So last week, we talked about the top 8 most horrible smells when you’re pregnant. When you read about these gag-inducing scents, you might have been able to relate, but wondered “Yeah, but how do I deal when the smell of meat cooking makes me gag?”
While it’s not practical to want to walk around with your nose plugged, there are some things you can do to avoid scents that ramp up your nausea.
Here are 6 simple tips for coping with a strong sense of smell during pregnancy:
1. Air Out Your Home
Whenever possible, leave your windows open. This will help banish any musty odors or cooking smells.
2. Eat Smart
Only cook the foods you can stand to smell. The old you might have loved steamed cauliflower and broccoli. But if the pregnant you hates the smell of these veggies, just avoid them until after you deliver.
3. Ditch the Perfume
Go easy on anything that’s scented, including body lotion, deodorant, and perfume. Or, you could switch to a fragrance that doesn’t make you sick. This goes for your man, too. You might have loved his Thierry Mugler cologne before, but now that you’re pregnant the scent makes you queasy.
4. Seek Nausea-Soothing Scents
Surround yourself with a scent like lemon, mint, ginger, and cinnamon. These scents can actually make you feel better and soothe your nausea rather than make it worse.
5. Do Laundry More Often
The fibers of your clothing tend to hang onto odors. So, we recommend washing your clothes more often than usual to help get rid of these odors.
6. Ask Others to be Considerate
Ask your partner, family, friends, and co-workers to be sensitive to your newly strong sense of smell. They could avoid microwaving fish for lunch or go easy on the perfume.
We hope that one (or a few!) of these tips give you some relief! Do you have a tip that didn’t make our list? Please share it in the comments!