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...

Hello everyone, hope to join. I'm 34 + 2 with my first and was diagnosed last week. BMI of 24 beforehand and no family history so came as a bit of a shock, but baby's belly abnormally big (liquor levels fine) so they're keeping an eye on me and GDD was 9.1 so obviously necessary.

So far I have been managing on diet alone. All results for past week have been within range: porridge with blueberries and agave nectar, or mashed avocado (add lemon juice, bit of olive oil, salt and pepper) on brown toast for breakfast, soup with pulses and salad for lunch, made some hi fibre muffins (think they're called 'Healthy Breakfast muffins' on BBC recipes) for snacking in the day (add much more blueberries and dried fruit than their recipe states and they actually taste of something!) along with apples & grapefruits, followed by a sweet potato/meat stew or teriyaki salmon with small amount of wholemeal basmati rice etc.

It's annoying to have to avoid pudding but have a square of dark chocolate or a single Haribo (sob!) to quench sugar cravings in the evening. Lots of grazing/small meals works for me too.

Knowing it's only for 6 weeks really helps, plus the upside of being seen more often at hospital. Growth scan and diabetes nurse/consultant meets tomorrow and a week after.

Fingers crossed for us all!

PS Acceptable range where I am are: fasting 4-6; 1hr after meals 5-7.8

LIG, I think you have to accept you do have it. If you didn't, you wouldn't be getting high readings. As someone else said, someone without diabetes can probably happily eat three doughnuts and still be fine. I tested DH the other day about an hour after dinner and he was at 4.6. And he's actually high risk for type 2 diabetes due to history and ethnicity.

I am now at almost a full week without a single spike so I think I've finally cracked it. Feel really pleased about that as I didn't want to increase my metformin dose. It makes me feel slightly ill for half an hour or so and I was worried a bigger dose would be worse.

Oh, how I want a jam doughnut now

Hi Ellizardo and welcome. You've given me some good snack and meal ideas thanks! Getting bored of yoghurt for breakfast...

Has anyone found any breakfast cereals that don't give a high reading? I guess probably not?

Well done Working!

I'm not a jam doughnut fan NoRoom but I would love a baguette. Or some biscuits. My DD is making cheese scones today and I would love one of those... At least it's only temporary, I feel very sorry for people who have this lifelong.

Those of you on metformin can I ask what does you are on. I usually take metformin for PCOS but wondered how my usual dose compares to the dose prescribed to control GD.

NoRoom

Hello, I was coming on here as I sometimes do on GD threads to tell you my story and noticed your last post about jam doughnut, which I know wsa tongue in cheek.

Please all of you heed the advice given to you after birth about the risks of diabetes returning in later life.
Nobody told me of the risks and after dd was born She's 11 now, the diabetes went immediately.
Now I have a sweet tooth and don't mind admitting it, I love chocolate and puddings and cakes.
I now have type 2 diabetes from continuing these lovely sweet treats and wish I had stayed on the diet I had during pregnancy.
Please don't end up like me folks, watch your diets. It's easy to say babies born now, I've been checked and its gone now. Lets get the goodies out I don't mean never have a treat again but if you were like me to begin with, please be careful and use this opportunity to change your habits for good.
I can't turn the clock back, but if it helps others I'm happy to admit to being daft. It can and does come back.

Good news about the fasting bloods Minipie, the time does seem to affect the readings due to hormone levels. Enjoy your Indian(we're having one at the weekend). Be careful with you carbs mixing (go easy on the rice portion especially if having a naan or chips or with any breadcrumbs/sugar/honey/coconut milk in the recipe). found that it was my fasting result was higher the morning after rather than the reading after the meal but that could be timing.
Re: BF, it might be worth asking the mw if there is a lactation nurse/specialist available on the ward/in the hospital to help you establish bf after the birth. I had a problem with latching correctly last time and luckily I mentioned it to the right midwife/nurse and she really made a difference and gave me good support and advice.

Mini - according to carbs app, a regular size cheese scone is 30g of carbs. So surely as your afternoon snack you could have half of one with a little butter but nothing sweet? Also, for breakfast I have one weetabix with a small handful of Jordans nutty granola here. The granola portion is very small (approximately 3 - 4 tablespoons) but adds the little bit of natural sweet that I need. I find my breakfast readings are very low. This morning I added a small handful of blueberries and my reading was still well within limits (6.2) but higher than normal for breakfast.

