Q. My daughter is in the seventh week of her second pregnancy. She is experiencing excessive morning sickness, vomiting four or five times a day. The doctor at a pregnancy clinic told her to take prenatal vitamins plus Unisom along with 50 mg of vitamin B6 twice daily.
Well, now she is sleeping throughout the day. She really doesn’t want to spend the next several months in bed. Can you suggest some alternative approach? Her two-year-old son misses his mommy.
A. The combination of vitamin B6 and Unisom (doxylamine) is an attempt to recreate Bendectin, an old morning sickness medicine that is no longer on the market. But the amounts she is taking of B6 and the sedating antihistamine doxylamine are much higher. Please have your daughter ask her obstetrician if this treatment is appropriate.
Ginger syrup is a traditional remedy for morning sickness in early pregnancy. It has recently been subjected to scientific scrutiny in a double-blind study. Most of the women who took one tablespoon of ginger syrup in water four times a day felt significantly less nauseated. The syrup was supplied by New Chapter, Inc (800) 543-7279.
