To All You Bloated Beauties!

[SweetPea3200]

Hi Ladies,

I just wanted to share what I learned in case anyone else is dealing with the same thing.

So basically every night I am extremely bloated to the point where I feel nauseous or I actually vomit. It's made me not want to eat supper because I feel like I don't digest it, but I get really hungry if I don't eat anything.

Anyways, I finally googled ways to reduce bloat and the first thing that came up was to reduce artificial sweeteners. Normally I'm not an aspartame lover but since being pregnant I've been chewing a lot of gum due to the gross taste constantly in my mouth. Sugar-free gum is made from aspartame and sorbitol which you should avoid to get rid of bloat.

Now I've been running around like a crazy woman looking for gum with real sugar and not aspartame, it's a lot harder than you'd think! Just wanted to share that in case anyone else is facing awful bloat and looking to try anything to help. Good luck!

 

[Tristansmom]

HA, I know what you mean about the awful taste! THAT, more often than anything else, is what triggers my nausea.

Having said that, I don't eat any artificial sweeteners and still am super bloated in the evening. Bleah.

 

[SweetPea3200]

Aww that sucks a lot. This is my first day without the sugar free gum and I'm still not feeling great this evening! Still I'll try anything to not make it worse. 13 weeks and the bloat and nausea are still going strong!

 

[bighouse]

Look for glee gum- it's made without added sugar or artificial sweeteners. They use a natural sweetener. Whole Foods carries it (if you have one of those near you) and most smaller health food stores do. You can also order it online from websites like vitacost, but then you have to factor in shipping charges, unless you have other things to fill the order.

I'm having some serious bloating issues too. I can go from looking barely pregnant to looking 6 months pregnant in a matter of minutes! It's painful and very uncomfortable.

I'm also so nauseous that often ANYTHING touching my belly makes me gag- including clothing It's very cold here (if it was summer I'd have no qualms wearing just a bra around the house) so whatever I wear has to be very loose fitting. I wear pants with an elastic waist and roll them down a few times so they are not putting any pressure near my belly.

 

[littlejune]

I'm so bloated. Ugh. Thanks for the tip- I too have been chewing gum, but honestly, I've just embraced the bloat. I am pretty petite and have narrow hips so I get bloated super easy because food and gas has no where to go but out. Now that I have a uterus evidently the size of grapefruit or larger I think it's pushing everything up and out with it, so I look very bloated. I even look like I have a bump even though this being my first I know techinically it's not a real bump yet. I will be on the lookout for the aspartame free gum though, why add to the problem? haha

 

[KatieMK]

I'm not pregnant (boo!!) but I've been really working on my diet, as I am very sensitive to hormones. (Guess pregnancy will be SUPER fun when it's finally my turn!!) I bloat really easily, so I've been working on many solutions... most of which won't help with the conversation. BUT, one that I think WOULD work for you: everyday, I fill up my water bottle, and I add two or three sprigs of fresh mint (I just put the whole sprig in there), about an inch of peeled ginger, and 1/4 to 1/2 a lemon (rind and all, cut into pieces). The result is a mint/ginger/lemon infused water that I drink all day. You can refill the water as needed, and just dump out the solids at the end of the day. I forget what mint does, other than taste good, but lemon helps with water absorption, ginger aids in digestion (that's the bloat!), and water keeps everything "moving". AND it makes your breath nice! I call it "bikini water", jokingly, but it really has worked for me. I'll have to find a new name for it when I'm pregnant... maybe "two more weeks of normal pants" water? Or "pants with a button" water?

 

[SweetPea3200]

LOL KatieMK that's hilarious!! I might have to give that a try! Staying hydrated is hard right now cuz normal water tastes awful to me Good luck on you TTC journey, I ended up taking clomid after a year and a half of trying. If you ever end up heading in that direction, let me know!
littlejune, that's exactly how I feel! I'm average height but very slender and in the evening my bump looks about 10 weeks ahead of where I am lol! I will say, yesterday was day 2 without the aspartame and I did feel a lot better. I also ate a light dinner of just chicken and salad. I think avoiding carbs in the evening is key for me!