28 weeks pregnant and diagnosed with GD

[Kayleigh121]

Hi all.
I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes a week ago and I’m struggling so bad I feel like a massive failure to myself and my baby. All I want to do at the moment is eat, I’m so hungry but there is nothing that I can eat that satisfies me! I was diet controlled but due to my readings being all over the place they have started me on Metformin. Anyone else had or currently have it and have any tips or suggestions on what to eat/snack on
Thank you!

Cheese and possibly wholemeal crackers such as ryvita, there are some crackers that are pretty low in refined carbohydrates but you have to read a lot of labels.

Also cucumber and carrot sticks with hummus... when I had it they told me I could eat salad till it came out of my ears but obviously it doesn’t fill you up very quickly. Could probably add croutons to a salad, especially if you can make them wholemeal. Activia yogurts are low in sugar, I don’t know if low enough to have as a snack or if they’d have to be part of a meal, as dessert.

I used to have to go for a walk after every meal, do you? It was a total pain in some ways but also got me out in the fresh air!

I don’t think you need to feel guilty - i felt a bit like that but it is actually very, very hard to keep it under control by diet and exercise alone. I did manage it, but only just, and i think the doctors were stretching a point. It was a real headache and I kept getting upset about it, mainly because I don’t fulfil any of the risk factors and also my husband and daughter were still eating their normal foods, which I had to cook, while hungry, but then just watch them eat while I had something a lot less appetising. My mum brought me two boxes of chocolates when I had the baby and the GD was over with!

As far as i remember I had to go for wholemeal pasta and bread and brown rice as far as carbs were concerned, and still less than a third of a plateful, possibly even less than that, I can’t remember.

I could basically have as much protein, fat and non-sweet veg as I wanted. Easy on the fruit because of the fruit sugars, the safest way was to eat them only as part of a meal. Baked potatoes are more sugary than boiled for some reason.

Anything sweet could only be eaten in very small quantities and as part of a meal so that it got sort of absorbed in with the rest of the meal.

You can get little snack bags of ready cooked chicken chunks in supermarkets, I should think they’d be ok as they’re just protein (& additives & salt & water). Possibly things like samosas, because they have a very thin crust and just meat and/or veg on the inside. Normal pie crusts would probably be too thick.

Cereals were hard, I got some expensive muesli from a health food shop in the end that was specifically designed to have a low glycemic index. Eggs, or indeed a full English, are good for breakfast with some wholemeal toast if you have the time to cook.

You may need to spend a long time looking around the supermarket reading labels.

Good luck and sympathy, it is a total pain in the arse but it’s not your fault and you can only do your best. It may even get you into better habits (though I went straight back to the biscuit tin asap, you might do better!). It’ll be such a relief when your baby is born!

Check out the dietary advice from gestationaldiabetes.co.uk

There is an accompanying Facebook group too - search for GD uk mums.

I found the NHS dietary advice absolutely terrible. Once I started following the advice from the website I was able to get all my readings in target and remained fully diet controlled from 28 weeks until 39+5 when my little girl arrived naturally. No drugs, no interventions and we were discharged after she passed 2 blood sugar tests (7 hours after she was born).

It’s really really not something to feel guilty about. It’s just how your body responds to pregnancy and there’s nothing you could have done to prevent it...