I actually like this one.

Not that I’d have able to keep candy or ice cream down in early pregnancy, but I’d probably be more likely to try that than the stale crackers that didn’t work.

seriously?? you didn’t gain enough weight so eat some junk completely lacking in nutrients to add on some extra fat… cause that will make “me” feel better??

how about encouraging proper nutrition?? maybe increasing calories with healthful foods

not to mention that no everyone gains a standard amount..

Yeah, because a pregnant woman really needs to ingest mass amounts of sugar that may lead to gestational diabetes. I lost weight during the first trimester due to nausea, and my daughter is healthy as can be.

Yeah, and then at the blood glucose screening tell her she has high blood sugar… wonder why?

Here’s an idea: frequent small meals and snacks. Foods high in good fat like avocados, nuts, etc.
Eggs, because cholesterol helps with the neurological development of the baby.
Potatoes also have potassium for muscle cramps as well as carbohydrates, fiber and vitamins.

Sure, a treat of ice cream is fine sometimes, but wow.

This is exactly the advice my hometown old-school OB gave to a friend of mine fifteen-plus years ago. She wasn’t gaining “enough weight” according to his charts, so he told her to eat ice cream every day, switch to whole milk, start putting extra butter on her bread… Basically load up on high-fat foods as much as possible with no regard for nutrition. She didn’t enjoy it at all, honestly, and was not a huge fan of force-feeding herself like a foie gras goose. Gained sixty or seventy pounds, I think — and she was 5’3″, tops.

What kind of lame-o advice is that, anyway? Women are DIFFERENT, doc. My sis-in-law lost ten pounds in her first trimester. My mother gained forty pounds with each of us. Another friend of mine gained ten pounds total and ended up with an eight pound baby! A woman could conceivably gain the “right” amount of weight and still be unhealthy. “Just eat some more candy bars” is neither a) a diagnosis nor b) good medical advice nor c) good prenatal care.

Bleh.

I’m so glad this comment is on here. I went to the CNM’s the other day and she gently reminded me that I should probably try to gain 10 lbs through the remainder of my pregnancy. However, my diet has improved dramatically since I’ve become pregnant and the fact that I’m not gaining is not because my baby isn’t gaining… as one OB put it on here- I just have less “blubber.”
Is that okay? Is there any reason why that might be detrimental to my child? Should I go back to the occasional Sonic Burger?

That is crazy! Sometimes you just don’t gain in the first trimester. Of course, I puked so much with my girls, my wonderful dr told me to eat whatever i could keep down. For baby #5, that meant wendy’s chicken nuggets and sonic burgers for the first five months. Nothing else would stay down. I gained 12 lbs that pregnancy!

I have heard similar advice given by WIC for “too skinny” toddlers. As if gaining weight is the only goal, nutrition be damned! Then when you gain too much weight, they want to ream you for it!

With both of my pregnancies I have lost weight int he beginning and then gain as the pregnancy progresses. I have ended each pregnancy back at my original weight. Every women and every pregnancy is different. I wish doctors would stop looking for text book cases and start realizing that pregnancy, like people, varies greatly.

Oh yeah, because everyone is the same and MUST gain the same amount….sigh. And hell, why not stuff a pregnant mommy with junk?? Geez!
Through no efforts of my own, apart from my enjoyment of mostly healthful foods, I gain under 20 lbs with each baby. My mom gained 40 each time. So what?!

With my last pregnancy (#6) I didnt gain hardly any weight at all maybe a 1lb or 2, and it was that way all the way up to my 3rd Trimester, I gained a total of 6lbs during my pregnancy had a 7lb 6oz baby and when I got home I had lost a total of 14 lbs giving birth!! I had good nutrition all the way through pregnancy, walked a couple of miles a day and had a great natural labour.. its all about taking good care of yourself

*sighs*

One of the frustrating things about our weight-loss obsessed culture is that when you’re looking to actually put on weight, it’s hard to figure out how to do so in a healthy manner.

Good nutrition.

Doctors need to stop treating the chart and start treating the patient.

As a survivor of hyperemesis (severe nausea & vomiting) I lost 30 lbs with my ds & 20 with my dd. If the woman in question is having trouble with keeping things down, high fat foods may make it worse. Many of the above comments mention losing weight. If it was severe, I urge you to check out http://www.hyperemesis.org for support.

Obviously this comment wouldn’t be on here if it was said appropriately, and my response is going to go against pretty much everyone else’s, but this actually can be good advise in certain situations. My metabolism is super slow and my body, very naturally, lives on a shoestring diet, I only need/want about 1000 calories a day. Problem is my appetite doesn’t increase with pregnancy, I just start losing weight. I lost almost 20 lbs in the first trimester of my pregnancies (both of them) before I managed to increase my calorie count. Healthy adults (of which I am in general) have a great deal of storage for vitimans/minerals and can live a great deal of time on ‘empty’ calories alone (why adults can survive a famine by eating grass and leaves but children can’t) while children (and especially a growing baby) need their frequent intake of various nutrients. I suppose, technically, I could just continue to eat my good 1000 calories, let the baby eat off that and just burn my fat stores for the calories I need, but that would cause precipitous weight loss. So I have to add 1000+ calories to my diet to cover both me and baby. Most people are like, so what, you get to eat more. But, not only am I not hungry for me, that 1000 calories DOUBLES my daily intake. I simply can’t eat enough of ‘good’ food to make up the calorie needs of pregnacy. If I didn’t eat some ‘junk’ food I’d never hit 2000 calories a day. There is just so many more calories, ounce for ounce in ‘junk’ food than ‘good’ food. My midwife from my first pregnancy and my OB for my second (no choice, wanted a midwife) are both well aware of my diet and think, while the situation isn’t ideal, its probably as good as its going to get. I realize very few people have such an issue, I’ve never ran into someone else who maintains a healthy weight with so little daily intake, but sometimes getting those ‘empty’ calories can make the difference between a healthy adult and an unhealthy adult (I admit they don’t do ANYTHING for the baby!) And for the record I already do things like eat nuts, whole milk, red meat etc to up my ‘good’ calorie intake.

The only thing the doc should be worried about is whether or not the baby is growing. Palpation is the way to find that out.
I have a friend who is heavier and only gains about 8 pounds with her pregnancies – the size of her baby. But as long as her uterus measures correctly her doctor doesn’t say a word.