I Took Prenatal and Threw Up Can I Take It Again

Hello ladies,

I'm in my 15th week, almost at 16 weeks. I had unrelenting, all day nausea from weeks 8-13, but only threw up a few times. Now that I'm out of my first trimester, I was hoping that this would clear up, but if anything, the vomiting has gotten more intense (though the actual all day nausea has eased up a lot and frankly I'd rather vomit once or twice and be done with it than just feel oppresively nauseated all day even if I don't throw up).

In any case, I've always felt that my nausea was exacerbated by my prenatal vitamins. During my first trimester, I lived on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples, and pasta, so I felt that taking the prenatal was probably fairly important and just suffered through the extra nausea. I was already extremely nauseated anyway. And I also of course understood the importance of folic acid early on. Unfortunately, when i took the prenatal, I felt sicker. Of course, back then I felt sick ALL the time, so it wasn't that big of a deal. I did adjust the times of when I took my prenatal -- after a meal, before bed, etc, but didn't find it helped much. Again, I was so sick constantly that I didn't really blame this on my prenatal completely, obviously.

So now, fast forward to week 16, and for those of you with sensitive stomachs, a warning that I'm going to describe my vomit. For the past three or four weeks I've been diligently taking my prenatal, and I'd say at least every other day, I throw up after very soon after taking it. It doesn't matter if I take it on an empty stomach or after a full meal, I throw it up. I can see the prenatal in my vomit -- it is a peculiar orange color and looks the same coming back up. If I take it on an empty stomach, that's all I see in the vomit -- just thick orange watery barf. If I wait to eat and then take it, or even take it with or before a meal, I throw up the entire meal. If I don't throw up, I am queasy from about 20 minutes after taking the pill through the rest of the entire day. And If I take it at night, the nausea wakes me up or prevents me from going to sleep. I told my doctor about this and he said prenatals are important and to try taking them with food or at night (already tried that) and then he said try switching brands (already tried that, too, several times). I had complained to him previously about my prenatal - that it was countering the extra fiber I was taking to deal with pregnancy constipation and making my constipation worse and he had just said "you need your prenatal."

Now that I've hit the second trimester, I am able to eat much better, as long as I do NOT take the prenatal. If I do eat the prenatal, however, i'm back to no appetite or can only eat kind of junky stuff. I feel guilty and nervous about doing that, but I've started to run an informal science project on myself. I skipped the prenatal for four days in a row last week. The first day off of it I didn't throw up and no nausea, but my appetite wasn't great either. But by the second day, I had no nausea at all, no throwing up, was hungry as a horse, and was interested in my more normal, pre-pregnancy, healthy foods. I ate spinach, pears, a vegetable salad, small serving of pork chop, egg white omelette, yogurt, figs and some cheese. I felt great. Same goes the next two days. Then I took a prenatal the next day, after eating cereal. I didn't throw up but was grossed out the entire day and didn't want to eat anything but comfort foods. Same goes for the next day, and that evening, after I took it with a meal, I threw up.

Now, I know that some women still have nausea in the second trimester and that many other things could be causing the nausea. But trust me when I tell you that my prenatal is making me sicker -- if it's not the direct cause of the sickness. I talked to my OB about this and he wants me to consider trying yet another brand of prenatal. I want to know this: since when is taking a vitamin considered to be healthier than keeping down actual, real, healthy food? I feel like my choice right now is to continue the prenatal and try to choke down whatever healthy food I can in order to follow doctor's orders or just skip the prenatal and take a flintstones vitamins as some women recommend (doc says this isn't a good option) and feel like I'm shortchanging baby and undermining my health. I like everything else about my doc, and don't want to change over this, but am beginning to feel resentful that he's advising me something that makes such little sense. I also sort of feel like he thinks I'm just blaming the prenatal for ordinary pregnancy related troubles. I get it that pregnancy itself causes things like constipation and nausea already so that's not the case. I just know for a fact that I feel much worse, and much less inclined to eat healthy, when I'm taking the prenatal than when I'm not. I think I'm going to go against medical advice on this one. Any thoughts?

