Gestational diabetes-anyone else?

[ElleSarcasmo]

I've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes and I'm finding it really nerve wracking! Anyone in the same boat and want to share war stories and food tips? I'm 27 weeks and this is my first pregnancy.

I've only been monitoring my blood glucose for a few days and so far the readings have been ok-I have to aim for 5.3 fasting (before breakfast) and 7.8 after meals. I'm really hoping to be able to avoid insulin! I had a look back at some old threads on here and there was some great advice. I'm definitely getting the Burgen bread as 1 slice of my normal toast gave me the highest reading yet.

This one from 2013

this one from 2015

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Hi there - this thread is a little old. [[https://www.mumsnet.com/pregnancy/gestational-diabetes
If you want to read more about gestational diabetes, we’ve got some information here]]. MNHQ

That's random about your monitor Magpie! Maybe it has a loose connection to the battery? I will look out for the natures valley protein bars, thanks for the tip. I've got my first clinic appointment and growth scan tomorrow, feeling a little nervous!

Good luck with it Elle I've found there's a lot of waiting around at clinic appointments so take a good book!!

Thanks all! I do feel a bit scared and confused so all of your input is really helpful. I had stupidly forgotten about eggs and cheese so that's lunch sorted!

Snacks are not very varied but try,

Peanut butter & corn cakes with an apple.

Strawberries, blueberries & natural yogurt. (check natural yogurts that are under 5 carbs per 100g)

Sorry but carrots are not the best vegetable to be eaten, stick to green veg as much as possible, swap carrots for celery.

Actimel 0% is fine, you could have with cheese.

Ryvita crackers with ham, cheese, tomato & some mayo, you will need to test after to see how many you can have. 3 to 4 should be fine & makes a decent lunch.

Miwadi no added sugar lime is great to add to sparkling water.

Burgen bread is the best out there.

That's pretty much all I have lived on (not including dinners) for the past few months & it's bloody annoying!

Oh sugar free jelly to bulk up fruit & yogurt also!

Hi, I've found the high protein rolls from Lidl very good for readings and quite filling too.
There's also Livlife sliced bread from ocado or wait rose which is even lower carb grams per slice than Burgen bread.

Nairn's also do a range of oat biscuits which are lovely as a snack/treat you can have about 2 I think as they are around 6.4g and 6.6g per biscuit.
Dark Chocolate chip or ginger are both my favourites.

I wasn't sure about the Nairnshi biscuits - that's good to know, thanks. Thanks too on carrots - I have had so many I may turn into one so looks like I'll have to find something else for my hummus!

Hi there!
I havn't had my gd test yet in this pg (now 16 weeks) but I am thoroughly expecting to get it again as I had it with ds, who is now 3 and I am older and heavier now (41 years as it goes). But I did manage to control my blood sugar expertly and gave birth to a 7 oz baby at 41 weeks! I stuck to a low g.i diet and really cut out bread entirely. For snacks I liked oat crackers with organic peanut butter or ready to eat quorn sausages. I made a lot of homemade soup (lentil, carrot, leak and celery in particular) and swore by a few things keeping my blood good - oats (porridge with chopped up apple and cinnamon, yum), pulses and eggs. Of course, with three years on me and quite a few pounds this might not be enough this time, but I'm passing on this positive experience to you because in retrospect the diagnosis was a good thing - it made me really look after myself and after having morning sickness week 6-30 I actually felt fantastic in my third trimester...and was lighter after having ds than pre-pregnancy! It can actually be totally fine. Good-luck! xxx

Thanks Magpie, I've brought my kindle! Good thinking!

What are corn cakes Babney, are they like rice cakes?

Thanks MintT, will look at the Nairns biscuits if I start craving something sweet.

Summer I have cucumber and pepper slices with hummus, mangetout are also nice. Celery is probably lower carb though but I get fed up of it.

Hi Rose, did you manage to stay diet controlled all the way through last time? How many weeks were you when you were diagnosed? That's interesting that you were ok with soup-for some reason I thought it might be quite carby. I'll try making some this weekend I think-I can always freeze it for when baby's here if the sugars go nuts. Also interesting about oats- I really like Bircher muesli (oats mixed with yogurt and grated Apple and left overnight) and my after breakfast reading was fine one day and high the next! It's really hard to figure out what works.

