In the first trimester, eat small amounts often, keep something dry and salty within reach, and lean on cold, plain, protein-rich foods when hot meals turn your stomach. You do not need extra calories yet. What you do need is folate, choline and iodine every day, and a prenatal you can actually keep down.
Nobody warned me that the first trimester would change my relationship with food overnight. One week I was planning a "healthy pregnancy diet." The next, the smell of coffee sent me out of the kitchen and the only thing I could face was buttered toast.
If you are there right now, I want you to hear this first. You are not doing it wrong. Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy is one of the most common things that happens in early pregnancy, it usually starts before week 9, and for most women it is gone by week 14.1 The goal for the next few weeks is not a perfect plate. The goal is food that stays down, a few nutrients that matter a lot right now, and a little grace.
Here is what I wish someone had handed me at six weeks.
What should I eat in the first trimester when nothing sounds good?
Start with how you eat, not what. These five habits are the ones doctors recommend and the ones that actually worked for me.12
- Eat before your feet hit the floor. Keep dry crackers or plain toast on the nightstand and eat a few bites before you get up. Moving around on an empty stomach is what starts the spiral for a lot of women.
- Small and often beats three square meals. A few bites every hour or two keeps your stomach from ever being fully empty or fully full. Both extremes make nausea worse.
- Put a little protein in every meal. Protein sits in the stomach longer and tends to steady things out. It does not have to be meat. Nuts, yogurt, cheese, eggs and beans all count.
- Cold over hot. Hot food smells more. If cooking odors are the trigger, cold foods like fruit, yogurt, cheese and sandwiches get you through the worst of it.
- Bland is not a failure. Bananas, rice, applesauce, toast and tea are low in fat and easy to digest. If those do not appeal, try something else. The rule is simply whatever you can eat and keep down.
And drink through the day, not just when you are thirsty. Aim for 8 to 12 cups of water, because getting dehydrated makes nausea worse, and that becomes a loop.1 If plain water tastes wrong, which it did for me, try it very cold, with lemon, or as ice chips.
First trimester foods that tend to stay down
Every woman's list is a little different, but these are the foods that come up again and again, from doctors and from the moms who write to us.
| When you need | Reach for | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Something before getting up | Saltines, plain crackers, dry toast, dry cereal, pretzels | Dry and starchy, settles an empty stomach |
| Something with protein | Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, string cheese, hard boiled eggs, nut butter, hummus, edamame, rotisserie chicken (cold) | Protein steadies blood sugar and lasts longer than crackers alone |
| Something cold and fresh | Watermelon, grapes, frozen berries, apple slices, cucumber, orange segments, smoothies, popsicles | No cooking smell, hydrating, easy to nibble |
| Something salty or sour | Pickles, olives, salted nuts, lemon in water, sour candy | Many women find sour and salty tastes cut through nausea |
| Something warm that is not heavy | Chicken noodle soup, miso soup, broth with rice, plain oatmeal, baked potato | Gentle, hydrating, low in fat |
| Something for the ginger fans | Ginger tea from fresh grated ginger, ginger ale made with real ginger, ginger chews | Ginger can help settle the stomach1 |
Easy first trimester meal ideas for every part of the day
These are built around the rules above. Nothing takes more than a few minutes, most of it can be made cold, and every one has some protein in it.
