Has anyone had any success reducing fasting blood sugar levels with gestational diabetes?

[Secretlifeofme]

I was diagnosed with GD at 28 weeks and I'm nearly 30 weeks now. The doctor told me my diet was already excellent, I'm not overweight and the baby hasn't been measuring big. In fact my levels were fine for about a week after diagnosis, but for about a week now my fasting levels are higher than they should be :( Really confused about how to improve them, as all my other levels throughout the day are fine (presumably because I'm eating the right things - not sure) so I'm at a loss as to what I can do.

I have another week before my next scan and would really like to try and get the fasting levels down before then to avoid having to go on medication. Any ideas would really be appreciated!

Have you met with a dietician? And do you have some follow up with diabetic midwife? Or a contact number for them? Fasting sugar can be hard to get down.
What do you eat for an evening meal?

I haven't met a dietician. Basically after I was diagnosed due to one high result in my GTT, I had to do a week's worth of prick tests 4 times a day whilst keeping a food diary. During this time my levels were absolutely fine and i was told that my diet was what they would recommend anyway, but to keep monitoring my levels. I did so and then my fasting levels started to creep up :( even though my post-meal levels have remained normal.

For dinner I usually have something like salmon with lots of veg, or peppers stuffed with sweet potato, spinach and feta. Tonight I had sweet potato wedges with home made guacamole and grated cheese. Do you think there's anything I can change?

Are they your morning fasting ones? I had this (now 37 weeks and have managed on diet!) and I found that having something at about 2-3am (when I woke up for one of my many night time wees!) really helped - peanut butter and oatcakes have been my go-to.

Yes, my morning fasting levels @coffeeandgin26. Thanks, that's something I can try - although i don't live in the UK and it seems to be impossible to get oatcakes here! Do you think half a slice of wholegrain bread with peanut butter would have the same effect?

Also,
Looking at your diet - try and introduce a few more carbs in there. I went a bit obsessive at first and pretty much cut them all out, and I think my body almost over compensated. When I started introducing small amounts back in, they settled down. A typical day for me now is

3x weetabix with whole milk for breakfast

Thin bagel for lunch with turkey and lots of salad

Two digestives mid afternoon

Fish, sweet potato fries and salad for tea

Oatcakes and peanut butter before bed

I can manage the odd bit of chocolate now as well, or small bowl of ice cream. The morning have always been the hardest for me though.

Yes definitely! Or a plain digestive or something like that. I also do my bloods before I even get out of bed - I'm
Not exactly sure how correct on the science I am but once you get up and start moving about, your body starts to produce glucose to give you energy for the day, which obviously increases your levels. Or something like that, anyway!

Hmm that's interesting. Actually I do tend to eat more carbs during the day- usually have a protein shake made with almond milk, banana and berries for breakfast, then some kind of sandwich on wholegrain bread with some cherry tomatoes on the side, natural yogurt and sometimes an apple for lunch. Dinner is probably the meal where I eat fewest carbs - maybe I'll try adding some in and see what happens.

Have a look at www.gestationaldiabetes.co.uk pairing foods is the key and stay away from cereal! That stuff is the worst you can eat with GD. Try high protein, high fat and one complex carb per meal. So your breakfast shake is too carby with nothing to pair it - bacon and eggs would be better. Your lunch again you've too much carb, try one slice of seeded bread with butter, loads of ham and cheese. Don't have your apple until mid afternoon then have a granny smith with peanut butter. Honestly, the GDUK diet works I stayed diet controlled with DS.

Hi @furryleopard, thank you for your reply but I'm a bit confused - all my daytime levels have been fine, so this indicates to me that what I'm eating during the day isn't having a negative effect on my blood sugar. Or is it possible for my high fasting levels to be caused by the food I eat during the day even though it doesn't seem to have an immediate effect?

There are lots of recipes on the website as well as advice, a typical breakfast for me was - two boiled eggs and one slice of seeded bread from the list Burgon bread I think it's called, with butter and a handful of seeds. Then at about 10.30 I'd have a granny smith with a good peanut butter dip, then lunch I liked a full ham and cheese toasty in two slices of small Warburtons wholemeal bread, then for snack I'd have a few cream crackers with cheese (eat all the cheese!), Tea would be a GD recipe or an adaptation of something we would eat anyway like a stir-fry but with a small portion of brown rice, brown pasta or a handful of buttery new potatoes. Then I'd have a no sugar yogurt and double cream with a few strawberries at bedtime. Also drink lots and lots of water throughout the day and keep moving around!

Other things I liked - if takeaway was on the cards I'd get cheesey chips and get them to put pepperoni on too then only eat the chips touching cheese. Our local Chinese did a mean chop suey with no sugar and I'd have it with beansprouts no sugar instead of rice.

Are you having any snacks? I was told 3 meals and 3 snacks per day with the one before bed being the most important and to make it protein based. Seems to work for me but I gather different things work for different people... If I ate like coffeeandgin26 my levels would be through the roof - I can't even tolerate 2 Weetabix.

You could be spiking, ie having a high straight away then dropping down to ok in the hour. What are your testing times? GD is about keeping as level as you can rather than peaks and troughs. I couldn't have eaten what you are eating without highs to be honest.

Morning fasting is the hardest but a high protein or fat snack before bed and plenty of water helped me.

@AuntieMaggie I am having the odd snack (recommended ones, not just a bar of chocolate ) but not consistently. Maybe I can try that as well, thank you.

I'm about to go to bed now (time difference) so have had half a slice of wholegrain bread with butter and peanut butter, and have the other half a slice in a plastic bag next to the bed for my midnight snack! I'll let you all know how I get on in the morning. Thanks all for your swift and useful replies :)

It didn't work :( just had a fasting level of 6.0 (should be 5.3 or below),

I was the same as you. All after meal levels were fine but my morning fast one was high. I tried the snack during the night and sometimes it worked but mostly it didn’t. I got myself very upset about it all and didn’t want to have to go on medication but most people can’t control it on diet alone (contrary to what it feels like on mumsnet) and at the end of the day if it was any other illness we wouldn’t hesitate to take medication. I started taking insulin in the evening and didn’t have another high reading first thing. I actually had a few hypos during the day as the insulin brought down my levels a little too much. My son was born a healthy 6lb 1oz at 38 weeks. His bloods were fine and mine returned to normal. Don't drive yourself crazy with trying to figure out what you’ve done wrong Sometimes these things are out of our control and we need a little help.

Thanks @67oonkin, that's actually a really comforting post