My fasting was 6.0 this morning I don't think it's looking good for staying diet controlled. I'm mentally preparing myself for meds today.

Yep corn cakes should be beside rice cakes but they are lower in carbs. The kelkin range are the best.

I've stayed diet controlled, I've always been borderline really though in late pregnancy, about 34 weeks till 37 you may spike as hormones tend to ramp up.

I am amazed at some information on the Internet with regards to what you can eat. Muesli is not good, in fact cereals are harder to get a good reading, toast & eggs are best way to start your day.
Some dieticians even suggest low fat flavoured yogurts, for me I just wouldn't when you could have a better alternative such as natural yogurt with fresh fruit.
Dark chocolate I just wouldn't go near, not a fan anyway & any packs I've found still have lots of carbohydrates sugars.
Also basmati rice is better than brown, yes brown rice has more fibre & will digest more slowly but basmati is a good option as lower carbs again.

Sweet potatoes are great, though be careful with white potatoes. Aim for half a baked potato or 2-3 golf sized baby potatoes (you may be able to have more so gradually up your portion if you scored well)
Aim for 40g of wholewheat durum pasta with meals.
Try drink 200 mls of milk to get your calcium intake but maybe have as part of a smaller snack as milk could raise your blood levels with a big meal, full fat milk was fine for me.
Gestational diabetes is a big pain, I really cannot wait to give birth & scoff my face!

I find baked potatoes OK as long as you have with something with fat in it eg some cheese, tuna mayonnaise. Fat will slow the absorption of the carbs. Eggs are awesome in any way, shape or form. I've found low fat yoghurts tend to have lots of sugar in them so have steered away. Yeo now do some no added refined sugar yoghurts which I find OK. Agree that normal potatoes are terrible for blood sugar, and mashed are dreadful, but can manage some thick cut skin on fries. Sweet potato in any form has been OK. Watch out for sauces/ready meals with high sugar content. Have been using mixed brown rice and quinoa (comes in those ready made pockets you put in microwave) instead of rice alone. Homemade soup - yum - and agree great (my mum makes awesome scotch broth). I've struggled with any form of cereal - even sugar free muesli with nuts and also with porridge (although I know other people swear by the latter). Proper Rye bread is good (M&S do a good one and so do Sainsbury) which you can toast - Burgen bread is a no no for me. Everyone a bit different. Remember some days you will just have a random high BM because occasionally you just will do - the consultant told me this when I was beating myself up ...she says even things like hot weather etc can affect it...
Going to try the corn cakes now as I'd not heard of them. Thanks for the tip!

Get the kelkin crunchy peanut butter too to go with it!

I don't think there are many women with GD that can tolerate cereal. I think it's interesting that some people will tolerate certain foods better than others. I'm okay with potato (but would still avoid mash) and can tolerate dark chocolate but have to be very careful with bread.
Low fat yoghurt was on the list of foods my hospital gave me which I thought was shocking, it's full of sugar. I have full fat Greek yoghurt.

Elle hope the scan and clinic today went well!

Thanks Magpie, it was ok. I had a scan first, then saw the obstetric and diabetic teams, then the dietician, then went for bloods, then saw the diabetic nurse. It was a marathon, I was there 3 hours! Surprisingly not too much waiting room time, but the kindle came in handy!

I've been having full fat Greek yogurt too-it is lowest in carbs and filling too. I can't see how eating low fat ones with added sugar would be good in GD, doesn't strike me as great advice! That is interesting about the Yeo yogurts Mummy, will have a look out for them.

Is rye bread the dark stuff? I've never really eaten it before, would you have similar quantities/fillings to normal bread? I spotted some in morrison's the other day but the tiny pack threw me!

Oh yes, meant to say how it went-they are going to let me monitor for now, but as my fasting blood sugars are the high ones, if they stay raised I will probably have to go on to long acting insulin at night. The scan was ok, baby's abdominal circumference and estimated weight at the 90th centile. Luckily they didn't plot my weight gain on a centile chart!

Thanks again for all food suggestions - another one I had totally forgotten about was cinnamon! That's brightening up my porridge.

I've now got my kit but just wondered - I know what my maximum limits are but are there minimum limits post food? I've had a few 4s and 5s and don't know whether I should be eating more carbs as a result? Thank you!

