Pregnancy is that time of your life when you start living in your bathroom more than your living area. From frequent visits because of your irresistible urge to empty the bladder, to the stomach bugs that won’t stop bothering you, pregnancy is difficult. Worse enough, it hits just when you were finally convinced it is safe to step out of the washroom.
What Are Stomach Bugs?
It is nothing as the name suggest. It does not involve giant insects running around in all directions in your stomach. The so called bugs are usually viruses, though sometimes bacteria might happen to be the culprit and take the blame. As if it wasn’t bad enough that the microscopic organisms get access to our body as and when they will.
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What You Need To Know
More than often, the nasty bugs behind the gastrointestinal disturbances go undetected. After all, they are so hard to differentiate from their more common counterpart, the morning sickness. If in the early weeks of pregnancy, it is even easier to confuse between. There is of course a way to separate the two out and for good reasons. In case you just vomit around your room and feel weak, you are probably down with your usual morning sickness. However, in case it is followed up by cramps or fever, there are chances that you are affected by a bug, well technically millions of bugs. Another possibility could be you are suffering from food poisoning, whose symptoms are pretty much the same as that of a stomach bug.
What You Can Do:
1. Get The Rest Your Body Is So Strongly Urging You To Take:
Give your worked up life a break and assess. If your stomach is giving a go at itself owing to the pregnancy hormones, or is it a virus that made its way through. It could also be the early morning burger you chomped on owing to your strange food cravings. The treatment for all three is of course the same. Rest and loads of it.
2. Fluids The Answer:
Since the three disorders drain you out of your body fluids, try to regain the lost water and minerals, especially if your loose motion is being followed by vomiting or vice versa. Yes, no denying solids are important, but being pregnant with stomach flu doesn’t include them as an added advantage. It is the water. Drink loads of it to keep yourself hydrated. Diluted juice like grapes and lemon should help you cut through the gas. Take up not urinating enough as sign and let the water pour in.
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3. Something For Your Sweet Tooth:
In case you are too dehydrated to chew, suck on some ice chips and Popsicle. Even when you have solids, keep it simple. Something rather fat-free and simple like white rice or cream of rice cereal, maybe perhaps un buttered toast, applesauce or bananas should do.
4. Ginger’s Good:
If there is something you should always keep around when pregnant, it is ginger. There is no foodstuff that can beat ginger when it comes to medicinal properties. Time and again it has proven its worth among pregnant ladies all around the world. You can try on either raw ginger ale by using it in tea or try ginger candies for a quick fix without going through too much trouble.
These are the most common ways to deal with a stomach bug when pregnant. However, in case nothing is working in your favor and you can’t get anything to work, chances are you might have to be hospitalized. Talk to your practitioner or doctor and make sure, you are not a victim of advanced dehydration. It is a problem for one and all with a stomach ache and it is not always that water can act like the magic ingredient. In cases like these, your doctor will probably suggest you some oral re hydration solution for instance Pedialyte, which should do the trick just fine. You just need to get up and reach out for their assistance.
Know your antacids well in case the doctor isn’t available and you need to administer the medication all by yourself. Reach out for your medicine cabinet and try out antacids like Tums and Maalox. They are usually considered safe when you are pregnant. Some other gas relievers that are deemed equally safe are Gas-X and Mylicon. Your practitioner may suggest antidiarrheal medicines. Do make sure you have enough to go by and keep on checking with him every now and then, so there is no risk involved and you are better off safe than sorry anyway.
It so happens that sometimes medications aren’t really safe after the first trimester. You might just have to wait it out in that case and try to ease the discomfort using some natural ingredient and once you are feeling better than before, sit down and make a list of all foods you consumed that led you to the pit of a bug. Cut it out of your grocery list until you give birth and your immune system is up and running again. Even though a stomach bug when pregnant isn’t too bad, but do ensure you are keeping away from things that could put your child at a risk.
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Now that you know if you are past the first trimester, trying to make an effort to fix your sick tummy will be all in vain. The good news through it all is that the stomach bugs clear themselves up in a day or two. This most certainly implies that once you get out what’s in your stomach, you’re good to go again. Focus on how you can just work on the reduction of discomfort, while the bugs leave after their job is done. Literally!