First trimester breakfast ideas
- Toast with peanut butter and banana, eaten in bed if you have to
- Greek yogurt with frozen berries and a handful of granola
- A cold smoothie with milk or yogurt, frozen fruit, and a spoon of nut butter
- Hard boiled eggs made the night before, with a piece of fruit
- Overnight oats, which you make once and do not have to smell cooking
First trimester lunch ideas
- Cheese, crackers, grapes and a few almonds, the "snack plate" lunch
- Cold pasta salad with peas, feta and olive oil
- Hummus with cucumber, carrots and pita
- A turkey and cheese sandwich, with the deli meat heated until steaming first (more on why below)
- Rice bowl with cold rotisserie chicken, avocado and a squeeze of lime
First trimester dinner ideas when cooking smells turn your stomach
- Chicken noodle soup, from a carton if that is what tonight allows
- Baked potato with cottage cheese or cheese and steamed broccoli
- Breakfast for dinner, scrambled eggs with toast
- A sheet pan of chicken and potatoes that someone else puts in the oven while you sit outside
- Plain buttered noodles with parmesan and a side of edamame
First trimester snacks to keep in your bag
- Salted almonds or cashews
- Pretzels or saltines
- String cheese
- Applesauce pouches
- Ginger chews and sour candy for the car
One more idea that saved me. Keep a small "nausea kit" in the car and at your desk with crackers, a ginger chew, a bottle of water and a protein bar. The moment you feel it coming, eat a little. Waiting for it to pass on an empty stomach almost never works.
Do I need to eat more in the first trimester?
No, and I think that surprises people. The official guidance adds extra calories only in the second and third trimesters, roughly 340 to 450 a day, from nutrient-dense foods.3 In the first trimester your baby is tiny and your calorie needs are about what they were before.
That is good news on the days you can barely eat. If you are keeping fluids down and eating something, even if it is mostly toast and cheese, you are doing what the trimester asks. If you are losing weight or cannot keep liquids down, call your doctor. Severe nausea is treatable, and there is no prize for toughing it out.1
What nutrients matter most in the first trimester?
Calories are not the issue in the first trimester. Specific nutrients are. A few of them do their most important work in exactly the weeks when eating is hardest, which is why I care so much about getting them from a prenatal you can tolerate. The daily amounts below come from the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements.4567
| Nutrient | Aim for | Why it matters right now | Foods that may go down easily |
|---|---|---|---|
| Folate | 600 mcg DFE | The neural tube closes between days 21 and 28 after conception, often before you know you are pregnant. This is why a prenatal should start before you conceive. | Fortified cereal, oranges, avocado, edamame, beans, spinach in a smoothie |
| Choline | 450 mg | Needed for brain and spinal cord development, and around 9 in 10 pregnant women in the US fall short of it.8 | Eggs (147 mg each, hard boiled), milk, chicken, salmon, soybeans |
| Iodine | 220 mcg | Supports your thyroid and the baby's brain development. | Dairy, eggs, iodized salt on your crackers |
| Omega-3 DHA | No official RDA. The FDA points to 2 to 3 servings of low mercury fish a week9 | Building block for the baby's brain and eyes. | Salmon, sardines, or a prenatal that includes it |
| Iron | 27 mg | Your blood volume is growing. But iron supplements at high doses are a well known cause of nausea and constipation.7 | Beans, fortified cereal, red meat if you can face it, with vitamin C alongside |
Folate is the one that does not wait for your appetite to come back. That is the whole reason the advice is to start a prenatal with folate at least a month before you conceive.3 If you are reading this already pregnant and not on one yet, start today. There is a longer explanation of why the form of folate matters in our post on methylfolate versus folic acid.
Choline is the one I found most frustrating when I was reading labels, because the foods richest in it, eggs and liver, are exactly the ones that a lot of first trimester stomachs refuse. Most prenatals do not fill the gap. I wrote about how much choline you actually need and which brands come close.
First trimester foods to avoid, and the easy swaps
This list is shorter than the internet makes it look, and every item on it has a swap that still gives you the thing you were craving. It comes from the FDA and the CDC.910
| Skip for now | Why | Have instead |
|---|---|---|
| Unheated deli meat, cold cuts and hot dogs | Listeria risk | The same sandwich, with the meat heated until steaming hot first |
| Soft cheeses made with unpasteurized milk, and unheated queso fresco style cheeses | Listeria risk | Hard cheeses, and soft cheeses that say pasteurized on the label |
| Raw or unpasteurized milk, yogurt and ice cream | Listeria risk | Anything pasteurized, which is nearly everything in a grocery store |
| Premade deli salads like coleslaw, potato, tuna and chicken salad | Listeria risk | The same salads made at home and eaten fresh |
| Refrigerated smoked fish, raw sprouts | Listeria risk | Canned or cooked fish, cooked sprouts |
| Shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish, marlin, orange roughy, bigeye tuna | Highest mercury fish | Salmon, sardines, tilapia, catfish, shrimp, cod. Two to three 4 ounce servings a week is the goal, not zero fish. |
| Raw or undercooked eggs, meat and seafood | Foodborne illness | Fully cooked versions, and pasteurized eggs for anything that stays runny |
| More than about 200 mg of caffeine a day | Moderate amounts do not appear to raise miscarriage risk, above that is less clear11 | One 12 ounce coffee, or tea, which many women tolerate better in the first trimester anyway |
What about food aversions?