If you're on insulin then anything below 4 is a hypo and needs to be treated accordingly. Otherwise, it's nothing to worry about. Although, apparently if you have something particularly sugary, you can spike and crash quicker, so your reading might show up as quite low after an hour but would've been too high before that.
If I was getting a reading in the 4s after a meal, I could consider increasing the carbs in it next time I had it.

Summer good news you've got your kit, hope you're getting to grips with it ok.

I picked up my sharps bin today-forgot to ask what I'm meant to do with it when it's full! Anyone know?

Hope everyone's doing ok.

I'm being started on metformin this week, 500mg with the evening meal to start with. Hopefully it will do the job with the fasting sugars as they have been mostly high. I also had an unexpected high reading after lunch yesterday, which was pretty much the same lunch I had the day before with a good reading (brown basmati rice salad with avocado, feta, beetroot, peppers, olives, tomato and cucumber). I was and ! I also didn't get any better readings with the Burgen bread compared to our normal wholemeal bread, even though the carb count is much lower!

It's very disheartening when you get high readings when you are sticking to a good diet.
Just think it's all hormonal & never blame yourself!

Just also want to recommend Hovis fluffy crumpets (yellow packet). I can have one with peanut butter as a quick snack.

Thanks Babney, it's hard when you're really trying to be good! Thanks for the tip about the crumpets, I was actually day dreaming about crumpets this week! I was imagining lashings of butter but peanut butter would probably pair better I guess. Do you check sugars after snacks? I saw on the GD group a lot of people seem to.

They are also lovely for breakfast with smoked salmon and scrambled egg which I think (hope) would be a good GD breakfast!

How many weeks are you now?

I'm 38 weeks pregnant, so I'm on the home stretch thankfully.

I was only considered borderline so I am able to control it with diet alone.

Over here in Ireland, the numbers are much stricter, for example you need to get below 5 fasting & below 7 for breakfast & dinner.

What I have found the hardest is the lack of variety & convenience.

I basically eat the same snacks everyday, it's so boring & thinking about chocolate etc has kept me going. I keep thinking how much I'll enjoy food more after this & what I'll eat after labour!

The convenience part is frustrating as sometimes you just don't want to cook dinner all the time!

I wish I could throw a pizza in the oven or order a take away but that is out the window.

Socialising has become non existent. I met up with a friend who I warned that I couldn't eat certain things etc & she frogmarched me into a cafe & looked at me like I had ten heads when I reminded her I couldn't eat a thing on the menu!

Some people just don't get it!

When I first had to follow diet I was a nightmare, really felt sorry for myself! Its a cliché but you do get used to it not that it makes it any easier.

There a good habits I have picked up regarding following a low gi diet. Not that I ate bad before but I think I will definitely take the things I've learned into my diet post birth.

In Ireland, with gestational diabetes you have to pay for strips yourself. I'm not sure what the deal is in England. I have tested snacks early on & then a few weeks after just to check that I'm tolerating them.

My main concern is that the baby won't develop diabetes. That is motivation enough to stick to a diet strictly.

Goodluck!

Wow Babney, that's quite a big difference from the targets here! Mine are 5.3 fasting and 7.8 1 hour after food. You've done brilliantly to stay diet controlled in that case.

I know what you mean about convenience-our easy dinners now are kinda boring (salmon fillet in the oven with broccoli at least once a week!). I definitely want to try to keep the good habits as well. Though I do have a list of things I plan to indulge in post delivery too!

We are lucky that we can get the strips and lancets on prescription here, normally there is a charge but you get an exemption in pregnancy and 1 year post delivery (I think). Are they really expensive to buy?

In Ireland pharmacies are a cartel & charge around €40 — €43, that's around 34,35 pounds for a box of 50 strips.

Maternity services in Ireland have amazing staff but I feel like we are still not listened to when it comes to providing services. Anyway that's another days conversation.

Make sure if you can afford it to buy things that make dinner easier, for example, potatoes & veg you can microwave in the bag.

Organic scala pesto is good with chicken with pasta.

Also sugar free jelly & sugar free 7up etc, every now & again is a treat!

Wow, that is quite expensive! That's a good call about ready prepped veg and potatoes. Have you been eating wholewheat pasta or just normal pasta? I tried the 7up zero today, it was lovely! Unlike the Sprite which has a funny aftertaste. Thanks for the tip!