Gestational diabetes

[NAF123]

Hi x
Just been diagnosed with gestational diabetes 😔
Cant even tell you how upset I am...
Can I get advice ideas from any of you that had it ?
What kind of bread you having cheese etc?
Thank you x

I cut out bread but cheese is pretty much something you can binge on. They tell you to stick to what you usually eat but lower your portion of carbs or replace with a salad.

There’s an app carbs & cals that you need to pay for but it’s amazing and tells you the carbs per portion size and can tally up your intake so well.

Thank you @sweetchillichicken
Did you have energy when you cut all the bread?
I find it all so difficult..

I was unwell and lethargic for around a week, my body adjusted though and it soon picked up just take easy and try your best not to stress about it. It’s such a big change to have to make when your already exhausted so try and allow yourself the odd snack or slip if your bloods aren’t too high

Hello

I was diagnosed and managed to control it with diet.

I cut out pretty much all carbs as they caused my blood sugar to spike - no sugar, no bread, no rice, no pasta, no cereal, almost no potatoes. I tried Vogel bread which is supposed to be low GI but it still caused blood sugar spikes.

Instead I ate plenty of protein and fat so I wasn’t hungry, plus veg of course but the veg didn’t fill me up. I also made sure I had snacks between meals but they had to be non carby snacks.

Here’s some ideas:

Breakfast - eggs or plain unsweetened yoghurt with nuts/seeds and fruit. Avocado. Cottage cheese or soft cheese with nuts.
Snacks - nuts, avocado, cheese, hard boiled egg, salami
Lunch/dinner - meat/fish/cheese plus lots of veg.

After the first couple of weeks, I found a few new potatoes were ok. Lentils or pearl barley (cooked lightly so still quite firm) were also ok in very small portions. But everyone is different so you may have to experiment a bit with what causes a spike and what doesn’t.

If you do eat any carbs then try to have them with protein and fat as this makes it less likely to cause a blood sugar spike. But I would avoid carbs as much as possible tbh if you want to keep it diet controlled especially at the start.

I did crave carbs at the start but it went away after the first week or two as my body got used to it.

Good luck

I managed to control it with diet by reducing my carbs, I had one slice of bread a day! I was able to have 4 crackers with cheese every night as my supper which was a life saver!!

@minipie thank you do much I will cut bread as well can you have rice cakes ?

@naptimeismyhappytime thank you crackers are great ideas x any brand in particular you were having ?

If my sugar level comes high after breakfast is that mean the baby in distress?

The diagnosis is really scary OP, I know. Also, as the diabetic midwife pointed out to me - for normal diabetics, it can take 6 months to get on top of the changes required but when you're pregnant, you're expected to sort it out in one week!

It is hard to cut carbs, but you don't have to cut them completely. In my case, from memory, I think I was told a maximum of 40g of carbs per meal and 20g for a snack. I found that I needed to keep it slightly lower than that usually. So, for example, just one slice of bread rather than a sandwich or, if I did have a sandwich, it was with thin cut bread, crusts removed. Lots and lots of vegetables and protein to fill you up when you can't have the potatoes/rice/bread etc. Also they encouraged me to have fat which, long term, probably isn't ideal, but did help to feel satisfied - eg cheese, cream etc.

I found that lunch was the meal I struggled with the most and my sugar levels were often too high afterwards, so had to get really careful with that. Also, a small amount of exercise shortly after eating helps a lot - I took to bringing my lunch into the office then taking a little walk to do a few chores or whatever afterwards. It made a huge difference vs doing my chores/walk and picking up lunch then bringing it back to my desk to eat.

if you like pasta, probably best just to cut it out completely. Portion control is really hard. I don't eat a lot of pasta but pretty much stopped eating it completely as it was impossible to stick to my limits with it and still feel satisfied afterwards.

