Help: Elimination diet

[mzrowan]

One of the pieces of advice I got was to do an elimination diet to help ward off morning sickness*. I've been a slacker about this with the excuse that I was waiting for the farmer's markets to get going. Couple that with the fact that I'll have little choice in what I get for food over the May long weekend and I've got about three weeks to do

Comments

[catya]

FWIW, from my own experience and that of almost everyone else I have talked to, what bugs you during pregnancy will have NOTHING to do with what bugs you now.

So honestly? I wouldn't bother.

Really.

(I was also rarely morning sick, as long as i didn't let my stomach get too empty)

[mightydoll]

ditto on the first point and the second.

further, intiating a "purge" on your body could effect your ability to even GET pregnant. Better to eat well and normally (though with folic acid supplement and beginning a GRADUAL wean off things you won't consume while pregnant, like caffeine and alcohol - the gradual bit is very important as quitting something "cold turkey" is a strain on your body which can effect your health as well as the baby's)

[sweetmmeblue]

Thirded.

[drwex]

I have only the second-hand experience of having watched morning sickness rather than experiencing it. But my observations agree with Catya & co above.

I'm also unclear on what you think the benefit of doing the elimination diet will be. Do you believe your body is currently reacting badly to some food(s) or do you think it'll react badly when pregnant?

Can't help with the detox question, but...

[crunchywitch]

I second the ginger thing - I don't like candied, but I do like it raw, and pickled (like sushi-ginger) worked for me. Peanut butter wasn't even on my radar. I kept a small bottle of juice by my bedside: drinking it immediately on waking up helped me significantly, as did crackers or granola. I was hungry all the time, nauseated most of the time, and more nauseated by the smell of meat (and I'm not a vegetarian) for the second two of the three months of my pregnancy.

[horsetraveller]

I don't think doing a detox before pregnancy is going to be a bad thing. I can't see it helping or hindering your chances of conception.

However I can't really see that it is going to help with morning sickness. What little we know about why human females are so sick in the beginning of pregnancy doesn't seem to suggest that it has much to do with eating corn and eggs beforehand.
If you don't experience pregnancy nausea, I would suspect it's your mother's genes rather than the detox.

[mzrowan]

The advice that I got was that anything that you had a slight negative reaction to while not pregnant was something that you might have a larger negative reaction to while pregnant; the elimination diet is a way to find out what foods you're sensitive to by testing some of the common culprits in isolation.

[moominmolly]

well, specifically, it worked for ME! Doesn't mean it'll work for everyone. Also of note: I used to be very easily nauseated, and nausea was something I had a *general* problem with. I did the elimination diet to fix *that*, and the information I gathered wound up helping ME tremendously during pregnancy. If you don't generally have nausea problems, maybe it's not worthwhile to you

[moominmolly]

Also, the thing catya said above about not letting your stomach get too empty was important for me, and for other women I know.

[dancingwolfgrrl]

My experience was that it took me (this is anal-retentive-about-food and super-sensitive-to-her-digestive-system me) about a week to get the hang of managing my body and blood sugar and whatnot on the total elimination diet; I probably could've done with ten days but stand with moominmolly in suggesting you not go too much shorter than that. There's probably no point in starting before Rites; eating at random will totally de-detox you. Also, you really want to have a good solid baseline of what (hopefully) symptomless is like in order to be able to detect really subtle reactions, which is the whole point. (If you're not particularly worried about this, you can just cut suspicious foods one at a time while going about your business and see if you notice anything

[fuzzyila]

I found I was actually able to digest more the short two times I was pregnant and just ate what I felt like eating (which was varied and odd from my normal diet