I have GD

[Onetoetree]

Yesterday at my growth scan (I was measuring two weeks behind) I was told I have gestational diabeties, 3 weeks after my test. The doctors didn't tell me. I waited to see the diabeties nurse who showed me how to measure my blood. I'm 30 weeks, she told me the senarios of diet control and the drug beginning with m and possibly being induced at 38 weeks.

So I am really looking for tips what are you eating if you have GD for lunch and do you snack if so what on?

My bmi was 26 and I'm gutted I have to limit fruit I can take or leave chocolate. I don't know what I will do for my lunch as I like a sandwhich sand crisp. Milk is also something I will miss I didn't think a glass of milk would increase your blood sugar at all.

Hi, I am 34 weeks and am about a month into being told I have GD.
So far, I am managing it well with diet and there are no further concerns. I will be induced at some point though as my hospital do not let babies who are exposed to GD go overdue.
I have found some low sugar cereal which I can eat at breakfast. It's granola so it's expensive but it's keeping my sugars down. I found any 'normal' cereal wasn't low enough.
I still often have bread for lunch. I have switched to granary which is better than white and tend to have cheese or tuna and cucumber as meat does not effect blood sugar and cheese only has minimal effect. Any extra carbs like crisps etc do push me over the limit though.
For dinner I have meat and salad, spagbol with a small amount of spaghetti or similar.
I tend to have a snack immediately after I test my bloods as I'm starving by then! That is when I have fruit or Greek yogurt. Apples and pears have less sugar then grapes a d oranges so choose wisely.
There is a thread in the pregnancy section on here about GD which you might find helpful too.

Thanks Rosie I will have a look now. I am going to wait and have my breakfast a little late today as I sm going to get porridge and some granary bread as advised by the nurse.

Have you started measuring your blood sugar levels yet? This will be your best indication of how strict you need to be. I was diagnosed at 28 weeks, was really shocked and strict until I realised actually I didn't need to be massively careful and have managed it all very well with diet alone and a bit of waddling around. Different people have GD to different degrees and there's no real way of knowing how it will pan out over your pregnancy. But you will be well monitored so do try not to worry about it! It is gutting but it's NOT diabetes - it's gestational diabetes and will likely go after your pregnancy. It's to do with the increased demands of the placenta and is not your fault. Don't feel bad!

Cover I think you have misunderstood, I think I can manage to do it, I live on fruit which is the worst thing I will miss, berries and what not, grapes I think each time I walk past the fruit bowl I eat some.

I have measured my bloods since yesterday my test in the hospital was 8.8, I had had an sandwhich and cake for lunch earlier on about 11 I had eaten strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. For tea last night I had lamb, gravy and peas sweet corn and broccoli , I left the potatoes out. I was 7.1 this morning I didn't now which to test on so done both fasting was 9.2 and before meal was 7.1, I had only had water and 2 cups of tea following my tea last night.

Ah your readings are quite high. I suspect they'll offer you some metformin. Berries are usually the best fruit to eat (not grapes tho) as they're low in sugars. Did they say what your fasting levels should be? Mine had to be below 5.5.

Yes 5.3. I was hoping to not go on the drug, so is overnight classed as fasting? I weren't sure if I was to use fasting or before meals.

I have just been reading and I think I will buy
Lettuce ,tomstoes, cucumber , raffish, granary bread, chicken, bacon, Mayo, whole grain crakers, tuna and cottage cheese. Sugar free jelly and low fat Greek yoghurts. It is shopping day here for me.

I think I need some soup too, it's like I'm back on weight watchers.

I didn't realise sweet corn snd peas were out, it's amazing what you learn.

I suppose it's all about imagination and what you can do with you food.

Oh I have just read I should be avoiding taking multi bits which I do.... Duh

I eat peas and corn with no ill effects. My limits are 5.3 on waking then 6.4 2 hours after each meal.
I cut right back on the refined sugars and carbs initially then it's taken some trial and error to find my limits. To be honest, as it's the hormones which effect it, I sometimes find the same meal on different days can have hugely different results.
Being active after eating rather than sitting down can help too as the exercise gets the sugars burning.

Try soya & linseed bread rather than granary.

I'm 30 weeks and 3 weeks into diagnosis. It was really hard at first, but I've started to get in to the swing of what my body can / cannot take.

Breakfast is usually the hardest for me - I have found protein on 1wholemeal toast (egg, cheese, ham etc) works best for me. A tablespoon of granola and low fat yoghurt sent me sky high the other day, as did 2 weetabix with skimmed milk and sugar!

Wholemeal pitta and chicken/avocado salad for lunch, fish and baked sweet potato/loads of veg for dinner. I still snack on fruit between meals (apples, pears, berries are best for me) or carrot sticks and hummus. Peas etc I'm still ok with.

My fasting results are usually really good, before bed I have a treat of a glass of milk and a rich tea biscuit. Aldi also do mini 25g 85% cocoa dark chocolate which has low sugar in which I have as a treat.

Do you have a diabetes clinic? I have to go every 2-3 weeks, and just had my first. Dietician signed me off when I explained what I was eating and blood readings - she wanted to make sure I was still getting calcium so don't panic about milk until you've Seen how you react. She also asked about a multi vitamin and confirmed I should still take this - though I tend to take at night now rather than the morning.

