Eating sugar in pregnancy - is it all bad?

[MymbleMumble]

Hi,
I have been advised not to eat refined sugar during pregnancy by my midwife as my last baby was large (8lb 12oz). My friend was also advised by her consultant to reduce sugar for the same reason. She was told that a bowl of cereal and juice was too much sugar to have every morning.
I understand if you have gestational diabetes that you need to manage sugar very carefully but is that true of everyone?
Getting worried about the cake I'm eating and don't know who to ask. Should I be restricting my sugar and if so does that mean restricting fruit intake as that contains high levels of sugar?

I always thought that you couldn't affect birth weight through your diet. Very confused. Anyone know any more?

I've never been given any warnings about sugar, other than the obvious try to have a healthy diet.

I've not been told that either. Funnily enough my last baby was 8lb 12 too! and I did eat a lot of cakes in that pregnancy!
This time round I'm not getting so many cake urges though so will be interesting to see if this baby is smaller.

I thought 8lb12 was a decent weight for a baby though, not something to be avoided / worried about?

I was on 6 packets of extra strong mints a day when pregnant with my dd. That was what I was craving and noone would have dared say I couldn't have them! Dd was 7lb9 (4 days overdue)
The sugars in fruit are different to sugar sugar though

I'm the same. My last baby I got this amazing appetite for sweet stuff from about week 24 and in the last few months almost had a green and blacks bar of choc a day. So bad. I'm only slim but did pile on weight which was so hard to lose. Am back to my original size now so avoiding going too mad for that reason but also my baby was 9lbs 10oz. Not sure how much was to do with the green and blacks?! May ease off this time just in case but you're only pregnant a few times and it's about the only time you can go guilt free isn't it!

nonsense

It's gestational diabetes that causes excessively large babies, not sugar. It's how your body reacts to the sugar that counts, and a bowl of cereal with a glass of orange juice certainly isn't going to hurt you.

If it would put your mind at rest, but a blood sugar monitor from Boots. They're about £20 and fairly accurate as long as your hands are clean

All I know is I pretty much lived on sugar when pregnant with DD and she was a wee 5lbs 12oz! If you want to eat cake - eat cake!

Thanks for all your comments. I've been getting into a tizz. I blame hormones! Very upset at the thought of someone taking my cake away!

Oh FFS. As long as you're not eating ridiculous numbers of calories, and are not in danger of gestational diabetes, you can eat what you like. Your midwife sounds obsessional to me; I'd ignore her.

Second everything said above! My daughter was 8lb4, DS 9lb5 and never been told not to eat refined sugar. I lived off kripsy kreme doughnuts, the ones with the sprinkles . . . hmmmmmmm

I would also be most upset at someone trying to take away my cake

Ooh yeah the sprinkles ones are the best!

That sounds like a load of complete new age hippy bollocks to me!

IF you have gestational diabetes then you should be getting proper dietary advice from a dietician. In that situaation you need to watch the amount of sugar in your blood, which is influenced by your diet as a whole, certainly not just sugar 'refined' or otherwise.

I would suggest that if your midwife mentions this again to ask her to refer you to a dietician who specialises in pregnancy.

Rant over

At the rate I'm going, I'm going to give birth to a 9oz green Jelly Baby

Heck, I really hope not! I've been practically inhaling Haribo Tangfastics for the past few weeks...

9lb is not an excessively big baby anyway!

refined sugar was probably the only thing I could digest quickly without throwing up (hyperemesis)

dd was a tiddly full-term 6lb

I didn't change my diet during either of my pregnancies. Dd1 was 7lb 14oz (11 days late), dd2 was 10lb 9oz (8 days late).

Mine will be a marshmallow then!

Like TheFoosa I have eaten loads of sugary foods in all my pregnancies, including this one. I actually wish I wasn't, because I think anything in excess is bad for you, but my dcs were both a tiny 5lb 10 and 6lb 14, so it certainly had no effect on that! Everything in moderation is fine in my opinion .