My late night snack is regularly one plain digestive which the dietician said was okay. It gives me a little sweetness without anything too crazy. Or one square of very dark chocolate. What' sinteresting is that it feels enough now. Before I couldn't eat less than three squares. Four was easy

oh, and I'm on 500mg twice daily. Which I think is the same as what I took years ago for PCOS and is the same as the PCOS consultant has told me to take after this pregnancy.

Thanks wing. I'm usually on 850mg three times a day so seems quite a bit higher, but lower doses weren't having any effect on my blood results. But I was advised to stop taking it when pg. I didn't develop GD last time so hoping it will be the same again. I've got an endocrinology appointment coming up soon so will check this with the consultant.

Thanks for the advice morethanpotatoprints, I was more than disappointed realised I would be on the diet for Christmas and Easter. I never thought I has a bad/unhealthy diet and had curbed my sweet tooth and started exercising a while before I got pregnant but finding it hard to avoid the carbs in everything. Do you have any recommendations for sources/websites to get suitable recipes/meal ideas that suit diabetes/the gd diet please?

I was started on 500mg once a day then up to 1000mg twice a day, then insulin in my last pregnancy. I think there hasn't been a lot of formal testing on metformin in pregnancy (for GD) so some consultants prefer to just use insulin despite it being used by pregnant women for pcos for ages.

I think if it gets to the point where you are struggling to get low readings with low GI carbs it's time for medication. I think there is sometimes a feeling that medication means you've "failed" to do the diet properly and that (combined with the implications on induction/birth choices) stop people taking the medication when actually their GD is severe enough to require it. The baby needs you to have some carbs.

Thanks Sweets yes I will definitely be pressing for the best BF midwife or consultant that they have available - I want DD2 to be checked for tongue tie ASAP! Hoping the 24 hour stay makes this more feasible.

Working thanks for that about weetabix... I might give it a go. I wonder if shredded wheat would be the same? I will def try the half cheese scone with plenty of butter , hoping I can get away with high GI stuff at snack time more than at mealtime but that may be optimistic.

morethan I don't have a sweet tooth any time other than pregnancy, so am hoping I will be ok... but good advice anyway!

Whilst we're talking about metformin - does anyone know, is it good for treating PCOS if there is no weight issue, or is it only really to address the weight?

tarka I've no issues with taking metformin for GD if needed. I think I was advised to stop taking it as it seems there isn't much clinical evidence to continue taking it for PCOS if you haven't developed GD. Not sure though as I've only briefly looked into it. I was on 1000mg twice a day for a long time but apparently the latest research suggest that taking 1000mg is more likely to lead to liver problems, that's what my endocrinologist said anyway which is why I was switched to 850mg three times a day instead. It may be that short term use (such as in pg) may not impact the liver as much whereas long term continued use might. I was told this last year though, so the change may have come in between your pregnancies.

Mini I have PCOS but no weight issue. I do have insulin resistance, excess hair, irregular cycles/anovulation, hormone imbalance etc. I think it depends on your PCOS symptoms. I was put on it for the insulin resistance, to try and help rectify the hormone imbalance which it did seem to and it definitely helped with my cycles.

Sweets

I'm sorry, I don't have any recommendations and just follow a normal diet for diabetics. My dd is 11 now, so some time ago for me now.
I wish i hadn't been the greedy cow I was (not suggesting others are) and only had the occasional treat.
Its so easy to get stuck in a rut and its a slow downwards spiral.
Now I take metformin and it has had an affect on blood pressure and I have to take statins and bp tablets, previous pgs and normally low bp until about 6 years ago.
I'm only 48 and no history of anything like this in my family.
I urge all of you to be careful as it can happen to anybody.
All I can recommend is to continue post pregnancy and eat as healthily as you can, especially carbs and sugars.

thanks nature. I have acne but otherwise not really any symptoms - periods are marginally irregular (2-3 days variance) but I am ovulating and no hair issue. Don't know if I might have been insulin resistant pre pregnancy, never tested. How did you find out about the insulin resistance/hormone imbalance?

sorry everyone for the tangent!

