Effective Treatment For Pregnancy Nausea & Diarrhea

The best way to treat pregnancy nausea & diarrhea depends on how severe the symptoms are, how seriously they are interfering with the mother's quality of life, and of course how the safety of the fetus.

Treating Nausea During Pregnancy

Treatment for nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) begins with simple diet and lifestyle changes and vitamin supplements and can escalate to antiemetic medications and even hospitalization in serious cases.

A few fairly simple measures are almost universally recommended to minimize NVP:

• Eat small portions at frequent intervals;


• Avoid letting the stomach get too empty;


• Cut rich, fatty, and spicy foods out of the diet;


• Eat bland foods;


• Eat dry crackers before getting out of bed in the morning


• Have a protein-rich snack before retiring at night.

While these measures are all perfectly safe, little or no research shows that they actually provide much help. Women surveyed did report some relief, but limited. Most didn't rank these approaches as very helpful.

Because many pregnant women develop a much more acute sense of smell that can make their nausea worse, they are advised to take note of anything that triggers queasiness or vomiting and avoid those sensory stimuli. Perfumes and food aromas are particular offenders. Other senses may also become hypersensitive, so that loud noises and pressure on the abdomen can also cause distress.

Pregnant women also need extra sleep, and if they don't get it, fatigue can make NVP worse. This could well mean taking time off from work or even a leave of absence.

While diet changes may be only moderately helpful, certain vitamin supplements have a good record of treating and event preventing NVP. One study showed that women who were not taking multivitamin supplements at or close to the time of conception were significantly more likely to experience pregnancy nausea. Another study confirmed that women who started taking daily multivitamins at least a month before becoming pregnant and continued to take them throughout the first trimester had a lower incidence of NVP. It is now advised that all women who may potentially become pregnant take a multivitamin that includes folic acid, which reduces the risk of neural tube defects for the fetus.

In addition, larger doses of vitamin B6 have been found effective for treatment of nausea and vomiting in more than half of pregnant women with severe nausea. The antihistamines diphenhydramine, meclizine and dimenhydrinate may also help relieve NVP by reducing dizziness that can trigger vomiting.

Treating diarrhea during pregnancy

While constipation is a more common complaint, quite a few women suffer from diarrhea while pregnant as well. The most likely cause is the change to a high fiber diet, though diarrhea is also a common symptom of general gastric distress that can also contribute to nausea.

Diarrhea during pregnancy is treated for the most part in the same ways as diarrhea at any other time. Until it passes, avoid caffeine, milk products, greasy, sweet and high fiber foods. All of these can contribute to diarrhea--and some of them can cause NVP as well. Soft, bland foods are recommended, including bananas, rice, plain potatoes, toast, crackers, cooked vegetables, and lean white protein. This is remarkably similar to the diet recommended for preventing or treating NVP.

Antidiarrheal medicines are not generally recommended. Replacing lost fluids to prevent dehydration is usually the only treatment necessary for diarrhea, and for pregnant women this is doubly important if they are also suffering from nausea and vomiting. Dehydration is the greatest health risk associated with NVP, since it can lead to a host of further problems, and in the worst cases, become dangerous.