Can't stop eating sweet stuff!

[mytime777]

I'm almost 14 weeks and luckily no ms but I can not stop eating junk. I eat proper meals every night ( made from scratch) but during the day between breakfast and lunch etc I keep eating sweets, crisps, choc etc.
Luckily I've not gained any weight... Yet ! But I don't think it's good for my growing bub!
How do I curb this craving for sweet things or what can I eat that is a good healthy substitute?
Thanks

I wouldn't worry too much just go with your body. You could try substituting some of the snacks with sweet fruit (mango's, pineapple, apples, dried fruit etc) Jelly with berries in, yogurt etc. Also the kids fruit strings etc might be worth a try.

Same here: all I want is chocolate, biscuits and sweets and loads of them. I had initially put this down to morning sickness but I'm now 24 weeks and feeling fantastic but am still succumbing to the overwhelming desire for junk. I am not getting too fat myself but hope poor LO isn't going to suffer for all this rubbish.

I take my vitamins and eat the good stuff too and don't eat processed food at my three square meals a day. It's what I do in between those three square meals that's the worry .

I'm the same. I feel so guilty (but I do make sure I get the good stuff too and take pregnacare omega plus) but I reckon since I became pregnant I have had a chocolate bar every day.

I'm hoping the placenta is pretty good at shifting through all the shit and taking all the good stuff...

I'm 20 weeks now and hadn't put on any weight at all 2 weeks ago. I got on the scales this morning and have gained 9lb now though - in the last 2 weeks!!!!

Ha! I was going to start a thread entitled "why do babies like cake so much?" All I can think about is cake - buying it, making it or eating it! Flapjack, anyone?

Same here - i seem to have developed a right sweet tooth. It was chocolate a month or so ago, sow i'm into ice cream.

Ooo Flapjack - i'd love a piece of that!

I've noticed a craving for sweet stuff, but am avoiding it as much as possible. DH is also being very strict with me over sugar intake.

It is something you need to watch though, being pregnant messes with your insulin production and usage, which is why it's possible to have pregnancy related diabetes which resolves after the birth.

I'm scared enough of diabetes and a huge baby that my self control on the sugar has been pretty good - at least in the junk food form. Yesterday I did eat 3 plums, a nectarine, banana, apple and bowl of strawberries (without sugar or cream)!

I snarfed an entire box of Kipling cherry bakewells in the past 2 days

How do you know though, what's your weight, and what's the babies/placenta etc?

I have been eating really well for my meals, but also indulging in chocolate. I'm 23 weeks and have put on nearly a stone if I just go by weight now and weight pre-pregnancy

Baby's!

I've been the same - the only way I can avoid it is to have healthier snacks to hand at all times. I've spent a small fortune on those punnets of exotic fruit. Dried fruit like apricots and figs and salt & vinegar rice cakes are good too.

Have you tried Nakd bars? They are a bit more expensive than choc bars (unless you get them on offer) but made only from fruit and nuts, not over processed and you can get them in flavours like choc orange and ginger bread. They're great when you crave choccie bars. I like popping them in the fridge.

Have tried Nakd bars but (sorry) don't like them at all. They taste like coarse mix (we used to feed it to our goats). Rice cakes are good... baby wants real cake though.

That doesn't sound like the Nakd bars I know, maybe you're talking about the ones with cereal in? These ones are squishy.

Bettybat - I've been obsessing over this: www.thebabycorner.com/tools/pregnancy/calculators/weightcalculator.php

It's American so you have to work out your weight in pounds, but it has a handy breakdown of how much weight will be the baby by 40 weeks.

It might just be a phase, things like that come and go... But a word of warning, I went from a 14 to a 22 in pg one when I had this problem!
It's possibly worth researching healthier alternatives for your cravings and experimenting with substitutes like cereal
Bars or sweet fruit if you're worried about gaining too much.

I would say try to cut back if you can. In my first pregnancy I ate a lot of sweet stuff. The weight didnt show until the end of my pregnancy, and even then, I had no idea how enormous I would look and feel afterwards.

I cut out crap with my second pregnancy, and gained half as much weight.

I ate a whole family trifle yesterday! I still have horrible sickness and weigh 8lbs less than pre pregnancy at 25+4, so have just been eating what I think will stay put and what I fancy. Didn't think about the knock on effect of insulin level though.

shit

I have signed up for craze boxes though so maybe this will help along with rice cakes. Fingers crossed,

Yeah it's not even the weight gain so much...it's the insulin effect.

Had no chocolate or sweets or cake or anything yesterday - will just continue on with that :)

Weight can be lost, but fucking up your insulin levels and the effects of that can't be reversed. Or at least, not easily!

I was like this with DD. I really gave into the fudge and skittles craving. I ended up developing preeclampsia. High fat and sugar diets are linked to developing this and gestational diabetes. Obviously other risk factors but it has made me much more aware this time round. I kind of caved in to it for a bit but now trying to take more control and swap in healthier sweet things, like yoghurt, fruit, naked bars etc. I find the more I give into the craving, the more I want so limiting it is by far the best approach for me. Bloody morrisons has haribo for half price. This did not help my good intentions. I got a sack full of tangfastics. They are my current craving. I also find nuts take the edge of the sugar craving, I think sometimes it can be a need for more protein.

Midget, I went through a phase of tangfastics.... I find that I get the same sharp/sweet sensation from manderins and pineapple.

I had ms to about 20 weeks, and I got into the habit of comfort eating because it wasn't staying down, I was losing weight and needed to feel better. The problem is that those habits lingered after I stopped being so sick!

At 34 weeks, I'm just a few pounds above my weight at booking in, but about 12lbs heavier than I was at my lowest morning sickness weight. For full disclosure I started this pregnancy about 6 stone overweight, so I need to try and keep my weight gain down whilst making sure that I'm eating healthily to grow my baby. Women of an average/low weight need to gain more during pregnancy, I already have plenty of fat reserves!

What we must remember about weighing oneself during pregnancy

The number on the scales represents:
Pre-pregnancy: Your body
During pregnancy: Your body + your baby's growing body + enlarged uterus + extra blood + increased breast tissue + placenta + amniotic fluid + extra fluid + essential fat reserves for pregnancy and breastfeeding

Obviously having sweet cravings isn't just a concern from the point of view of weight gain though, and I agree that its good to try and keep our blood sugars under control.

Try having healthy snacks like fruit, yogurt, etc to hand when you feel peckish. If you have to have cake/cereal bars/jelly/similar then make sure you decide which options to go for based on which ones have low sugar and overall calories, rather than those labelled 'low fat' which have extra sugar in them to make up the taste.

Take it one meal/snack at a time. If you have something unhealthy in the morning. Forget about it, focus on picking something healthier in the afternoon/evening. Be kind to yourself.

P.s. Didn't realise 'Can't stop eating sweet stuff' was a pregnancy thing, I had it for years before I concieved!

I have had the same issue in my pregnancy. About two and a half weeks ago I started eating more sugar than usual and this morning I had 4 sugary jam doughnuts for breakfast! The weight hadn’t shown as much as of yet but I definitely feel it and after reading everyone’s posts, I have decided to no longer let it. I’m starting to feel more fatigue, spitting a lot, feeling more thirsty than usual. I really hope the baby and I don’t have any health issues because of this, it’s super never wrecking and the guilt is consuming...but good to know I’m not the only who went through this.