Hello! I am currenlty in my 11th week of pregnancy and have been having very bad morning sickness that gets progressively worse as the day goes on. I saw my obgyn yesterday and he prescribed Zofran. Unfortunately, when I called Glaxo SmithKline, they informed me that Zofran is not gluten free. Does anyone have any other suggestions for nausea/vomiting? I am also traveling this weekend and get motion sickness as well. Not looking forward to it. I know constant snacking helps but does not do the trick for me. Any help is much appreciated!!!!

I found mine was much worse because of dehydration. Water wasn't enough for me, I needed electrolytes. You can drink Gatorade or make your own. One quart of water, one tsp. salt, 7 tsp. sugar.

Be sure you keep your blood sugar stable, you want protein to be part of each snack.

You should be coming to the end of it soon -- lots of people find it goes away around 12 weeks.

There are wrist bands called sea bands. They are next to the motion sickness medicine in drug stores. They have little plastic balls that rest on your pressure points. They really, really help. I get motion sickness from riding in a car, plane, boat, etc. I would take dramamine and it helped, but I really didn't want to take drugs. Now, I can even read on the boat! I highly recommend them. They are supposed to work for morning sickness and any kind of nausea.

forgot all about those.

i agree, they are a waist of money. i had severe sickness on my second child abd the only thing that seemed to help me was ginger tea and ginger biscuits ( before gluten-free). happlily baby no 3 was sickness free i didnt even realise i was P untill 16 weeks !!!! but everyone is different and my advise is try anything once that is within reason and safe. wont last for much longer.

Taz, it seems to me that Carla meant, that she forgot about the sea bands being a GOOD idea! While they don't seem to work for everybody, they are a life saver for me. Because I don't just get car sick, but everything-that-moves sick. They are the only thing that works for me (the pills pretty much put me out of my misery, though, I sleep the whole ride, whatever I am on ).

I have heard that sea bands work well for some people with morning sickness. They cost anywhere between $15.00 and $20.00, and are well worth the money if they work. Especially because it's never entirely without risk to take medicines while pregnant.

Yes, the bands helped me somewhat. I was severely dehydrated, which was part of my problem, so the bands on their own did not work, but I did always feel better with them on.

Before I knew that my pregnancy was ectopic, I had severe nausea. The only thing that helped was to eat almonds (raw) through out the day. Later I was told that almonds are good because they are high in fat, the good kind!

Hez

I feel for you--I had severe morning sickness throughout all 3 of my pregnancies.

For nibbles, almonds and rice crackers worked well for me, but the best was fresh strawberries--I ate them constantly, and they NEVER came back up. Meat and fish, on the other hand, never stayed down. Sea-bands did absolutely nothing, but try them anyway--one of my friends swears by them.

Gatorade is a good idea--it was too acidic for me, so I watered it down, like 4 parts water to 1 part gatorade, and carried it around with me everywhere I went.

I did NOT take meds during my first pregnancy because I was so afraid of the problems meds could cause--but uncontrolled hyperemesis ended up causing worse problems--I develoed preeclampsia, the baby stopped growing, I was totallyunable to gain weight (I actuallyleft the hospital after delivery 10 pounds UNDER my starting weight), and it was very hard to produce milk after that.

For pregnancies 2 and 3, I agreed to meds, and my OBGYN was GREAT about working with me to use the least amount we could get away with. I had terrible reflux (not just with pregnancy--combo of hital hernia and gluten problems that I didn't know about then). I went on Zantac and Reglan, and to control the terrible nausea, I took weeny-teeny amounts of Phenergan (which is an anti-histamine--it is Pregnancy category C, but my OBGYN said that she thought it ought to be classified as B as it was chemically similar to other antihistamines that were B. (THe first time I tried one 25-milligram pill, I slept for 17 hours straight, and said, no way, can't take this much! Then again, that was 17 hours where I didn't barf!))

Anyway, I think the standard dosage was 25 milligrams 2-4 times a day, but I cut the pills into quarters, and only took one in the morning. It was enough to let me keep most of my food down--I only barfed twice a day (like clockwork--9am and 6pm!) instead of constantly all day. I was able to gain 12 pounds with each pregnancy.

It feels awful, doesn't it? Hang in there, and see if your OBGYN will work with you to adjust things so you are comfortable. I have no idea if those meds are gluten-free or not, as I took them before I had gluten problems, but ask your pharmacist. Goo dluck! Keep us posted.

Well, I took Phergran this weekend to fly to Denver. Took a whole pill on the way and was completely out of it. Could barely even walk off the plane. I didn't get nauseaus though!!! Think it actually lasted in my system all weekend cause I was not sick once. I took a quarter on the way home and that did the trick without knocking me completely out. Thanks for all your advise. Hopefully this will all be over soon, as I started my 12th week yesterday

My best friend was sick through the first 5 months of her pregnancy, and her doctor told her to take extra B-6 and B-12 vitamins each night, and it helped a lot (she ended up only getting sick when she didn't take the vitamins).

