I"m only 22 weeks pregnant and my feet are a mess. The swelling has started, and my legs are throbbing in pain by midday. My days are usually busy.Yesterday I threw a Halloween party, rested my feet for 1.5 hours, and then made chicken pot pie. This is more typical than not. I am always on my feet doing stuff. This is life with young children, and I love it! But my poor feet!
I have expensive support hose. I have gel pads for the kitchen floor. I wear quality shoes. What else can I do? Limit salt? What? Or is this just the side effect of being old (I'm 40). My hubby rubs my feet at night, which brings the swelling down, but what other preventative measures can I take?
Yesterday was a rare day when I got to sit for 1.5 hours!
Just wanted to add that I had bad swelling with my other kids but never developed pre-clampsia or any other problems.
Find a massage therapist who knows how to work with pregnant women. I saw an episode on TLC's a baby story and this gal had to have her feet massaged (again, someone who knew what they were doing!!) weekly and it took her feet down about two inches. The person may even have had a certification in lymphatic massage??
It was amazing.
Drink plenty of water.
You should be using the bathroom every few hours - you are peeing for two now - so drink enough to keep your system well flushed out.
Have a banana every so often - the potassium should help balance your water retention a bit.
Go for a brisk walk everyday to get your circulation moving.
Standing by itself is not enough to keep the fluid from pooling in your legs.
Put your feet up when you can.
Find and indoor pool you can use and swim as often as you can.
It's just a side effect and there's not much you can do about it.
Actually my OB says foot massages make foot swelling worse, because it increases the blood flow to the area.
I had bad swelling with both of my first two pregnancies. This one hasn't been so bad because I'm resting a lot more. I'm also seeing a chiropractor regularly, not sure if that's helping or not, or if it's the rest, or both.
My feet swelled up at work so bad in December that I wore flip flops to work. One of those days I thought I was going to pass out so I took a break. Went outside and stood on the cold concrete. It felt so good. You can always try putting your feet in a tub of cold water.
Limit salt and make sure your doctor knows. Prop your feet up whenever you are sitting.
I had pretty severe swelling towards the end of my last pregnancy, but ironically none at all with my first two. Here are the steps I took that helped the most, sort of in order starting with the most helpful.
- cut out all salt. ALL salt. Not just some. Read labels on everything. Use other seasonings like garlic, oregano, olive oil for flavor. There is salt hidden in a lot of things, even unsuspicious things like bottled beverages. Beware of eating out. My worst swelling was sometimes after I ate out because a lot of food is way over-salted even if you can't necessarily taste it.
- Take a potassium supplement. The first day that I cut out salt and started taking a potassium supplement, I peed like 6-7 times that night, and the next day weighed in 6 pounds less than the day before, and I felt a ton better.
- Wear your support hose all the time, every hour of the day, not just a couple hours during the day.
- Eat high potassium foods, like potatoes and bananas. My favorite became a bake potato with garlic and seasoning.
- Swim or take a bath. The counter pressure of the water helps to promote circulation and shed excess water retention.
- Eat watermelon, also promotes shedding excess water retention.
- When you are in the kitchen, see if you can sit down at a table and prop your legs up on a chair while doing for prep like chopping, mixing, preparing lunches.
Really? Sit down and stop doing so dam much!!! No one twisted your arm to throw a party. Maybe those support hose will help too.
Drink lots of water!
I was 39 when I delivered my son but never had swelling like that....very active job, etc.
Maybe call your OB to discuss to be safe!
Pineapple juice or cherry juice might help, too. Both are natural anti-inflammatories - it will take a while to kick in (like a couple of weeks - it's mostly useful as a preventative, so once it starts helping, don't stop!), but a bonus is that if you end up needing to take iron supplements (I always did), they also have vitamin C, which will help with the iron absorption. I drank both of them while I was pregnant, and it helped me a lot.
Check out Dr. Brewer's Diet. It is for eliminating pre-eclampsia (which I know you don't have and I never did either) and high blood pressure in pregnancy. You may not need/want to follow it to a T, but following the principles may help. I would talk to your Doc before changing your diet, because some don't like their patients to be this high protein and haven't learned the reason for needing increased salt in a pregnant diet.
I followed this diet and had ZERO swelling until the last week I had a little a the end of a 10 hour work day.
Put your feet up when you ever you get a chance, it will help, and slow down, this is your time , don't over do it.
That was my first sign of pre eclampsia. might want to mention it to oyour dr.
