Gestational diabetes: what do you eat for breakfast?

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Today I had half a bowl of no added sugar Alpen with s/s milk. I have been advised to eat in 2 halves so I eat half before school run and half after. My 1hr reading was 8.2 :( So have not bothered with other half!

What do you eat for breakfast...?

It's important to eat enough carbs during pregnancy, although with GD it's a case of finding what foods suit you and don't affect your blood sugars. In my last pregnancy, when I had GD, I couldn't eat any museli at all without my sugars going sky high, this time I can.

I often have two slices of seeded wholegrain toast with peanut butter or poached eggs. Sometimes fruit and yoghurt, which technically shouldn't really be OK, but is as long as I don't have too much fruit.

I am on insulin and metformin though, I just can't diet control in pregnancy, my fasting levels were over since diagnosis both times (last tiem 24 weeks, this time 8 weeks) and any food makes my readings go a bit mad unfortunately.

I think muesli might be off the menu for me then! Will keep trying with different options!
I take Metformin at lunch and dinner - not sure why not at breakfast but I will see what they say at the clinic next week.

Toast and peanut butter and a granny smith apple seem to be ok for me at the moment - cereal sends it over every time.

alpen has a lot of dried fruit in it doesn't it? maybe try porridge?
or protein instead - eggs?

Yes it does have quite a lot of dried fruit... I have been ok with Fruit & Fibre (only if I do the half half thing).
Might try seeded bread toast with poached eggs tomorrow if I have time! Breakfast is hard for me as have 2 under 5s to get to school/preschool so toast/cereal is pretty much my limit!

If you try and base your breakfast on protein (eggs, bacon, peanut butter, plain yogurt with lots of added nuts and seeds) instead of carbs, you'll probbaly find your readings are a bit lower. I agree it is a major pain to prepare when rushing about in the morning!

*probably

I couldn't have any cereal including porridge so I had eggs most days with 1 piece of soya & linseed toast (it has the best carb:protein ratio). I also had smoked salmon, bacon etc with the toast, sometimes with veg - tomatoes/mushrooms. Agree with the poster above you need low carbs, high protein and nothing low fat. Fat slows down the absorption of glucose so full fat milk & yoghurt is better.

Usually our bodies are slower to process glucose in the morning than in the evening so its better to eat carbs later in the day. Also exercise helps reduce spikes so I'd often go for a walk straight after breakfast. I was really strict with my diet and managed to avoid insulin & metformin but it was a pain especially as I'm obsessed with cakes!!

Great advice everyone - thank you!

What do you think about having breakfast at 9.30am ish - or is that too late?

I'm diet controlled currently, and am another one that can't eat cereal, so its toast and peanut butter for me- but only one slice or bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes seem to be ok, but far too much work for before the school run. Problem is as I only have to check my sugars twice a week, I'm starting to fail on the days I'm not checking- I have just scoffed a bar of chocolate on the pretence I can treat myself occasionally!

Mmm chocolate...... ;p

I wish I only had to check mine twice a week! Try 6 times a day!!!

I was seriously bollocked by two diabetic teams for only eating one slice of toast at breakfast (although my readings were still to high anyway) so I'd check with your diabetic team before cutting too many carbs.

Jordan's do a 'natural' muesli which is quite boring but hardly has any dried fruit in it, so that might be worth trying?

Do you mean literally just one slice of toast or one slice with eggs/mushrooms etc?

Get yourself microwave egg poacher! Takes 2 mins to cook up to 4 eggs. Just crack into dish, pop toast in at same time and everyone can have the same to save time

I would personally eat breakfast at normal time ( say 8am), then your 2nd breakfast unrelated ie handful of nuts

If you've no time for hot eggs in the morning, slice up a hardboiled made the night before (like the germans do).

It was if I was only having one slice of toast as my carbs with breakfast. I was never having it on it's own, but even as part of a cooked breakfast or with an omelette, they were considerably less than impressed.

I have also been frowned at if I have a snack with no carbs, such as a bag of nuts, although I do sometimes still have snacks like this. They are much happy with snacks with carbs though, such as oatcakes with cheese or peanut butter or a piece of fruit.

I had one slide of toast with 2 eggs and diabetic team were fine. To be honest the nutritionist was more annoying as stuck rigidly to NHS guidelines which advocates carbs. I just couldn't have many carbs without a huge spike and didn't want meds. The endocrinologist consultant was fab and really interested in how I controlled it. All the dietician said was eat porridge but even a small bowl would send my levels over 8.5 and I was hungry not long after. Eggs kept me full for ages. Agree if short on time do boiled eggs!!

Eggs seem to be the key...!

What do you eat with the porridge? Or just plain...?

Going to experiment with eggs tomorrow as DH doing the school run :)

I found burgen soya & linseed bread was 12g of carb per slice so I could have 2 (sometimes 3 ) slices with marmite
2 slices & 200ml of milk as coffee or straight
Cereal was bad for readings
Carb free fry up was good

I was doing the 6 times/day every day, but as I managed to control my sugars, they said just do two days a week of testing, interestingly they didn't actually ask me what I was eating, although she does think I'm probably not eating enough as no weight gain in the last month, so I can't win, as eating more even of the recommended things seem to push me high, so maybe I should be medicated, although would rather not be, anyway pretty sure I have some spare weight, so not gaining anymore seems ideal.
I guess it's trial and error to work out what I can eat and how much, before it tips me high.

Yes it does seem to be a lot of trial and error and what works for one might not work for someone else...
I have gained 0 weight and I am 31 weeks now. I am fairly overweight anyway though (and tall) so don't know what that means really!

I find breakfasts the worst, as just want a bowl of cereal...can't handle cooked anything in the morning!

I find the 'Dorset cereals' range ok...they do have dried fruit, but I don't have a huge serving.

Also, really find post breakfast reading can differ depending on stress...if kids gone to school ok, and I've spent two hours post breakfast slowly getting ready, doing whatever I need to do, can have a good reading. One time had a meeting at school with one of the teachers, came back, two hour reading was just on the limit of ok...even though I'd probably burnt more calories.

I also sprinkle canderel on top of the Dorset cereal....I def have a sweet tooth in the morning!!