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

Definitely wholewheat durum pasta. Aim for 40 grams before cooked. At first I cooked mine & dh in separate pots so I could then weigh how much mine was when cooked for future reference. For Penne it worked out at 90g when cooked.
Also Bunalun organic chilli & tomato jars are really good to throw into mince if you don't want to cook a bolognaise from scratch. I would usually add a green pepper to get the veg in. Dolmio white sauce for lasagne was fine also. Wholewheat lasagne sheets use also.

Also sparkling water or still with miwadi is great from a change of just water. The lime is the best, but really any of the no added sugar flavours are fine too.

Few simple tips to keep that blood sugar levels under control!!!

1. Make sure your meals are made up of,
   - 1/3 of a single meal should be carbs
   - 1/3 should be proteins (meat product)
   - 1/3 should be veges
   This is what's called a balanced diet. It helps with digestion, it lowers the rate the carbs are absorbed into the blood stream (which will give you much better long term blood sugar control).

2. Moderate exercise is very good for a pregnant mother. Walk fast for 30 minutes a day. That's it. Exercise burns glucose, makes your tummy muscles stronger so you will not have a saggy belly after delivery and makes your circulation efficient and provide a good blood supply to your baby. Pelvic floor exercises and other special types help you push during the second stage of labour. Delivery increases your cardiac output by 60% due to uterine contractions and pain. It helps to have a good cardiac status. Cardio workout helps a lot

3. Metformin does not give you hypoglycemia. Insulin does. So stick to your GDM team advice and don't fiddle around with your insulin dose.

4. Be aware of hypoglycemic symptoms, specially if you are on insulin.

5. Damage to your baby occurs during the peaks of blood sugar. Your blood sugar level fluctuates with time (even short term). So keep your sugar levels normal as much as possible.

cheers

Thanks Babney, I've added wholemeal pasta to the shopping list. It's nice to have some quick dinners to hand as prepping everything does get time consuming.

Thanks Sam for your comments.

I've definitely noticed my fasting levels have been worse since starting metformin it's not even been a week yet so maybe they will want to give it a bit longer-they did say it can take levels a while to settle down.

Hi All

Does anyone mind if I join this group just been diagnosed today following my GTT yesterday. They have been great so far, picked up my monitor today and have an appointment with consultant and gestational diabetic nurse tomorrow.

Bit gutted that this is my 4th pregnancy and I’ve not had GD with my other seems to be just down to my age (41)

Will need to get my head around what I can and can’t eat. The seem to be very keen to start me on metformin straight away but I’d like to try diet control first or am I being unrealistic about how much GD can be controlled through diet?

I’ve also gone from running 3xper week and hot yoga 2xper week to nothing which I suppose hasn’t helped. But due to a whole heap of reasons which I won’t go into I’ve struggled to do any exercise. Now finding it hard to motivate myself to do anything

I was diagnosed at the beginning of August, at 26 weeks. I’m now 37 weeks and have a growth scan next Thursday because they’re worried the baby is small. I’ve been completely diet controlled and I’ve lost about 6 kilos in 10 weeks. If she’s still a bit small, they’ll induce. She’s still in a healthy range though.

@Amd724 hope the growth scan goes ok please do let us know how u get on. Is this your first baby?

I was induced with my DS3 and he is now a 14 year old healthy rugby player so I don’t have any worries about being induced if its the right thing for you and your baby.

It’s good to know that GD can be controlled by diet alone and this is what I’m going to request when I see the consultant tomorrow. NICE guidelines do state that if the mother requests then diet control should be tried for 1-2 weeks before starting medication. Although I’m just trying to understand the difference in numbers between fasting, pre-meal and post meal. I don’t think my readings are critical that I should need to start medication straight away which is what the diabetes nurse (not GD nurse) said in the clinic today when I collected my monitor. My diet has slacked recently from being really quite healthy to fairly indulgent over the last few weeks.

@AnUtterIdiot do u know what your blood sugar readings are?

