Low Carb Diet to limit size of baby??

[ConnorTraceptive]

DS was a big baby 10lb and his birth was quite problematic so I have seen a consultant today to go over birth note (he didn't have my birth notes so we couldn't actually go over them - but that's a rant for another day!)

Anyhow he has suggested a low carb diet to help limit the size of this baby. Just wondered if anyone has had this and found that it actually worked? Unfortunately all I want to do is stuf my face with high carb foods at the mo!

Isn't any diet a no no when you are pregnant. I thought a low or no carb diet was dangerous when pregnant?

sounds as if he thinks you might have had gestational diabetes - did he mention that?

this doesnt sound right to me.

Thats seems like insane advice. If he was really worried about the size of the baby then it would be better to induce slightly early rather than deprive yourself and the baby of nutrients.

Everything I've looked at suggests a low carb diet isn't a good idea when pregnant. I have been tested for gestational diabetes and I don't have it.

To be honest the whole appointment was a joke, he didn't explain what he meant by low carb diet i.e what extreme to take it to. All I'm going to do is cut out pasta dishes and refined carbs. Just stick to meat and veg type meals. Can't give up potatoes i'm afraid!

i thikn the gowri mothra gentle birth plan proposes a low carb diet, as it stops congestion of the pelvis or something, whihc can make birth difficult, don;t know much about it all, so might be wrong

your birth might not have gone the way it did, solely due to the size of yuor baby....

bst thing to do is to eat a sensible, varied diet, and not drive yourself mad

I have never heard of any diet affecting the size of baby, although I would love to hear about it if there is any truth there.

A low carb diet will help to reduce the amount of weight you gain in pregnancy and as such is really just healthy eating, unless its taken to extremes. Baby just takes what it needs from you and you will grow to whatever size its going to be.

I was going to mention Gowri Motha too.

I bought the book because I had a similar experience to the OP (DS over 11 lbs+ was induced & ended with emergency CS) but then never stuck to the diet principles because I just wanted to stuff my face!

Hmm will have a look at the gowri mothra thing but you are right lulumama there were other factors involved which may have caused my heamorage (sp?) was two weeks late, induced, ds back to back, ventouse and forceps were used and my mum also had blood transfusions with all three of her births so there is some family history too. (was never going to be a great birth really was it? )

ho hum roll on march - NOT!

a big baby, a big placenta, a long induced/. augmented labour , a tired uterus are all factors in PPH..

even if you have another big baby , it is not a given you will heamorrhage again

when you were induced were you bed bound, or able to mobilise?

I was mobile for the first few hours but I wasn't progressing (only 3cms after 4/5 hours) so I went on a drip and from then on I was immobile for the next 7 hours. Will being more mobile this time help?

Are you near Winchester? I know of a consultant there who recommended that to a friend -- I thought it was loony then and still do.

If it was a first baby then being only 3cm after 4/5 hours is entirely normal -- especially if the baby is posterior as that tends to mean you take longer to dilate. Sounds from what you've said here like they wanted your labour to go to a strict (and IMO unrealistic) timetable regardless of how much intervention that meant.

no I'm not from winchester - you're right it does seem odd. Surely if my carb intake was too high I would be puting on loads of weight too? I had a massive bump with ds but the rest of my body stayed the same.

You are right looking back I probably had just about every intervention going when ds was born

Agree that you shouldn't be going on any sort of "diet" while pregnant, but
the main concept behind proper low-carb eating is that it's real food. So no junk, ready meals, processed meats (contain nitrates) etc.

Avoid sugar at all costs, eat plenty of veg and drink at least 2 litres of water a day.

In addition, this isn't a high protein regime, you eat high fat content instead and this keeps your bowels regular. If you just eat low carb and don't up the fat content or drink enough water (where most people go wrong) you get really bunged up and have the bad breath most people associate with the diet. But giving up sugar and artificially sweetened items is a big step towards health. Sugar free is just as bad for you as sugar-full drinks as it (normally aspartame) raises insulin levels just as effectively as sugar.

If you shudder at the thought of butter and cream, then think more along the line of nuts (unless you're avoiding them) and avocados. You don't need to give up potatoes, just don't have the aunt Bessie types covered in flour

A good article here:
www.lowcarbluxury.com/pregnancy.html

I started off my pregnancy determined to avoid sugar and high carb things, but unfortunately the morning sickness and sheer aversion to cooking anything led me down the evil path of ready meals and lots of toast! But I firmly believe that sugar is something that worsens any condition of ill-health so sorry for getting on my soapbox .
As for stopping your baby getting too big, that's what goes hand in hand with glucose intolerance/ gestational diabetes...and advice for that is, I believe, to stop eating sugary things and those chocolate treats that help so much!
x

Hi, I followed some of the gowri motha dietary advice with 2nd baby (from 28 weeks) following large 1st baby.

I cut out sugar and wheat. Felt fantastic. Iron levels went up. Looked leaner, lots more energy. Yes, baby was lovely 7lbs something.

Did it for the entire pregnancy for 3rd baby, and the baby was slightly smaller.