Aversions are the flip side of cravings and they are just as real. Chicken was mine. I could not be in the same room as it cooking for about six weeks. The advice I give every woman who writes to us about this is the same.
Do not fight it. If chicken is off the table, get your protein from eggs, dairy, beans, nut butter, tofu or fish. If vegetables are off the table, fruit does a lot of the same work for now, and a smoothie hides spinach better than anything. If everything hot is off the table, eat cold. Your body is not asking for a specific food. It is asking for the nutrients, and there are always three ways to get them.
Most aversions fade in the second trimester. Mine did. Chicken is back on the menu, and I no longer wince at the word.
Why am I so tired, and can food help?
First trimester fatigue is not ordinary tired. Rising progesterone, a growing blood supply and the sheer work of building a placenta will do that. Food cannot fix it, but a few things make it worse and are easy to correct.
Long gaps between meals drop your blood sugar and leave you shaky and drained, so the small and often rule helps here too. Dehydration is a quiet energy thief, and it is common when water tastes off. And protein at breakfast, even a small amount, tends to carry you further into the morning than toast alone.
The other thing worth knowing is that this is when your body's need for iron and B vitamins starts climbing. A prenatal covers the B vitamins. Iron is more complicated, and it brings us to the question I get asked more than any other.
How do I keep my prenatal vitamin down?
Doctors are clear that you should keep taking one. Taking a vitamin before and during pregnancy is linked with a lower risk of severe nausea and vomiting.1 But if the prenatal itself is what sends you running, a few things help.
- Take it with a meal, not on an empty stomach. This is the single biggest change for most women.
- Move it to the evening. Take it with dinner or a bedtime snack, so if it unsettles you, you sleep through the worst of it.
- Look at the iron. Iron is the ingredient in prenatals most likely to cause nausea and constipation, especially at higher doses.7 If your prenatal is hard on your stomach, the iron is the first suspect.
- Look at the mineral forms. Oxide forms of minerals are cheaper and rougher on digestion. Chelated forms, where the mineral is bound to an amino acid, tend to be gentler. We explain the difference in our post on chelated minerals.
How we built Mothersense Prenatal+ for the first trimester
When I was building Mothersense, the first trimester was the test I kept coming back to. So we made a few deliberate choices. We left iron out on purpose, so your doctor can add exactly the amount you personally need, in a form your stomach can handle, instead of everyone getting the same dose whether they need it or not. The zinc, copper, manganese and molybdenum are glycinate chelates, the selenium is a glycinate, and the calcium and magnesium are malates, with no oxide forms anywhere on the label. We use 400 mcg of methylfolate (5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid) rather than folic acid. And there is 950 mg of choline in every sachet because choline is the nutrient doing the heaviest lifting in these exact weeks.
Each daily sachet holds seven pills, three multivitamin and mineral tablets, two omega-3 softgels and two choline softgels. I know that sounds like a lot on a nauseous morning, and I will be honest about why. Clinically meaningful doses of choline, omega-3s and chelated minerals are bulky, and they do not fit into one or two capsules. Brands that promise a single pill get there by cutting the doses. We chose not to. Tear open one sachet a day and take it with a meal.
What to do next
- Tonight, put crackers and water on your nightstand. Eat a few bites before you get up tomorrow.