I’m a little confused did my reading before I ate and they came up quite low but is it how your body responds to sugars so therefore the difference between your before and after readings?

I have my GTT next week. For those who have been diagnosed, did you have any symptoms? I'm quite nervous really, my risk factor is my weight as my BMI was 33 at booking in appointment.

@hmyh23 no I didn’t have any symptoms. However I do think I haven’t been as healthy with my meal choice as I could be and was previously. I’m also not as active. So I’m not overly surprised and think I can just make some lifestyle changes!

But I am feeling a little sorry for myself

If you haven't already, join the gestational diabetes uk Facebook group and have a look at their website. It honestly changed my life - I was really down after being diagnosed but the information and support there is amazing. I'm now 36 weeks and diet controlled.

Don't worry I'm just the same, I've just felt so exhausted the whole time I can't face much exercise other than yoga once a week and just grabbing whatever to eat when I can't be bothered to cook after work. Very nervous about my GTT next week.

I was diagnosed last week - picked up during routine 28 week midwife appointment as I wasn’t in any of the risk categories so didn’t get a routine GTT. However, looking back over the previous week I definitely had symptoms - I had been noticeably exhausted, suddenly sleeping terribly at night and getting up to go to help toilet 6-7 times at night rather than the once that I’d been used to. I put it down to a busy week at work and baby getting bigger so would not have got medical help as they are all typical pregnancy symptoms - the key for me was just how different I’d felt just a week earlier.

Babney do you know anyone with t1/t2 diabetes on the long term illness benefit for diabetes? You might be able to get you the strips on their scheme. GD doesn't qualify for the scheme unfortunately. There was a girl in front of me in the chemist a while ago and she was able to get them on her mam's card.

@Babney I’m not sure what you mean. The testing kit, strips and any medication associated with GD is all covered on NHS prescriptions which is free during pregnancy.

@Kilicat I understand what you mean I have also associated some of those symptoms just being pregnancy related thinking .... 3rd trimester this is what happens.

Hi, got a email reminder of this thread. I haven't read through all of them.
Just to let you know in Ireland we had to pay for strips.
Anyway my baby is over a year old now. He wasn't born as big as the scans suggested, he was perfectly healthy.
Goodluck to everyone just diagnosed, it really got me down during pregnancy.

Hi All... little bit of help and advice?

So I had my GTT on Monday and have now been diagnosed with GD, saw the consultant on Wednesday who said I could try adjusting my diet for two weeks but if I had 3 or more readings out of range I needed to contact them and arrange to go on Metformin.

I have ulcerative colitis (like chrons) and one of the side effects of Metformin is that it can have an impact on bowls which again I’m only just managing to keep the UC under control.

I really though I might be able to keep the GD under control with diet alone but I seem to be having really low readings before meals with a huge spike after eating even simple stuff.

I work full time and think I’m going to struggle managing my diet whilst being at work. Plus my reading are so low in the mornings I actually shouldn’t be driving.

Don’t know what to do for the best?

What are your morning readings? What diet advice have they given you? Unfortunately in many cases the NHS diet advice just seems to be really poor (the info I received was awful!).

@AnUtterIdiot fasting reading are fluctuating from really low 3.1 being the lowest and then shouting up really higher after eating with the highest being 11.

Even struggling with things that should be ok for example I had homemade veg soup, rye vita and tuna for lunch and it still went up to 8.5.

Porridge shot it up to 9.1 and this was after two hours.

Haven’t seen the dietician yet. Have to say they were very good with me had the GTT, Monday received a call on Tuesday to pick up kit and had a scan and consultant appt made for the Wednesday.

I think I complicate things further because I have ulcerative colitis so the treatment and diet do conflict with each other.

Do have a look at the gestational diabetes uk site and fb group, food pairing has worked really well for me. Sounds like you're eating fairly low fat stuff and that's what causes me trouble. Not sure how high fat high protein would work with uc though? Hope you can find a diet that works but I do think that some women need meds