Pregnancy causes so many…we will call them blessings. These blessings relate to all of the hormonal changes and physiological factors associated with the process of growing a human inside of you.
Anyone who’s ever been pregnant knows how frustrating morning sickness is, especially since it doesn’t just strike you in the morning. That new bundle of joy that is still cooking can weaken the muscles around your esophagus leading to more GERD, inhibit digestion, and trigger a lot of nausea because of increased sensitivity to smell and taste.
Even better is the fact that your genetics might leave you predisposed to having pregnancy nausea. The metabolic changes, your stress levels or anxiety (none of that associated with the future responsibility of caring for another person), and your low blood sugar can even lead to pregnancy nausea.
So, I went looking for the best chewing gums for pregnancy nausea to get me through the day. Here’s what I found.
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Why Chewing Gum
I’m one of those lucky mothers with a genetic predisposition to nausea (all sorts of nausea) and pregnancy didn’t help.
Turns out chewing gum increases saliva which can reduce irritation from your stomach acid. It also stimulates your vagus nerve to help with digestion and it can pose a useful distraction when you are struggling with nausea.
Since many women deal with pregnancy related nausea or morning sickness because of slow digestion, chewing gum can activate a lot of mechanisms that help.
My Top Picks
So it turns out, there are not a lot of chewing gums designed to help with nausea relief for pregnant women but there are a lot of similar products that can help you get the job done.
That said, while you can technically get away with chewing any type of gum to increase saliva and stimulate that vagus nerve, these are my top picks for nausea relief as a pregnant mama:
- Reflux Gourmet
- Seaband
- Pur
- Trident Xylitol
- Pink Stork
- Upspring
My top pick though is Reflux Gourmet, which comes in two fruity flavors, because it was designed by doctors specifically for acid reflux and as such, it uses natural alginates for an extra bit of relief. Totally safe for pregnant or nursing mothers.
Reflux Gourmet
This is my top pick as the natural ingredients like aloe, ginger, and alginate blend are safe for long-term use as well as for pregnant or nursing women.
Full disclaimer, this gum is developed specifically for acid reflux which makes it an ideal candidate for pregnant women. Surprisingly, it actually makes it one of the most ideal candidates for pregnant women because while there are a lot of other products out there to help with morning sickness, there aren’t really a lot of gums that are qualified and safe.
This gum uses alginates that sit on top of the stomach creating a physical gelatinous barrier between your stomach content and your esophagus, so if you are struggling with weakened muscles around the esophagus that aren’t doing their job in preventing your stomach acid from making its way back up, the alginate will do it for you.
If you go to their website you can see a video of a recording in real time of this process happening. It is outrageously entertaining and brings me a lot of comfort.
The gum comes in two different flavors, berry soothe or tropical soothe, which to me is a huge relief; most of the gum out there is peppermint or cinnamon which gets pretty boring a few months into a nine month stint, and all the other morning sickness pills and gummies are ginger flavored. I don’t mind ginger now and again and I know it’s very efficacious, but I don’t want to constantly feel like I’m chewing on a pot sticker.
The alginate isn’t the only good ingredient here, you also have sodium bicarbonate which helps to neutralize your stomach acid and the aloe vera which is a natural anti-inflammatory, helping to relieve any pain you might have on your esophagus. Really my only complaint is that it’s pricier than your average chewing gum.
Cost:
$22
Flavors:
Berry or tropical
Key Ingredients:
Alginates, aloe, ginger
Seaband
As someone who has admitted to their long-standing relationship with nausea, Seaband is actually a ginger gum that I’ve used for a lot of travel and it worked really well with my first pregnancy. I used to rely on those wristbands they swore would work, and several airline puke bags later, I switched to the gum.
The company also sells a range of “Seaband Mama” products, like the acupressure band, lozenges, and essential oils if you’re interested but the whole point of the chewing gum is that you activate the saliva to help with morning sickness.
Cost:
$5
Flavors:
Ginger
Key Ingredients:
Ginger
Simply Gum
Simply Gum is a reputable brand with pure, clean ingredients. If you are looking for something natural that doesn’t have a lot of chemicals, with no synthetic plastics or aspartame, this is a good brand to consider.
The sugar free options have Xylitol and they are safe for pregnant or nursing women. The company offers several brands and the spearmint or ginger are the two best options for combating morning sickness.