No advice on what to eat as mine wasn't diagnosed until 40 weeks but seriously, you don't need to get upset about it. It's really not worth stressing over

can you have rice cakes

I couldn’t no, puffed rice is high GI. Nairns oatcakes were the best of the cracker type things.

Also, a small amount of exercise shortly after eating helps a lot - I took to bringing my lunch into the office then taking a little walk to do a few chores or whatever afterwards.

I didn’t do this, maybe I could have been slightly less strict on cutting out carbs if I had

Also not all carbs are equally problematic- the high GI ones are the worst, that’s sugar, cereal, bread and anything else made of refined flour, mash, white rice. Then medium GI carbs would be lentils, beans, new potatoes, oatcakes. Al dente pasta and brown basmati rice are also medium gi but as mentioned it has to be a small amount, not enough for a meal really.

Hi OP! I’m currently 34 weeks, was diagnosed with GD at 28 weeks. I was also so upset when I found out but I have got my head around it now, so I want to make a few things clear:

• this is not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t cause this by eating too much sugar in pregnancy. You couldn’t have prevented it by eating more healthily earlier on.

• you’re a good mother, taking good care of your baby

• you’re going to get through this and be amazing.

Now, for more practical advice.

One sugar spike doesn’t mean the baby is in distress. The issue is multiple sugar spikes will cause your baby to over-produce insulin which is a growth hormone, so they may end up measuring large. The better controlled your sugars are, the more stable your baby’s weight gain will be.

The bread I tolerate best is either the burgen soya and linseed one, or the Vogel’s seeded bread. I can have a slice of that with butter and peanut butter for breakfast and it’s fine. The seeds are the key part - plain wholemeal bread will likely still cause a blood sugar spike.

Different women have different tolerances, but for me I am totally fine with brown rice, brown pasta and potatoes as long as they aren’t more than a third of my plate. All veg apart from sweet potatoes is fine for me.

You should sign up to the Gestational Diabetes UK membership. It’s only £5 per month and you get access to amazing recipes (including for things like millionaires shortbread which you would never think you could eat). There is also an incredibly supportive Facebook group where you can ask questions and get advice etc.

PIease be gentle with yourself - it’s a lot to get your head around but in no time at all you’ll be up to speed and feeling grand

Also I second the advice about walking - a walk after dinner (just 20 mins or so) has made the world of difference to my fasting levels.

Also remember you will still need to eat some carbs, because eating none at all puts you at risk of ketoacidosis which can be very harmful to the baby. Just make sure you’re sticking to carbs you can tolerate (vegetables, low GI options like wholemeal pasta, lentils and chickpeas etc) and being disciplined about portion control.

Get yourself over to gestationaldiabetes.co.uk and also join their Facebook group (gestational diabetes uk). They were an absolute lifesaver for me!

Carbs wise I could tolerate one slice of Burgen Soya and Linseed bread (available in co-op and Sainsbury's) or a couple of oatcakes if paired with cheese/peanut butter. For breakfasts, you'll have lots of recommendations for eggs, eggs and more eggs but I was also able tolerate full fat greek yogurt with a tiny amount of berries plus seeds/nuts.

It is important that you do still eat some carbs though, and it's a case figuring out which ones work for you.

Make sure all your foods are full fat, this really helps with the food pairing. I had cheese or full fat mayo with pretty much every lunch and dinner for 24 weeks straight (I was diagnosed at 16 weeks). Snack options: nuts, seeds, all the cheeses, sugar free jelly with double cream, peanut butter, hard boiled eggs, cocktail sausages, ham, celery and full fat houmous.

My consultant also advised taking a short walk (15-20mins) after each meal but I was diagnosed shortly before the first lockdown where we could only leave the house once per day for exercise so I would do star jumps in the kitchen, side steps in the lounge or walk up and down the stairs.

Thank you so much ladies can't thank you enough 🥰🥰

For breakfasts, you'll have lots of recommendations for eggs, eggs and more eggs but I was also able tolerate full fat greek yogurt with a tiny amount of berries plus seeds/nuts.

