our little sweat shop ...

Prepping for pre-wedding studio shots

Chong ... Chris Chong ...

... neither shaken, nor stirred ...

"Nnngarrfff". Hungry zombie snarfing a scone after 9 hours of shooting

3. Best Valentine's Day & Birthday ever!
I'm a cheap date, so I have not been wined and dined in style before. Often because I stupidly tell the guy that it's a waste of money to spend big moolah on one expensive dinner that could buy you 5 more equally tasty dinners somewhere else. But in my hidden, secretly girly heart, I still hoped for it.

A mind-blowing menu containing beer-drunk cows

Chris, my first Valentine, gave me the most romantic and sexy of Valentine's Days. Details have to be omitted ... because I am shy. *Coughs*

A few months later, it was followed by an amazing birthday treat in a restaurant I only ever heard about from other girls - La Fite. Swoon. They were the most beautiful of dates which made me feel very RARRRR RARRRRR (!!!) about Chris. Which is why I really shouldn't have been surprised when this happened :

4. OMFG OMFG I was impregnanted !
Still reeling over this one because getting pregnant is the single most feminine thing a female can do in her life. To many, being able to have a bun in the oven DEFINES you as a woman.

So for obvious reasons, I didn't think that macho, cussing, finger-flippin' furniture-smashing little ol' me could ever get knocked up.

Then sometime in Sept, a shocking discovery was made on a pee-stained stick (read about it here) and I am now over 5 months gone.

But, I hate being pregnant. All the rhapsody and song about the "beauty" of pregnancy is a bunch of bull crap!

You suffer all manner of indignities during pregnancy - gas, pimples, strange BO, horrendous rashes, hair growing in weird uncomfortable places, uncontrollable leaking when you sneeze or vomit, reswallowing your own bile and vomit to save your carseats, vomit splashing back on your face when it rebounds from the toilet etc... you name it!

And God help you if you have a HARD pregnancy because you should expect NO sympathy from the following :

- Other women who have been pregnant before, but had EASY pregnancies.
("It's all in your mind, love ... You should keep yourself busy")
Um. I DO keep my mind busy. I often have lurid and detailed fantasies of beating you to death with half-digested chicken drumsticks.

- Males
("Pish tosh, pregnancy is a snap. It's the delivery that's hard ...").
Yeah, like you'd know what either one feels like, motherfucker.

- Females who've never been pregnant before
("You should be more positive and stay calm, for the baby's sake. You should this ... you should that ...").
Why don't you go fuck yourselves asexually, get yourselves pregnant, stare down at your regurgitated breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday for 5 consecutive months and THEN tell me if you stayed calm and positive? Fatherfuckers.

My sister's attempt to identify all the mysterious 14-week old baby bits

I only felt happy in the 5th month, when I started feeling cute little movements of the bub in my belly, thus ensuring that I was INDEED pregnant with a lovely little human being inside me (not with an alien creature about to burst free from my already distended abdomen).

I love our still-unborn child. It's the pregnancy that's unbearable.


5. I earned my freedom!
After years of talking about leaving the rat race to take a break and discover what I truly wanted to do, I have finally got my savings together and done it.

Problem is, so much has been happening during the "break" that I haven't had much time or presence of mind to think about my next career move yet - though I am leaning towards several low-paying, but highly-satisfying industries.

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Doesn't seem like much numerically, but in terms of magnitude, my life and future plans have all been turned upside down - all in 365 days. It's been a doozy of a year.

Don't have any resolutions for 2009. Can't seem to think of any. I guess I don't really care, because I couldn't possibly top what I did last year ... till I give birth to our firstborn.

Wish me luck!

From The Ashes ! (literally)

Yay!

I've resurrected my old blog. Lazy to start a new one and rebuild an archive of new posts (even though there weren't that many to begin with in my old blog), just because certain purple assholes can't handle reading the truth. You know who you are.

There were big plans to write about the wedding, but then the pregnancy came along.

Then there were big plans to write about the pregnancy, and then the all-day sickness came along ... and stayed.

Am itching to start writing again.