Gestational diabetes (marginal)/ Not enough weight gain final trimester

[ShoutyMom]

My sister was diagnosed with a 'tendency' for GD early on in her pregnancy. She altered her diet to reduce carbs and sugar and it was all good. However she is now about 7 months and at a recent appointment was told that her weight gain is way below expected. She has had 3 miscarriages and is now quite stressed that the baby's development may not be good. This is her last attempt at motherhood as she's nearly 40 and is on daily blood thinning injections.
So am turning to MN wisdom. Is there anything she can do to improve her weight gain without sending her GD out of control? Should she be worried, or is it a storm in a teacup?

How much weight has she put on? I only out on 9lb in my second pg because I was suffering form GD. Do they think the baby is too small? Has she had a growth scan? I had them every week for monitoring ( their choice, not mine) .

Yes I think the concern is baby might be small. She put on 200g in the time she was expected to put on 1kg...she's overseas so things work differently to the NHS. They've scheduled a scan on the 23rd so almost 2 weeks from now. Wondering what changes, if any, she should make to her diet in the meanwhile.

I'm just waiting on blood test to confirm gd and also have thyroid issues and am 28 weeks and am yet to gain any weight. Infact I'm still down a few pounds. No one seems to care dispite the baby being small. My bmi is normal. I'm not overweight and this is my second pregnancy (I got pregnant only nine months after DS birth.) I keep raising the issue but they just tell me the baby will get what it needs. Of course I'm still worrying but all the midwifes, doctors, obstetritions say the same. Much better than putting on to much and just keep eating. I'm on spatone for iron and set a timer to eat every two hours. Not sure what else u can do? Open to ideas though.

Lucy

I am also not in the UK, that's why I wasn't sure what they did elsewhere! Would increasing the amount of (healthy) fat she consumes be any good? I wasn't ever weighed by the medics, and no one ever asked. Does she check her bloods at all? Just wondering if she has gone 'too far' in lowering her carbs etc. I know I did at the start as I was so worried about eating too much. Took me a while to balance it out, but was doing bloods 6 times a day.

She doesn't test her blood herself, only done at scheduled appointments. Yes was wondering whether she had over-compensated on the carbs. She's vegetarian so choices are a bit limited.

Has she had the baby scanned and checked?
In the UK they don't weigh women because everyone gains differently (some people very little) and its actually not always linked to baby size.

If she is on clexane, the weight gain won't be a linked issue - it doesn't affect weight.
It can slow weight sometimes in terms of baby growth but this must be measured by a specific growth scan which should happen regularly for clexane users - NOT just a weigh in.

I am also veggie, it was hard to cut the carbs, at first I lost weight too as I wasn't really sure what I was doing. Then I upped things like nuts and cheese, eggs, maybe that would help?

I have only put on a few pounds (now 28 weeks) and after a growth scan, appear to be having a big baby. No GD but I am overweight.

I actually lost weight after being diagnosed with gd at 16 weeks in my last pregnancy. My consultant said not to worry as growth scans showed baby growing fine. "That's why they do growth scans" apparently.

I've put on 1/2 the average weight ... Baby is big. I have no GD but was on clexane (blood thinners) from weeks5-35. No one is worried.
As Tarka said they only seem bothered by scan data on actual baby!

Thanks everyone, will tell her to push the doctor for a growth scan. And increase nuts, cheese, eggs etc.