I still ate extremely well (lots of vegetables). It was low GI rather than low carb.

(oh, and agree with fitnforty about sugar. i got nausea when blood sugars dropped so a low GI diet - which stabilises blood sugars - really does help nausea)

When I was worrying at my consultant about my baby's slightly low projected weight, he said that eating more would make absolutely no difference to the baby's birth weight.. So the opposite being true doesn't seem to make much sense.

I too think a healthy balanced diet during pregnancy is the way forward.. Says she, crunchie in hand.

Thanks for the further advice. It's interesting to read your experiences. The gowri motha advice does sound interesting too just got to get some will power! My general fluid intake is poor my water intake is ridiculous so I really need to work on that.

Feel absolutely rubbish at the mo so a better diet is probably in order.

OMG I think that sounds very dangerous as it can lead to ketones which can damage your internal organs - it's what actually killed Dr Atkins. A low carb diet could actually harm your baby too - I really wouldn't do it.

That doctor should be shot!

daisynova - he died from a fall on ice outside his office, not his diet. PETA "leaked" info about his death weight, but that was higher than normal due to him being on a glucose drip while he was in a coma.
The whole ketone thing is why you need to read the subject properly rather than listen to the misrepresentation in the media. All the anti-Atkins vitriol is led by big businesses like the sugar and potato industry (and animal rights groups) who had most to lose by people following a low carb plan. But think about it from this perspective, up until the 60s, the common way for people to lose weight was cut out starchy food like potatoes. It was in the 60s that someone came up with the low-fat method of weight loss. That's worked so well there's an obesity problem everywhere. Too simplistic to say that's the only cause, but companies like Slimming World & Weight watchers are so successful because once people lose their initial weight to get to target, they don't address the underlying issues that caused them to be overweight in the first place, go back to eating "normally", go back to WW/SW and give them loads of repeat business.
Don't believe everything you read in the papers, if you see a survey saying X is dangerous, look to see who sponsered the research as chances are the results are reported to be favourable to the sponsor!

Every "diet" is dangerous, if misinterpreted.

I would say go for low-GI instead of low-carb. Cutting out any sort of food seems like a bad idea. So choose versions of carb that digest slowly. Wholegrain bread, brown rice. And no need to give up pasta, pasta is medium, not high, and if you make it with pesto or bolognese it will bring the GI down further.

Hmm have been having a good read, I think you are right madmouse more low GI seems more appropriate. Am going to cut out refined carbs, sugar, chocolate and cakes and any processed foods (don't eat much like that anyway) which I think just leaves quite a sensible, healthy diet.

fitnforty - I don't believe everything that I read in the papers. As quoted in Wikipedia:

"Around 2000, Atkins started to develop a heart condition, cardiomyopathy, which he claimed was unrelated to his diet. On April 18, 2002, Atkins suffered a cardiac arrest.

On April 8, 2003, Atkins slipped on ice and fell in front of his medical office in New York City and sustained major head injuries that put him in a coma. News of this quickly turned into rumors that Atkins had a heart attack while he was on his own diet. He never recovered from his injuries, and subsequently died on April 17 of kidney failure."

Head injuries don't tend to cause kidney failure - malnutrition and not eating properly can lead to kidney failure. And the fact that he wasn't eating carbs meant that he produced ketones which could in fact lead to his death from kidney failure. Glucose doesn't tend to cause ketones unless he wasn't producing insulin to convert the glucose into energy.

The reason I know this is that I have suffered from ketones regularly due to having unstable diabetes through my teens which was the result of an eating disorder.

As long as people eat a low-fat, high fibre, high complex carbohydrate diet then they should be able to sustain a healthy diet.

And I agree with madmouse - a low GI diet makes more sense where the type or style of food you eat affects how it is absorbed by your body. The best book to explain this is the Glucose Revolution.

Hi Daisynova,
Wikipedia's probably as reliable as the newspapers given the ability of so many people to edit it (don't think the CIA were involved in this one though)

For a bit of info on diabetes, mainly aimed at type2 but I also know of people with type 1 who have reduced their insulin dependence due to this way of eating:
www.second-opinions.co.uk/diabetes_index.html

Also, for cardiomyopathy:
www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4468
Many reasons for the heart defects either viral or congenital. But again, the rumours linking it to his diet were spread by those who were most impacted by the success of the diet.

I'm not a big Atkins fan despite all this since he sold out by the end to a corporation bearing his name which mass produced shakes and breakfast bar type things, going against the main message in earlier versions of his book. Something like "Eat Fat Get Thin" by Barry Groves (whose 2nd opinions website is quoted above) is much more moderate and explains the "science" bit much better.

~But low Gi is better than nothing at all, as i said first post round, the main aim of low carb originally was to cut out all the junk we eat and go back to eating real food. I try not to eat anything with more than 5 ingredients listed on the label...outside of pregnancy where that's just gone out the window completely.

ps - am also vegetarian, so sticking up for meat eaters goes against the grain but i do believe in the message behind the "low-fat" myth. Been reading research on it for about 6 years now....
Sorry for hijacking your question CT!