I hope you begin to feel better soon!

My doc told me to take one of those, can't remember which, with a half a Sominex (don't know if they're gluten free) because it's the same as a medicine that used to be given for morning sickness. I tried it, it worked, but all I did was sleep.

I was sick just about the whole nine months. I took Zolfran I had no idea it wasn't gluten-free! Maybe that is why I was so sick

I took a lot of Phergran while I was prego, it knocked me out at first but after a couple days of taking it around the clock I was able to function on it just fine, couldn't eat or drink but I was able to get off the bathroom floor:)

I used Phenergan. I was given a prescription of oral phenergan and used that when I could keep it down. You may need the Phenergan shot. Talk to your doctor to see if this is right for you.

Also, Ener-G makes saltine like crackers that are great to eat before you get up in the morning. Makes life easier to have something in your tummy.

There's also a phenergan suppository that works really well, though icky. Better than needles or throwing up the liquid!

Those made me so sick, they came out anyway...and allergic to air?? Do tell

Back then, I didn't know I had a problem with gluten, but I discovered that corn chex stayed down when crackers wouldn't. You could try the gluten-free crunchers instead.

I'm really allergic to every kind of mold they do skin scratches for, as well as maple, oak, dustmites, etc. etc.

I'm fortunate enough to be allergic to the air both inside and outside

Many years ago I was given thorazine pills and suppositories. I wasn't psychotic but those types of drugs help relieve nausea. I had to take it, it was the only thing keeping me alive. I was in the hospital so many times near death and they finally found this drug worked for me. This was 29 years ago so do the research and check about side affects. It worked for me at the time.

Did GSK actually say Zofran definitely has gluten in it or did they give you the "we can't guarantee" ingredients from suppliers line? If the second, it's almost without question gluten-free. Glutenfreedrugs.com lists all forms of Zofran as gluten-free.

richard

hi, i used zofran all through my pregnancy and had checked the inactive ingredients with the pharmacist, and there was nothing that looked even remotely like gluten. i never reacted at all, and the zofran was a lifesaver cuz i was siiiiiiiiiiiccccccckkkkkk...ughhh.

ok...the active ingredient is: ondansetron
inactive: hypromellose, lactose, cellulose, starch, magnesium stearate, and onaspray yellow...could also possibly contain citric acid, sodium citrate & sodium chloride.

so maybe the starch contains gluten...but i dont ever remember getting an itchy throat with them, and i usually do with gluten...hmmmm

good luck though

angie

I actually got the answer that one of the ingredients could be derived from gluten, so they cannot say that Zofran is actually gluten free. With Phergran, I got the second answer, the one where they basically just cover their butts and tell you that they can't promise that there isn't any gluten that got in there from the air/surroundings while it was being made.

Are the Ener-G saltine crackers gluten free and if so, where can I buy them? I ate crackers alot with first pregnancy, but didn't know I had celiac. This time I'm eating crystallized ginger and Pamela's spicy ginger cookies, but that's too much sugar for me. Thanks

I don't know about the EnerG saltines, but there IS a gluten-free version (sorry, can't remember who makes it but it looks very similar to Corn Chex)of Corn Chex cereal.

I lived on Corn Chex (even though it had barley malt) while I was pregnant becasue it was the only thing besides strawberries that I could keep down (didn't know I had a problem with gluten then).

I have had 3 children with very intense nausea. Here are a few things that helped me:

1) The healthfood store carries ginger-root in capsules. It helps stabilize your stomach

2) At some point I read that the ancient aztecs believed chocolate was the "pregnancy herb." I used to eat chocolate moussse every morning to alleviate the symptom. Since it is made with eggs...it was a very high protein bonus to it. Besides, if this doesn't help, it was fun anyway.

3) Reflexology doesn't involve eating but can do a really great job on stabilizing during pregnancy. Usually each treatment makes eating much easier on average of 2-7 days.

I hope you feel better soon. The one thing you know is that pregnancy never lasts forever.

Ruth.

I take Zofran when I'm nauseated and it works like a charm. I'm pretty sure it's gluten free because I have never reacted and it's always HELPED when I was glutened accidentally by some other food. I'm almost 100% sure it's gluten free.

That's weird. I took Zofran during my pg just a few months ago. My pharmacist said it was gluten-free! The only other thing that helped was to take 1/2 unisom and 1/2 B-12 everyday.

Becky

Try Health Valley Rice or Corn Crunch-Ems cereal. They look just like Chex cereals, are totally gluten free, and available at whole Foods Markets.

I used to take a lot of Phenergan before I figured out that I was so yucky in the tum from my crohn's disease (yeah, add that to celiac and you can have fun for life). When I told the doc that it didn't help me to take nausea pills when I was nauseated because they just came back up, he gave me some nausea pills (I think they were still Phenergan) that disolved on the tongue. Half of one of those (you can break them in the bubble package with your thumbnail--they're very soft) and you feel much better but don't sleep all day.