Hi! I have a friend who's pregnant, and it got me thinking of cravings that pregnant women have. So, I thought it would be fun to ask on here:

How soon did your cravings begin?

What kinds of things did you crave?


Men, please don't be afraid to answer this on behalf of your significant other! I have even heard of couples where the man had pregnancy symptoms and the woman did not! So, feel free to answer also!

I look forward to all the answers!

-AnimalAngel

My first pregnancy I was nuts (if you will excuse the expression) on crunchy peanut butter!

I only knew I was pregnant a month and a half (I found out I was pregnant in the beginning of my fourth month and HAD the baby prematurely in the middle of the 5th month.. 23 weeks along) and I ate a 10 pound can of peanut butter with my husband.

He matched eating sandwiches with jelly one to one with me! And I would eat about 3 to 6 a day! He was having cravings, too!

With my daughter I moved from food to food all along.. for several months it was shrimp, then it was ham and cheese on Ritz crackers, that sort of thing. Some of my cravings were very expensive, but because I had the Gastic Bypass, it wasn't that hard to afford it cuz I couldn't eat more than 5 to 6 bites at a sitting! Sagus didn't have any cravings this pregnancy.

One of my aunts had a craving for coal ! She would digest it, to the amazement of all.The doctor didn't find this at all unusual but there's no obvious medical reason for it.

Another aunt had a craving for Guinness.For some equally unknown medical reason, this craving outlasted the pregnancy by fifty years.

lol Fred.
Now someone's posted something odd, I feel safe to post mine. This is really weird, and only happened during pregnancies.
My craving was for wood. Not just any wood, but pencils. Just the wood and not the graphite. I literally couldn't get enough of them. The doctor said it was ok and I seemed to digest them without trouble..plenty of roughage there.
I feel slightly embarrassed now that I think back on it, but at the time I was like a drug addict looking for my next hit.

I don't recall having any real cravings during either of my pregnancies, but instead I had "reactions"...to foods I ate on a regular basis prior to being pregnant.

Two instances stick out (from almost 30 years ago now )

I was making chili dogs...got the chili going on the stove, and after it got warm & I could smell it, the smell just about knocked me over, and all I could do was turn the burner off and leave. I think I was about 5 months at the time

The second was when we went out to dinner on our anniversary, which was when I would have been about 8 months. We went to the Peppermill, which at THAT time, was still JUST a restaurant, although now it's a mega-resort!

Ordered a couple of nice steak dinners - anyone that knows me, knows I'm a real carnivore! Our steaks came, I cut one bite out, put it in my mouth, and it felt like I had a great big piece of FAT in my mouth....EEEWWWW! Turned out that the SO got to have steak to his hearts content that night, and I just ate my baked potato along with part of his....*sigh*

Luckily, neither of these things stuck with me after I was pregnant, and I don't recall either one causing trouble with my second child.

And yes, I'll still take a steak over just about anything!

The non-food item cravings are called "pica". Charcoal and wood are fairly common pica cravings during pregnancy. The most commonly held belief that these cravings indicate nutritional deficits.. minerals, iron deficiencies, etc.

Just to have it said even if it IS obvious.. do NOT give into the cravings unless and until you speak to your physician.

Sagus had an Indian friend at his work. (Dot-not-feather) He obtained a traditional recipe from her. I don't mind ethnic dishes, but the odor of that Indian Dish made me so ill I couldn't go into the kitchen for about a week and Sagus had to scrub the entire kitchen down before I could bear to go back in!

early cravings were apple jice and green beans, from about 6 to10 weeks; then in the last few weeks, it was donuts, but only with normal, not powdered sugar.

I had only one instance of craving in three pregnancies. I saw roll-mops (raw salted pickled fish) in a jar on the supermarket shelf, and read the ingredients, and just HAD to have some. Took it home, opened it up, ate one -- and that was that. Kept it down, though. I do think it has something to do with a nutritional need, though because in those days I lived in the interior and had only lake fish which I hate to this day. When I moved to the coast I discovered fresh-caught OCEAN FISH!!! YEAH!!!!!

A common object-of-desire is wall plaster, I've heard, women picking bits of plaster right off the wall. Calcium deficiency? These days walls often contain gypsum (CaSO4 · 2 H2O) instead. It contains calcium too. I wonder if women crave that?

It's common for women to give up dairy products to control their weight. It could well be that many women crave calcium.

So whereas food cravings might be 'good' for you (though some wall plasters included mine tailings so might contain lead or whatever) what I don't understand is nausea during pregnancy. Some women have serious nausea for the first three months, or for the duration! That can't be advantageous. Unless it is to prevent excess weight gain, which is bad for baby and mother as well.

Two things nauseated me: cigarette smoke and parsnips. Never actually up-chucked, though, because I avoided both! Immediately after giving birth I tolerated smoke again, but parsnips? Never!!

HI! Thank you to all of you that have replied so far! I have enjoyed reading all the posts! It's very interesting how women can crave such a variety of things while they are pregnant!
Sherasi - your first response surpised me. That must have been pretty startling and a little scary to be 4 months along and not know you are pregnant, and then the baby being born so early. Did everything go okay with the baby?
My friend craves salty foods right now.
Well, everybody - feel free to post your experience or respond on behalf of someone else! I think everyone can learn alot and have some interesting reading with all these posts! Thank you!

-AnimalAngel

quote:

Originally posted by AnimalAngel:

Sherasi - your first response surpised me. That must have been pretty startling and a little scary to be 4 months along and not know you are pregnant, and then the baby being born so early. Did everything go okay with the baby? -AnimalAngel

AA, My oldest son has Cerebral Palsy and some cognitive/developmental delays the docs have labeled as "Autism". He is very healthy, walks independently, and has quite a few skills that we have worked on for years reinforcing.

He is a happy energetic young man, but, frankly, he will always need basic personal care assistance and can never be totally independent (or even moderately independent, frankly).

But that is okay, he is who and what he is. And we love him anyway.

Thanks for asking.

Sherasi, I am sorry that happened to your oldest son. It's great that you work with him on certain skills, though. It sounds like he is loved a lot and that is the best thing!

-AnimalAngel