- Pick three things from the "foods that stay down" table that appeal to you right now, and buy them in quantity.
- Build a small nausea kit for your bag and your car.
- If you are not on a prenatal with folate and choline yet, start one today. If yours makes you sick, take it with dinner and check the iron on the label.
- If you cannot keep liquids down, are losing weight, or are producing very little dark urine, call your doctor. That is not something to wait out.
- Give yourself until week 14. For most women the fog lifts, and then you can cook again.
First trimester food questions we hear most
What should I eat in the first trimester if I feel sick all day?
Eat small amounts every hour or two so your stomach is never empty, and choose dry, bland or cold foods with a little protein. Crackers, toast, yogurt, cheese, fruit, eggs and soup are the foods most women manage. Keep drinking water through the day, because dehydration makes nausea worse.
What are the best foods for first trimester nausea?
Dry starchy foods like saltines and toast, cold proteins like yogurt and cheese, fresh fruit such as watermelon and grapes, salty or sour foods like pickles and lemon water, and ginger in tea or chews. Bland is fine. The goal is anything you can keep down.
Do I need extra calories in the first trimester?
No. Official guidance adds about 340 to 450 extra calories a day only in the second and third trimesters. In the first trimester your needs are about the same as before pregnancy, so eating lightly on hard days is okay as long as you keep fluids down.
What foods should I avoid in the first trimester?
Unheated deli meats and hot dogs, soft cheeses made with unpasteurized milk, raw milk, premade deli salads, refrigerated smoked fish, raw sprouts, raw or undercooked eggs, meat and seafood, and the highest mercury fish such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel and bigeye tuna. Keep caffeine under about 200 mg a day.
Can I still eat fish in the first trimester?
Yes, and you should. The FDA recommends two to three 4 ounce servings a week from its best choices list, which includes salmon, sardines, tilapia, catfish, shrimp and cod. Skip only the seven highest mercury fish.
Which nutrients are most important in the first trimester?
Folate, 600 mcg DFE a day, because the neural tube closes in the first month. Choline, 450 mg a day, for brain and spinal cord development. Iodine, 220 mcg. Omega-3 DHA. Iron needs rise too, but high dose iron supplements are a common cause of nausea, so talk to your doctor about the right amount for you.
Why does my prenatal vitamin make me nauseous?
Usually because you are taking it on an empty stomach, or because of the iron in it. High doses of supplemental iron are a well known cause of nausea and constipation. Take your prenatal with a meal, try it in the evening, and check the iron amount and mineral forms on the label.
When does first trimester nausea go away?
Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy usually starts before 9 weeks and for most women goes away by 14 weeks. For some it lasts longer. If you cannot keep liquids down or are losing weight, call your doctor, because severe nausea is treatable.
This article is for education and is not medical advice. Talk with your doctor or midwife about your own nutrition and any supplement you take during pregnancy.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
References
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Morning Sickness: Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy (FAQ126). Last reviewed November 2025. acog.org
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 189: Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy. Obstet Gynecol. 2018;131(1):e15-e30. doi.org/10.1097/AOG.0000000000002456
- Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, US Department of Health and Human Services. Nutrition During Pregnancy to Support a Healthy Mom and Baby. February 2022. odphp.health.gov
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Folate: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Folate-HealthProfessional
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Choline: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Choline-HealthProfessional
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Iodine: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iodine-HealthProfessional
- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Iron: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-HealthProfessional
- Wallace TC, Fulgoni VL. Usual Choline Intakes Are Associated with Egg and Protein Food Consumption in the United States. Nutrients. 2017;9(8):839. doi.org/10.3390/nu9080839
- US Food and Drug Administration and US Environmental Protection Agency. Advice About Eating Fish: For Those Who Might Become or Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding and Children Ages 1 to 11 Years. fda.gov/food/consumers/advice-about-eating-fish
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing Listeria Infection. cdc.gov/listeria/prevention
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Committee Opinion No. 462: Moderate Caffeine Consumption During Pregnancy. Obstet Gynecol. 2010;116(2):467-468. acog.org