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I feel nauseous when I try to eat, and have difficultly keeping the food down.

I feel nauseous when I try to eat, when I bring food to my mouth my gag reflex is triggered. When I can eat, I will sometimes get very nauseous, I will gag, and have even vomited.
When I think about eating, sometimes I can't stomach the idea of eating anything available, or anything at all. Even foods like bread and oatmeal will trigger my gag and make my stomach turn.
I will also go long periods of time before I feel the need to eat, the longest being 31 hours, 25 not including sleeping hours. I hadn't even realized I didn't eat at all until the next day. It just never occurred to me that I needed to eat, because my body never told me it was hungry.
I am definitely not pregnant.
I know I need to eat, and I want to, but I don't know what to do.
2 Responses
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973741 tn?1342342773
COMMUNITY LEADER
Gosh, that's crazy you can go 30 hours without realizing you haven't eaten!  I would talk to your doctor but one thing you can do right now is power nutrition.  Think smoothies with protein powder and fresh fruit in them.  Drink some nutrition. Even like Ensure or those types of drinks give a lot of nutrition in a sip.  Are you losing weight?

Are you highly stressed?  That can be one reason to lose appetite. Are you on any medications? If you are gaining weight even with this appetite issue, it could be a slow thyroid. Do you have gastroparesis?  And one I'd be really suspicious of is irritable bowel syndrome.  It doesn't work like people think and can look different than what you'd expect depending on the person.

You can start by seeing your general doctor but a GI doc is really an excellent specialty to consider getting yourself to.  
Helpful - 0
134578 tn?1693250592
COMMUNITY LEADER
You might want to see a doctor. In the meantime, make your bites really, really small and very often, rather than normal sized and eating less often. (When someone has nausea, their doctor will often prescribe them something liquid, by the teaspoon, every four minutes for an hour or two, just to get some calories and water into their system without them automatically throwing it up.) Little sips and maybe even tiny bits can stay down when bigger ones might cause the gag reflex. Have you ever had a gastrointestinal condition? Have you ever had an eating disorder? Are you living in an environment where there might be toxins? Do you think you have anorexia? It seems like a good idea to get a complete workup.
Helpful - 0
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