Sorry Nature wasn't suggesting you wouldn't. Was just a general post about people cutting carbs too much.

It is not just diet. Exercise played a part with my glucose readings. I was controlling things fine with dc3 until I stopped work. Eating the same things at the same time but as my job had me on my feet most of the time I was doing much more. The moment I stopped work my levels went up and I was put on tablets. But at least dc3 didn't have low glucose readings after birth, unlike dc2 when I wasn't tested

mini it was quite complicated how I found out about the hormones. I had suspected appendicitis (which it wasn't) but my GP thought there was something going on (suspected appendicitis was actually likely a cyst that had grown) so tested me for all sorts. Results came back with hormone imbalance and very high prolactin levels, so was sent for further tests with an endocrinologist, had GTT, ultrasound etc and was diagnosed from there. Had quite a few GTT to determine correct dose of metformin to control it and that seems to have helped with other symptoms. My cycles are all over the places can vary anything from monthly to 6-9 months between!

Hello all

No Room I just wanted to say thanks for starting this thread, I am finding it really helpful.

Mini you managed to explain why I (presume) I have to stay in for 24 hours post birth far better than I've read anywhere else. And so far no one at the hospital has even mentioned this to me. Thank you!

Re: breakfast cereals. I had found 2 x Oatibix with semi-skimmed milk to be fine until this morning, when I had my first high reading of 8.0 1 hour after eating it. I was quite stressed at the time with work but not sure I can attribute it to that. Presumably just i'm getting further along and my body is becoming less tolerant to the sugars.

Welcome Ellizardo - good snack and meal ideas, thank you! I am getting quite bored of houmous and carrots, plain nuts, apple and cheddar and sugar free jelly now!

Morethan - thanks for sharing. My dad is diabetic (and I guess a lot of us maybe have a relative who is and that is in part why we are all here) so I am definitely aware now that I could be heading the same way. And I don't want to pass my previous bad eating habits on to little person either! But I could kill for a Krispy Kreme right now!

It is "tea and cake Thursday" in my office right now. Humph.

No problem Rusty. I can't remember if it's something I read or something my midwife explained - she was quite good at explaining the birth stuff iirc.

Here's what I've been told about birth:

• will be induced at 40 weeks if diet controlled, 38 if on meds
• will need regular blood sugar monitoring and continuous foetal heartbeat monitoring during birth (which is a pain as reduces ability to move around)
• will not be suitable for MLU even if go into labour naturally (though she did say one woman had managed to persuade them as her testing results were all good, so that gives me a fraction of hope...)
• will need to stay in for 24-48 hours post birth to check baby's blood sugars and check feeding is going ok
• will need to have post birth test to check my insulin response is back to normal

Anyone know anything else about the birth process/implications?

Nature thanks for explaining, I am wondering if (after pregnancy) I should speak to my GP about the PCOS, I might be able to ask her to run hormonal tests as a first step. I think I'll need to get insulin resistance tests anyway as a result of having had GD.

Just a quick post to say that stress and illness do affect your blood glucose levels. I imagine that your body's response to something like the whooping cough vaccine will also affect glucose levels. I believe it has something to do with your body releasing more glucose stores than normal to fuel the immune response.

Regarding the carbs intake, my dietician was very specific about weighing cooked foods and the no. of grammes of carbs allowed per meal/snack. My max targets seems tighter too so maybe different clinics have different guidelines.
Mini my dieticians recommended portions for breakfast: I can have 220g of cooked porridge OR 1 shredded wheat in low fat milk OR 2 slices of brown bread with minimum amout of low fat spread AND I can have cooked egg/lean rasher/low fat cheese/mushrooms/tomato. I was advised to have no more than 30g of carb for breakfast. I asked about having wheatabix for breakfast instead of shredded wheat but she said no, only have shredded wheat (not sure what the difference is).

Mini I was told they would check my glucose levels for 3 consecutive days after the birth and would not recheck my glucose levels again until 6 weeks after I stopped breastfeeding so it might make a difference to your results if they test you while breastfeeding.
Yum tea and cake afternoon but think of yours Indian later, will take your mind off it.