OP here -- and I also have burning feet, especially when I'm throwing up. I'm stopping short of blaming the burning feet on the prenatal, don't think that's related. But is the burning / itchy feet normal? do other people have this when throwing up? Really it only happens when I'm getting sick. Weird.

You can stop taking the vitamin. My OB told me that it's really a precaution. Unless you're poor and can't afford fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains, etc., your diet contains sufficient nutrients for a healthy pregnancy. It's ironic, she says, that the women who need the prenatals most usually can't afford them.

Ugh, OP, I am sorry to hear this. I'm at 12 weeks and still have the all-day nausea, too. Have had it since six weeks. Only one day of actual vomiting though. I also stopped taking my prenatal weeks ago because it was making me way more miserable and impeding me getting actual non-junk food down. My OB said not to worry about not taking it. Good luck.

I don't know if this would help, but what if you switched to only separate omega 3 and folic acid supplements? I know they're all important, but I seem to hear about these the most. Maybe that would be enough 'back-up' and not make you so sick?

I suggest that you stop the prenatal for a week or two (while eating healthily/getting enough calcium and other nutrients from food) and see if the vomiting subsides. At least then you'll know if that's indeed what's causing it. No idea about the burning feet -- good luck!

I have two ideas for you:
1. Buy straight folic acid. They are very small pills which might be easier to stomach.
2. I take Select OB prenatals they taste like flintstone vitamins and are chewable, they might be a good option for you.

I hope things get better for you. If your doctor isn't listening to you (just saying "you need your prenatal"), I would consider getting a new doctor.

I've had "morning" sickness all along - I am full term today and threw up this am. It sucks - I am so sorry.

For prenatal, my doc switched me to Premesis - has very few vitamins in it and has a time release of B vitamins. I felt about 20% better after starting on it. I know that isn't a lot but it helped some.

The only other thing I can suggest is Zofran. I would not have been able to work without it - although I do cut the pills up and take as little as will get me by. However, my being sick all the time was not as directly related to the vitamin as yours.

Best of luck!

Anonymous wrote:I have two ideas for you:
1. Buy straight folic acid. They are very small pills which might be easier to stomach.

I hope things get better for you. If your doctor isn't listening to you (just saying "you need your prenatal"), I would consider getting a new doctor.

Thank you to all of you. Very helpful replies. I think I am going to try the Select OB prenatals and if that doesn't do the trick, I'm going to take flintstones vitamins. I noticed that on each and every one of the prenatal formulas I've tried, the prenatals have WAY over 100 percent of the recommended daily values for pregnant and nursing women except for calcium, which is only 15 percent, oddly enough. I'm not sure why it has to be 200 percent of my iron and zinc. I would understand 200 percnet of the daily value for a regular person, but 200 percent of the value a pregnant / nursing woman needs? I don't believe that more is better when it comes to vitamins but they all seem to follow this pattern. Another issue is that before I started taking the prenatal, but after I was pregnant (was taking folic acid alone while TTC), my internal medicine doc once ran some blood tests because my iron levels were a little bit high and concerned her. Nothing came of it, but she said that I shouldn't take an iron supplement until later in pregnancy unless my OB directed otherwise. When I told my OB, he said my levels weren't high enough to worry about and that pregnancy would even things out. (He's tested my blood consequently and didn't identify any problems, I should note). BTW, I'm making my OB out to be a steamroller when I don't think that's the case. He is just a huge fan of prenatals. I think if I go back in and tell him that I decided against it, that will be that. Part of the issue with my OB is that during my first visit I questioned whether I needed more than folic acid and said I had a great diet already and was taking steps to make sure my diet was even better during pregnancy. (Full disclosure, I've always been really sensitive to vitamins and would have preferred not to take them in the first place so probably now look like I have a chip on my shoulder about them). That's when he gave me the blanket "you need your prenatal" statement. But that said, I've told him I'm getting pretty sick, and he keeps recommending changing them and saying that we'll find something eventually that works. Easier said than done when you're the doc and not the one hurling them up every other day. I've only gained 3-4 lbs and I'm 16 weeks along now, so I'm eating less than I should be. That can work for my case or against it. But I firmly believe if I could quit the damn prenatals, I could eat like a human again. I think I'm going to go for it. I will take a folic acid supplement (doesn't bother me at all) as well, though I understand that's most important in the first 6 weeks.

