Morning sickness (which afflicts most pregnant women throughout the day during their first trimester) was a really great idea before refrigeration, canning, white flour, and refined sugar transformed the way we eat. Being a little queasy tends to help women in early pregnancy keep small amounts of mild foods in their stomachs, avoid strong flavors, and crave sweet tastes.


A few short centuries ago, that meant lots of grains (folic acid, anyone?), no heavily flavored meats that might be a day or two past their expiration dates and lead to pregnancy-threatening food poisoning, and lots of sweet veggies, honey, and fruit. Don't look now, but I just described the perfect diet for early pregnancy. Today it means Saltines, chocolate shakes, and Twinkies. Oops.

Since we're much less likely to eat heavily salted week-old buffalo meat in our culture, it also means a frustrating exercise in futility and weeks of locating wastebaskets when entering a room, just in case you end up needing one later. At first it's a little funny and exciting, but after a few weeks, it's exhausting and disheartening, too. You'll make it through, honest! Here are a few tips to help you in the meantime:

1. Keep something in your stomach. Just nibbling on a little toast or some crackers will keep the acid in your stomach from making you as queasy. In the morning, try setting your alarm clock for a half-hour before you want to wake up. Eat a couple of crackers and snuggle back into bed. When you get up, that early-morning emptiness that probably led to the "morning sickness" misnomer will be gone.


2. Eat the way morning sickness is designed to make you eat. When you're dying for ice cream, try strawberries and cream. Get whole grain crackers to settle your stomach. Try a little cinnamon on a sweet potato or some buttery corn on the cob. Usually the purest form of sweetness (sugar) will sound the best when you first hit a craving, but once you sink your teeth into that crisp, juice-dripping peach, you'll forget all about that cake, honest. And because your body processes natural sugars and grains more easily, they're easier on your stomach.

3. Avoid stress when possible. If you're already borderline queasy all the time, battling your way through rush hour traffic might push you all the way to nausea. Take the back roads or spend an hour relieving tension with a nice walk around your work neighborhood for the exercise instead.

4. Try aromatherapy. Just like a whiff of rare steak can send you blundering toward the restroom, a hit of grapefruit scent or lemon might calm your senses back down. I've always loved the smell of VapoRub (I know; it's weird) and liked to rub a little on my upper lip when I was nauseated. A scented lip balm tube or hand lotion can be handy scented things to keep in your purse, as can QueaseEase, a tube of scent you can buy at MorningSicknessHelp.com


5. Try acupressure. A wrist band that applies pressure at a specific point on your wrist can ease nausea. Check out the especially attractive Psi Bands, also available at MorningSicknessHelp.com.

6. Take B vitamins and ginger. Both substances have been shown to significantly reduce nausea. Medical studies (see one here) have shown that ginger is especially effective at relieving nausea. Try ginger snaps, candies specifically designed to treat morning sickness that include it, or ginger ale (with true ginger--most ginger ale does NOT have ginger in it, but you can find the real thing, especially in the natural food section of the grocery store or in natural grocery stores). MorningSicknessHelp.com also sells several kinds of candy and vitamins that include B vitamins and ginger.


Here are simple directions for making your own ginger ale with real ginger. A huge thank you to Chanda for providing it!

Chanda's Natural Homemade Ginger Ale

Cut up one knob of ginger (about an ounce) and then grate it. Use juicy ginger. If there isn't a ton of juice going everywhere the ginger is old. The more finely grated the better for getting the taste into the tea but the harder it is to strain.


Add this to about 8 cups of boiling water and let simmer for an hour or so. Then add sugar to taste (I use about 2 cups for 8 cups of water but don't like much myself). Pour that into club soda. Add the juice of half a lemon per 2 liter soda to give it a tartness.

That makes me 3-2 liter bottles of soda.

Know some other ways to treat early pregnancy nausea? Be sure to leave a comment so others can benefit from your tip!

Hi Catherine,

Great website! I would like to add to your already wonderful ideas on how to quell morning sickness that hypnosis is highly effective at reducing or eliminating nausea of all kinds. At Hypnobabies we have an "Eliminate Nausea Now" CD that brings our moms into a deep state of hypnosis and re-trains their inner minds with a very effective technique for doing exactly that. Our moms use their hypnosis technique to eliminate nausea during pregnancy and in labor to feel better very quickly and that is such a blessing!

Keep up the good work,

Kerry Tuschhoff
Founder/Director of Hypnobabies
info@Hypnobabies.com