Help for nauseous wife

(Jim) #1

Hello, my wife and started keto a week ago. I’ve had no real ill effects and am starting to feel great. My wife has not been so lucky. She’s been throwing up for a day and half now (started in day five). I bought her some keto-friendly electrolyte drink mix and have been having her eat Himalayan salt. But she’s still in rough shape. I’m tempted to get her some saltines or some dry toast, but she’s hesitant to break the diet. I’m wondering if carbs are a percentage of the daily diet or an overall amount. In other words, if she had a slice of toast my app says it would be 15g of carbs. That’s under the 20 grams and might make her feel like eating again. But it’s likely to be a large percentage of her daily diet today, well above 5%.

Any thoughts, experiences, or advice would be much appreciated.

#2

Yikes! This is really unusual but I think I remember one other case on here. To answer your specific question, it’s generally better to go by carb grams rather than percentages.
I hope you’ll get some guidance from someone who’s been through this kind of transition.
Any chance she actually just has a stomach bug?

(Kay) #3

Are you sure she’s not actually ill? Certainly possible - and of the only thing she can stomach is saltines then I’d go for that. Hope she’s feeling better soon

(Allie) #4

Sounds more like your wife is genuinely not well rather than suffering the effects of starting keto. I hope she’s feeling better soon.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #5

Maybe give her some chicken broth or bone broth, bullion if that’s all you have. Keto mug bread is two minutes to make, it might work in place of wheat bread. I think her stomach hasn’t adapted to high fat low carb yet or is actually sick, in either case this might help. :cowboy_hat_face:

#6

Often when the pukes are going on, the best thing to do is give the stomach a rest and not try to eat anything for a bit. It just comes back up and keeps the stomach irritated. Not keto advice, just nurse advice.

(Jim) #7

Thanks for the replies. She doesn’t have a fever or any other maladies. She’s not sneezing, coughing, no runny nose, etc. It’s just the pukes. Seems too coincidental to be a bug with no other symptoms. She didn’t eat anything yesterday and had trouble even keeping down the electrolyte water. She’s able to keep seltzer water and the electrolyte water (provided it’s only a half scoop) down today. But I’m seriously considering giving her a slice of toast. Does anyone know if you still stay under 20g but that’s pretty much all you eat of that will throw you out of ketosis?b

(Jim) #8

As an update, I got her some beef bone broth (comes cold but you heat it up) and made a loaf of keto bread (coconut oil and almond flour). She was able to drink and eat it without issue, though slowly. So far she’s keeping it down. Thanks for all the replies.

(Carl Keller) #9

I was able to get into ketosis by staying under 50 total carbs. I did that for about a month before lowering it to 20 net. She can probably get into ketosis with higher than 20.

Nausea is fairly common when first starting keto but vomiting is not. If she isn’t actually sick, I wonder how much sodium she is geting per day? Most keto flu symptoms are due to low sodium. She should be getting 2+ teaspoons over the course of her day because we are excreting sodium at much greater rates when we restrict carbs.

#10

Honestly, if someone is sick from the type of food they’ve eaten, they’re probably going to vomit then feel fine in a bit. If she’s been vomiting for > 24 hours, I would lean heavily toward virus or food poisoning and not diet. Seriously, the medical treatment for either of those is quit trying to figure out what food she can hold down and let her tummy rest. It’s telling you not to put anything down there for a reason. She’s probably holding down the broth and bread because whatever she had is finally running its course. Best to keep to a mild diet for another day or so if things are staying down, with plenty of fluids and electrolytes.

#11

Bone broth is supposedly very good for stomach bugs. Some say ut calms the stomach, and even if not, it is full of liquid nutrition which are easily recieved by the body as long as it’s at body temperature. Water should also be at body temp when drinking it, especially when sick.