Completely counter-intuitively, the best breakfast for me was a plain croissant. I physically cannot eat eggs without toast but if I wasn't going into the office might have a hard boiled egg and one slice of toast. But yoghurt and fruit for breakfast does not work for me - doesn't fill me up and can make me nauseous. Then I discovered that a croissant from Pret was pretty much my exact allocation and for whatever reason, it was perfect in that I didn't feel hungry for hours afterwards and it didn't make my sugar spike.

On the other hand, I had to give up tomatoes completely as even just a few in a salad which make my sugar spike.

So there is an irritating element of trial and error as well which is particularly frustrating as you are trying to get this all right so very very quickly.

@spaceOP never thought it could be the tomatoes!! Thank you so much!!!

@NAF123 Tesco's own multigrain crackers! They were great and I was delighted that 4 of them with some cranberry and Wensleydale (Pregs over Xmas) worked well for me! I really didn't have to make too many changes to my diet and it soon just becomes routine checking carbs and blood sugars... don't worry yourself too much!

Hi OP, please don't worry. I felt the same as you when I was diagnosed but once I got my head around it it wasn't so bad. As other posters have said, have a look at the Gestational Diabetes UK site and their facebook group. The help and advice on there is invaluable and far superior to the NHS advice.

The premise is all about balancing when you eat so you stop a sugar spike. For example, having a piece of seeded bread with butter and a handful of nuts, or a small jacket potato with lots of cheese.

Women with GD often find carbs the hardest to process in the morning and it can get progressively harder to tolerate things. I started off being able to have two pieces of seeded bread with a full fat yoghurt and some nuts but had to only have one piece of toast as time went on.

Cheese becomes your best friend : ) Cheese and crackers (with butter) are a great snack.

I had it, could do a single piece of brown granary bread sandwich ( like a kids one!) . Lots of salad, chicken, cheese. Separately a few hours later some salted popcorn.

It was ok, I thought I'd give birth and be thin, but I think all the cheese and full fat stuff did me no favours. My treat was a sugar free yogurt every night for being good.

I could have two weetabix, but not with fruit. It's hard as they say to eat fruit, but you'll work out what to combine to make it work. Often fat helps, and walking after eating !!!

Sorry should of said I stayed diet controlled and my DD was 8 lbs 8 oz, born after induction 5 days overdue which is what they let me go to as no issues. Birth was good no issues.

I’ve recently been diagnosed, joined the facebook group and the gestational diabetes website and i’m finding it all very overwhelming. I had a telephone appointment with the dietitian and she said slimming world type meals would be fine! No matter what i eat my readings are all over target, i’ve come to bed without any dinner tonight because i just can’t think what to have.

I’ve went off chicken since i’ve been pregnant and i’ve ate so many eggs and cheese these past couple of weeks that they turn my stomach.

I wish there was a meal plan that told you want to eat, finding it so stressful trying to figure it out 😩

@belle365 the comments on these thread are really helpful.. (me saying it after crying most of the day today)
I am still finding it hard ... seems like only avocado and eggs good for me 🙈 we not going to give up x we will beat this 🤗

@belle365 I’m so sorry you are struggling. Please eat something. Can you tell us what you like and maybe I can make some suggestions?

Also, sometimes it just can’t be controlled by diet and metformin or insulin are required. There’s nothing you can do to change that but taking the medication if you needs it helps keep your baby safe.

@belle365 have a look at some of these www.gestationaldiabetes.co.uk/recipe-index/

Thanks for the replies and sorry for jumping on your post OP. I've drastically changed my diet, I have to admin I was eating terribly before the test so maybe I do need meds. I have an appointment on Tuesday next week so I will see what they say.

I didn't think I was a fussy eater to be honest but it turns out i don't like wholemeal anything! I've managed to do a bit of a meal plan for next week so fingers crossed this helps :)