Preggie Pops relieve morning sickness through a combination of aromatherapy, saliva stimulation, and slow sugar delivery rather than any single pharmaceutical ingredient. They’re essentially sour hard candies infused with essential oils, and each of those elements targets nausea through a different pathway. Here’s what’s actually happening when you pop one in your mouth.
What’s Actually in Them
The ingredient list is simpler than you might expect. According to the NIH’s Dietary Supplement Label Database, the active component is a proprietary blend of essential oils (raspberry, lemon, and green apple) totaling just 13 milligrams per piece. The rest is organic evaporated cane juice, brown rice syrup, citric acid, natural flavors, and fruit juice for color. Each pop contains about 12 grams of sugar. They’re not a significant source of any vitamins or minerals.
The product line has a few variations. The standard Preggie Pops are lollipops available in seven flavors, while Preggie Pop Drops are smaller lozenges in sour fruit flavors. Both share the same basic formula. The one exception is Preggie Pop Drops Plus, which adds 10 milligrams of vitamin B6 per drop, making it the only version with a clinically recognized anti-nausea ingredient.
The Aromatherapy Effect
The essential oils in Preggie Pops aren’t just for flavor. When you suck on the candy, you inhale the aromatic compounds as they dissolve, and those scents interact with your brain’s limbic system, the network that processes emotions, stress responses, and autonomic functions like nausea. Lemon and peppermint scents in particular have been studied for their calming effect on the nervous system. A double-blind clinical trial found that inhaling a combination of lemon and peppermint aromas reduced nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.
This matters because pregnancy nausea is heavily tied to smell sensitivity. Strong or unpleasant odors can trigger waves of nausea, and pleasant, clean scents can counteract that response. Holding a lollipop close to your nose while you eat it creates a small zone of consistent, soothing scent that may override whatever environmental smell is making you feel sick.
How Sour Flavors Calm Your Stomach
The citric acid in Preggie Pops serves a specific purpose beyond taste. Sour flavors stimulate your salivary glands, flooding your mouth with saliva. This helps in two ways: it clears unpleasant tastes that can worsen the urge to vomit, and it counteracts the dry-mouth sensation that often accompanies nausea. Increased saliva production also supports the early stages of digestion, which can settle a queasy stomach.
This is the same reason many pregnant people instinctively reach for lemon slices, sour gummies, or tart drinks. Preggie Pops package that sour stimulus in a form that dissolves slowly, extending the effect over several minutes rather than delivering it all at once.
Slow Sugar Delivery
When you’re nauseated and haven’t been able to eat, your blood sugar can drop, which makes nausea worse. The 12 grams of sugar in each pop enter your system gradually as the candy dissolves, providing a gentle, sustained source of glucose without requiring you to chew or swallow solid food. This slow intake is part of the design. The manufacturer describes the combination of slow-dissolving nausea-fighting ingredients, aromatherapy, and dry-mouth relief as working together “for maximum effectiveness.”
The Role of Vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 is the one ingredient in the Preggie Pops line with strong clinical backing. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists lists it as a safe, over-the-counter treatment that “may be tried first for nausea and vomiting of pregnancy.” It works by interfering with how steroid hormones activate certain genes, which helps dial down the hormonal signals that trigger pregnancy nausea.
Only the Preggie Pop Drops Plus version contains B6 (10 mg per drop). The standard Preggie Pops and regular Drops do not. If vitamin B6 is the ingredient you’re specifically looking for, check the label carefully. ACOG recommends B6 as a starting point, with the option to add an antihistamine if B6 alone isn’t enough.
What They Can and Can’t Do
Preggie Pops work best for mild to moderate nausea, the kind where a wave hits and you need something to take the edge off. They combine several gentle, well-known anti-nausea strategies (aromatherapy, sour taste, steady sugar, dry-mouth relief) into a single convenient product. For many people, that layered approach is enough to get through a rough moment.
They’re not a treatment for severe, persistent vomiting. If you’re unable to keep any food or liquid down, losing weight, or becoming dehydrated, that’s a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum, and it requires medical treatment beyond what any candy can provide. Preggie Pops occupy the space between “doing nothing” and “needing medication,” and for the roughly 70% of pregnant people who experience some degree of morning sickness, that middle ground is exactly where they’re looking for help.