Gestational diabetes support thread

[NoRoomForALittleOne]

I thought I'd start a support thread for those of us being tested, just diagnosed or being treated for GDM.

So collapse on a sofa, grab a low carb snack and come and chat about blood tests, finger pricks, diet changes, medication and birth plans...

There should be a tiny tube of liquid. Approx the size of a perfume sample.

Hi belaxan you should definitely push to see a dietitian- she spent ages explaining everything to us when I got the diagnosis. I had planned a water birth at the birthing centre and have been told I will have to have the baby on the delivery ward now. A bit gutting but there you go. Were you given a book to record your readings in? I've been making notes of which foods cause spikes and which are good but often you will find your body will do its own thing. You should have been given a list of foods to avoid- basically anything white (bread, pastry, cakes etc) and anything with sugar in it. Five small meals a day better than three larger ones and I've personally found nuts a good snack to keep me going. ..

Hi Belxan, welcome to the thread that none of us really wants to be on!

Echoing that you should push to see a dietician. I'd also ring your midwife (diabetes midwife preferably, if you've got a number for one) and double check what you're supposed to be doing with your diet - do they want you eating your normal diet for two weeks so they can get an idea of what your sugars are like?

How often have you been told to test your blood? Fasting is obviously what it sounds like, you do it before you eat or before bed. You would time a 1hr or 2hr post-prandial (after eating) for the time you finish your meal, not when you start eating. That really confused me too at first, but my lovely friend has type 1 and explained it to me!

The hospital should have given you control solution with your meter, or possibly a prescription for it if it's available on prescription. You should be able to ring the manufacturer and ask where you can get hold of more as you need to use it when you set the meter up, and every so often to check it's still accurate, usually when you come to the end of a batch of strips. My meter has a cassette instead of strips, so I have to use control fluid every time I change a cassette, which is every 50 or 100 tests. I got three little things of control fluid from the hospital but have been told to ring the manufacturer to ask how I can get more.

Don't worry so much about carb counting until you've confirmed with your midwife what you should be doing with your diet over the next two weeks. Those of us that do it are either doing it because we've been given a target of how many carbs to eat at each meal; are trying to find out how different amounts affect sugars, or because we're on fast-acting insulin and need to calculate doses.

Longest reply ever! If I'm teaching you to suck eggs, I apologise! I had to figure out a lot of stuff on my own as I diagnosed myself with GD before I was officially diagnosed (don't ask).
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I am now on insulin, as suspected. Only 6 units of intermediate-acting, to work in the background. I'm still carrying on doing post-prandial because I think it's useful for me, even though my hospital only want four fasting results per day. I had the annoying thing where my lunch sent me high today and the exact same lunch last week was FINE.

I have found taking it one thing at a time helpful; just focusing on the next meal / snack / medication / blood test.

There is A LOT to worry about - but (it feels) pretty limited number of things we can DO. So I focus on those and then fit / grow awareness of other things in around / on top of those as I have the mental / emotional capacity....

Good luck!

Thank you all for replying. Too right oldblood def the post no one wants to be on!
Sorry if it's been asked before but not been able to read whole thread yet but any good drinks suggestions? Is it just water & decaf?! Any suggestions of something a bit more exotic?! Thx

Hello all. I'm just placemarking at this stage if that's okay (glucose test in a fortnight).

I don't know if anyone has joined this group on Facebook but it's very helpful, especially around diet so I would recommend - there's a lot of information in the files;

www.facebook.com/groups/GestationalDiabetesUKMums/?fref=nf

Any zero soft drinks are fine. I have caffeine free diet coke, 7up free and cans of diet drinks from Asda like cream soda and dandelion and burdock. I don't drink them all the time, but I've built up a good stock of them all and it feels like a treat.

Beanies flavoured coffees are nice and they do some of the flavours in decaf too. I order directly from their site and got my hands on chocolate orange coffee and Irish cream coffee this week.

Some of those mini squeezy drinks are good too, the really concentrated little bottles that you squirt into water. I have a watermelon and strawberry one that I love, which I got from Home Bargains.

I'm not keen on plain water and I don't drink normal tea, can you tell?

Sorry, when I say zero soft drinks, I mean any cans or bottles where the total carbohydrate is 0. There are more than you'd think. For squash, if there's something like 3g of carb per 100ml of undiluted squash, that'll be fine too as it'll go to practically nothing when you make it up with water.

Hi. I've been advised that, as I have GD, I am more likely to face 'lactation challenges'. In good news, though, I am getting good support from the hospital to help me prepare for BFing - including starting some breast massage now & hand expressing colostrum from 38weeks.

BUT - the lactation midwife also said if my 'sugars get really low', I should stop. So my question is: What is 'really low'?!

(Having struggled with target of

I had my appointment at diabetes clinic yesterday and have started testing my blood. Quick question, off to a wedding this afternoon where the meal is likely to take a good hour or two, do I test an hour after the beginning or end of the meal?

thewebbleyjess I've been told the expression 'Four is the floor' and for most people, anything under that is a hypo. That would be really low because you'd need sugar to bring yourself back up again. I can only assume that the midwife was talking about hypos.

LadyStark (awesome name by the way!) Test before you start eating for a fasting result and then test either an hour or two hours after you've finished eating, depending on whether your hospital wants an hourly or two hourly result.