Best advice I had was to keep a food diary - I religiously write down everything which has helped me quickly work out what is good for me.

NICE clinical guidelines are to induce no later than 40+6, and if I can still keep on top of bloods with diet and scans are still ok, lots of movement etc then I'm hoping to avoid an early induction. Not least I want to work to 38 weeks! But as long as baby is Ok, that's all that matters.

I found that eating small portions of carbs helped keep
Levels low. I snacked on teacakes or crackers and cheese. I lost a stone in the pregnacy.

I don't know a lot about GD but I am Type 1 diabetic and have been for 11 years so have got to know a bit about which foods affect blood sugars. I'm 15 weeks pregnant with my first and am paying a lot more attention to readings now than ever before!

Watch out for tinned soup; you might eat it thinking 'oh good, no carbs' but it probably has a fair bit of sugar in it.

For breakfast I have switched to all bran (sainsbury's own) - with other cereals I was finding my sugar levels were staying up too high after breakfast (even with insulin doses) and this has the lowest sugar content I could find along with lots of fibre so good for slow release carbs.

There is a really good long thread on mumsnet all about GD, I'll see if I can find it. Loads of info and advice.

Berries are actually quite low in carbs/sugar OP! Get a copy or the app 'carbs and Cala'

One breakfast that seems to work wonders for keeping blood sugar stable is natural soya yogurt, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries

'Carbs and cals'

Here's the link to the other thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pregnancy/2295140-Gestational-diabetes-support-thread you'll learn a lot there!

And yes overnight is a fasting reading, yours seems high - try a snack before bed.

Peanut butter on low gi toast is an amazing breakfast as is anything with eggs!

DD is 6 now so I had GD a long time ago but they didn't offer metformin when I had it. My BMI was only 20 when I was diagnosed with GD at 28 weeks so I was gutted that I got it.

Even with strict diet management within a week I was on 6 insulin injections a day.

I was told that for snacks I could have fruit as long as I coupled it with some protein. So I would have a handful of grapes (5) and an apple with a small lump of cheese.

Make sure that they give you the info on Metformin in regards the end of your PG. I don't know if it works the same as it does with the injections but when I got to about 37 weeks my insulin started kicking back in and I started having Hypos in the night because my levels dropped below 3. It was very tricky to manage to but a great excuse to stuff Jelly Babies (the recommended treat to get my blood sugar up quickly).

Good luck!

Sorry that should have said Grapes OR an Apple (not both!) with the cheese.

Thanks ladies,

Cover I havecimmented on that thread so I can catch up and take some notes. I sat round googling after my breakfast, so after lunch which was chicken,bacon lettuce on granary bread I was active after lunch and my reading came back as 5.3.

Thanks for all your info and shared experiences. I nearly reached for tinned soups in the supermarket and then I stopped myself. I have bought some porridge for breakfast.dalad to go with my evening meals and a few different mixes for my sandwhichs for lunch, crakers cheese and hummus with cucumber and carrots.

It says not to eat peas and sweet corn on one of the nhs websites.

I suppose its best to see what works for me. Thanks again.

There is a Facebook group which has some quite good recipes and advice on. I eat wholemeal Warburtons thins (one slice) for breakfast with eggs, avocado or veggie sausage which gives good readings. Porridge and blueberries just one day started to give me high readings so do be aware that with hormone changes you might suddenly become intolerant to foods that were ok the week before, for example. Tesco do special protein enriched pasta which is good for lunch with veg, pesto and cheese. I made aubergine parmigiana this week which was gorgeous, filing and gave me low readings- paired with salad and sweet potato. Babybels, hummus, nuts and kettle chips great for snacks.

Look for good low carb recipes - bbc good food has a delicious pizza where the base is made out of cauliflower. See also recipes with courgette pasta rather than real pasta.

For a lazy treat I liked the higgedy crust free quiches - feta and roasted red pepper, mmmm. I couldn't really tolerate even the Vogel soya and linseed bread for breakfast, but pay cake biscuits with houmous or egg mayo or cheese were fine.

Babybels babybels babybels.

Nuts.

Remember also that you need to keep a careful eye on baby's movements - I know you would do anyway, but there are increased risks if the GD is not well controlled or if the placenta starts to fail and so my consultant was shit-hot on that.

My baby was born yesterday a couple of weeks early because of the GD and she is worth every second of boring boring food and frustration over blood sugarsz Plus I only gained 13lbs throughout and 7.5 of that was baby!!

Lots of luck and remember: you're nearly there!

Stupid phone - oat cakes, not pay cakes!

If you like fish, another thing I got addicted to was: bake a fillet of salmon. Just before it's done, top it with some Philadelphia, stick wilted spinach and cooked mushrooms or sliced tomatoes to the Philadelphia, then grated cheese on top and bake it until the cheese goes chewy.

My best bit of advice re testing is always wash your hands before testing! It makes a massive difference to results.
Aldi do a good range of soups, the lentil and bacon is lovely and only around 3g sugar per tin. Just avoid any tomato based ones.
Avoid anything low fat as it is usually packed with sugar (sorry if someone has already pointed any of these out hrft!).