Cheers everyone and thanks so much for your support.

Anonymous wrote:I've had "morning" sickness all along - I am full term today and threw up this am. It sucks - I am so sorry.

For prenatal, my doc switched me to Premesis - has very few vitamins in it and has a time release of B vitamins. I felt about 20% better after starting on it. I know that isn't a lot but it helped some.

The only other thing I can suggest is Zofran. I would not have been able to work without it - although I do cut the pills up and take as little as will get me by. However, my being sick all the time was not as directly related to the vitamin as yours.

Best of luck!

I responded after I saw this. Okay premesis interests me quite a bit as you say it has fewer vitamins. Is it prescription? Can you tell me how many mgs or mcgs of iron and zinc it has? I think this is what's getting to me. I can deal with the throwing up -- frankly it is better than the all day nausea I had before so in some ways, i actally prefer to take the prenatal on an empty stomach -- b/c once it's gone, it's gone and i feel better. And I'm sure I'm digesting at least part of it. But that's no way to live, right?

In any case, I don't think my nausea is bad enough for Zofran anymore and anyway I don't want to counter something that I feel is being caused by drugs by throwing more drugs at it. (That said, I'm not anti-drugs at all -- i miss the ever-living crap out of advil, for instance!). I just think I'm going to follow my instincts and eat right and, on those days where I feel like I've been a dietary slacker -- eating cereal for dinner and PB&Js for breakfast lunch and snacks, I'll take a chewable or two to compensate. I'm sure my doctor would never know the difference anyway, but what's the point of having an OB if you're going to lie about care?

Yes it is RX. Here is some info:

http://www.premesis.com/

I HEAR you on the advil - I can't wait to have it!!! That and lunch meat - roast beef specifically. I had a lot of miscarriages so I followed that rule but man, I want a roast beef/cheddar cheese/mustard sandwich so bad.

best of luck.

Mom of two here...I did not take prenatals at all. I was sick and couldn't stomach them. I took folic acid pills each day and later fish oil pills but that's it. I was anemic but couldn't do the iron either. Everyone turned out ok

I would also suggest trying Folic acid separately. Iron is a huge culprit in stomach upset, but the Iron in prenatals is very important to churning out as much blood as your body is making right now. To prevent anemia, if you get off prenatals, be sure to iron-load your diet with red meat, spinach, beans, etc.

I'm almost through with my pregnancy but started getting nausea and vomiting at 6 weeks. It lasted until my 5th month. At first I thought it was just morning sickness and that I just wasn't 'tough enough' to handle pregnancy. The prenatals made it worse for me as well. I finally went to the ER and discovered that I had Hyperemesis. I've been in and out of the ER and on different medications. I was so dehydrated that I had ketones in my urine. I would throw up even on an empty stomach and dry heave after that. I could not eat nor drink anything and what little I could get down would only last for about a week before that too started coming up. Please be careful. This may be more than just prenatal vitamins and morning sickness. If your doctor is offering Zofran - TAKE IT. Reglan also works well for this too. The last thing you want to do is dehydrate and put yourself and your pregnancy at risk. You may not have Hyperemesis or maybe just a mild case but if you are nauseous or vomiting more than 5 or 6 times a day you should look into it. I had never heard of it before I got pregnant and because I waited too long to treat it I really suffered. Once I got through it all, I started taking 2 Flintstones chewables a day and then moved on to just Folic Acid and Iron. But beware of the Iron pills because they cause constipation you need the slow release - Slow Fe.

Another vote for Zofran -- I only had to take for a few weeks and then weaned myself off. I can't say enough for how it allowed me to function in daily life again. I'm not very pro-drugs by the way, I had 2 natural births -- just so you know where I'm coming from. If you are feeling so sick it is interfering with your daily life - ask about it.

I Took Prenatal and Threw Up Can I Take It Again

0 Response to "I Took Prenatal and Threw Up Can I Take It Again"

Post a Comment

Iklan Atas Artikel

Iklan Tengah Artikel 1

Iklan Tengah Artikel 2

Iklan Bawah Artikel