The ginger gum comes at a price of $18 for six packets of 15 pieces but you can save 10% if you subscribe and have everything shipped to you. The main ingredients are ginger and peppermint oils, glycerin, and raw cane sugar. Be advised that consuming too much peppermint essential oil can be harmful during pregnancy.
If that’s something you want to avoid though the amount of essential oil in the ginger gum may not be particularly high, you can look at the simply spearmint gum which has spearmint oil instead and then Xylitol over cane sugar, but otherwise the same organic rice flour, glycerin, and base.
Cost:
$18
Flavors:
Ginger, peppermint, spearmint, bubble gum,
Key Ingredients:
Ginger
Pur
Pur is a well known brand for chewing gum. They come highly recommended because they use Xylitol as a natural sugar substitute which is better for your oral health. They have a wide array of flavors but as a pregnant woman the most likely candidates are going to be the mint family as these contain mint essential oils that help with digestion and nausea.
These gums are considered safe for pregnant women as they use safe artificial sweeteners with some studies suggesting that Xylitol can help reduce low birth weight and risk of premature birth. So, consider that a bonus.
Note: Make sure you avoid consuming large quantities of peppermint essential oil; stick with the spearmint, cool mint, or wintergreen.
Cost:
$5
Flavors:
Wintergreen, peppermint, spearmint, coolmint, pomegranate mint, cinnamon, chocolate mint, bubblegum
Key Ingredients:
Xylitol and mint
Trident Xylitol
Trident Xylitol is a brand of Trident gum that is marketed as “sugar free.” To be clear this does not mean there isn’t any form of sugar but rather there isn’t white cane sugar. What there is, is the same as Pur: xylitol. The nice thing about the Trident brand is you can pretty much find these at any grocery store for less than $2 per pack.
Again, the same warnings are associated with Trident as with Pur: be careful of the peppermint essential oils in any of the gum but otherwise stick to a mint-based flavor to help you with your nausea.
Cost:
$2
Flavors:
Ginger and lemon (seriously, are there any non-gross flavors besides Reflux Gourmet?)
Key Ingredients:
Pink Stork
Okay I’m adding this one even though it’s not technically a gum because I suppose anything I end up chewing on while trying to suppress my future vomit can qualify as “gum.”
So, Pink Stork is a line of everyday essentials like magnesium, hormone balance multivitamins, and the ginger raspberry morning sickness sweets.
These are candies or lozenges which contain organic ginger and vitamin B6 as the main ingredients to help you with your morning sickness and they also have a raspberry flavor to make them more palatable. It helps with morning sickness, heartburn, digestion, constipation and bloating, as well as general upset stomach.
Cost:
$15 or $12 with a subscription
Flavors:
Ginger and raspberry
Key Ingredients:
Ginger and B6
Upspring
Upspring provides morning sickness gummies in a lemon ginger combination. The natural blend has vitamin B6 much the same as the pink stork options, but they are vegan gummies designed to help you with upset stomach and nausea, safe for pregnant and nursing women with Organic ginger root powder in it.
Cost:
$20 or $15 with a subscription
Flavors:
Ginger and lemon (again…why?? Can’t we get something fruity?)
Key Ingredients:
Ginger and lemon
Summing Up
Morning sickness sucks. Let’s just be honest about that.
But the right type of gum, lozenge, or gummy can go a long way toward keeping your morning sickness at bay and helping reduce some of that inflammation.
My top pick, by and large, is Reflux Gourmet. It is the only gum designed to treat reflux, and it works by attacking the source, creating that physical barrier between your stomach acid and your esophagus picking up the slack where your muscles might be lagging. What’s more, it seems like it’s really designed for us hard-working mamas because it offers soothing relief in the aloe vera ingredients for the burned esophagus, and has ingredients like ginger to help quell your stomach acid with sodium bicarbonate to neutralize it.
Then there’s Seaband, a good second contender with a ginger-based gum that can help with nausea. If you are more of a mint person, looking to settle your morning sickness that way, Trident Xylitol and Pur gum both have soothing mint flavors and xylitol as their sweetener.
You might also consider Pink Stork which has a line of pregnancy and breastfeeding safe options, and Upspring which is yet another ginger-based product designed to help with pregnancy nausea.