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It's very obvious I'm insulin resistant as since being put on it last Tuesday, I've already had to call for advice and have the dose pushed up, and now the increased dose isn't working well. Has anyone got any experience of fast-acting insulin? I think I'm going to push for that in conjunction with the background dose when I'm back at the hospital this Tuesday. I feel like I can't bloody eat anything, never mind hit the levels of carb my dietician recommended.

Thanks OldBlood: much appreciated.

How are you feeling on the insulin? I read it can make some people feel crappy? (Not just when it appears to be not working, as in your case!)

I thought it was the other way around, that metformin can make people feel crappy (like it did to me!) and people are generally fine on insulin? I don't feel anything, just normal. The injection doesn't even hurt - finger pricking is more painful. It's actually quite cool having to inject myself.

I know I've been lucky to not feel crappy on metformin; glad you're feeling well on insulin.

After fertility treatment, I know what you mean about injections!!

Oh god yes, that's why I wasn't fazed at all by having to inject. I had fertility preservation treatment (the first part of IVF, only the embryos are frozen and not implanted) before I had chemotherapy. Insulin injections are NOTHING compared to the hormone ones. The needle is so tiny, it's barely half a centimetre and it's so thin, it slips in with no resistance and no pain at all.

Thanks OldBlood, I was surprised to see how low my blood sugar was after the absolute feast I ate the wedding. Maybe the dancing after helped!

Five days in and all my readings have been well under threshold so hoping that my borderline result may have been the anomaly.

Hi Ladies,

Just a bit of advice really - I had my first appointment at the GD Unit yesterday due to weight/height and family history. So far everything looks to be ok - baby scans have all been normal and my bump is measuring exactly as it should be. I have my blood test booked in for 26 weeks and a 32 week scan booked in and a follow up appointment however the diet advice I was given seems a bit mixed so wondered if you had any advice?

I have been told to cut all carbs out entirely so no bread, rice, pasta or potatoes BUT I can eat as much fruit as I like (apart from Bananas as they make you fat!)

I would have thought that carbs and fruit should both be in moderation? I mean if I had toast in the morning, soup and ryevita for lunch and then a normal dinner of say a jacket potato with something and veggies that, that would be well balanced?

I've also been told I shouldn't have put on any weight and in fact I should start losing some now - which goes against basically everything else I have read (I am not over large but before pregnancy would have been classed as overweight).

I can eat as much green leafy salad as I want but no salad dressing or mayo with anything - the most they have suggested is a teaspoon of olive oil.

I actually do not eat a huge amount of bad stuff - I will cut out cakes as that is my only vice (I have given up chocolate since I found out I was pregnant) but any advice on snack/meals tips would be appreciated! I'm not a huge fruit fan but will try and eat one portion a day along with regular veggies - I do drink a kids smoothie in the morning to help with the old five a day!

Thanks and sorry of the long post!

hi cth1982 - welcome to the thread that, as someone else wisely said, nobody wants to be on!

that does sound different to what I've been told; I've been advised to keep sugars low, carbs complex, to 50g or less per meal, and to spread them throughout the day. in practice, I'm finding that rice, bread and new potatoes are totally out, whilst the occasional illicit handful of chips, half a jacket potato or even a scoop of ice cream didn't seem to make very much difference. it's very random and sometimes really frustrating.

but I wouldn't want to tell you to change what you've been told by an expert - I think we have to trust them. if you're really not comfortable with it, maybe push for a second opinion?

my dietician said absolutely no fruit juice; smoothies ok once in a while but much better to make yourself so you know what's in them.

Thanks Scared - I am mostly trying to cut the junk out and hopefully I'll just stay on the watch list rather than actually get GD - as if there isn't enough to worry about in the first place!

cth1982, can we swap dieticians please?!

How you've been told to eat is how I was eating (apart from the fruit) after diagnosing myself with GD and it was keeping it mostly under control and definitely would have with a little extra help from metformin or insulin.

My dietician told me to eat carbs. 30-40g with breakfast, 40-50g with lunch and tea and any snacks to be 15g or less, with one snack before bed. I can't cope with that level of carb and I'm constantly playing catch-up with having to increase the insulin I'm on every few days. It's not working for me at all, but my hospital aren't supportive of low carb. My dietician reluctantly agreed I can go as low as 30g of carb per meal. I think low carb is the way forward and give it a few years and it'll be the standard advice.

I wouod go with the advice you've been given. It's very easy to eat that way and by essentially not eating carbs, your body doesn't need to produce insulin to deal with them. It's a brilliant way of keeping blood sugar under control. If they want you to eat fruit, you can limit the spike in your blood glucose by eating it with full fat greek yogurt.

OldBlood - did dietician say WHY you had to eat Carbs? We got told - eat Carbs at every meal - but when I asked it was because they thought you'd need x amount in a day for energy, and if you didn't spread them out through the day, you would be left with a spike after the meal you ate them at!

I'm eating a lot of not carbs, doing ok with energy, and everyone is happy with my bloods. Not volunteering information on the level of my carbs intake, though....

Pretty much that really - they think a certain amount per day is needed for good nutrition and energy.

I'd go much less, but I'm on so much insulin now that I do need the carbs to counteract it. I'm quite enjoying having a relatively low carb meal and finishing off with a Kitkat or Blue Riband to make up the carbs.

What sort of numbers were you guys getting to go onto metformin or insulin? Mine are nearly all on target but I'm noticing now it's usually starting with a 5 in the morning and a 6 after meals whereas 2 weeks ago it was a 4 in the morning and a 5 after meals!

Hiya slight change of topic if I may: have anyone's midwives spoken to them about breastfeeding and colostrum harvesting for GD babies?