Gestational Diabetes

[Miss Peregrine]

My sister has about 10 weeks left of her pregnancy. She has GD and is having trouble keeping her numbers down. She said she is following the diet she was given. I told her to maybe cut out bread altogether as she is still eating whole wheat. Any other ideas? She has a midwife and today they referred her to a Dr. because of this issue. She is getting really stressed out.

 

This is her 8th baby. She has not had GD before this.

[Freckles]

I was on a GD diet with my second dd. She may need to not only watch her bread intake, but her fruit and starches as well. Lots of protein and green veggies. Sorry she is having to go through this.

[wapiti]

I had GD with my last pregnancy. I ate all the protein I could manage. If I could do it over again, I'd add more fat.

[abacus2]

I recommend the book Blood Sugar 101. One of its primary recommendations is to tailor your diet based on your meter's results. By paying close attention to what makes your blood sugar rise, you can customize your diet to fit your symptoms rather than following a standard plan that may or may not work well for you. I agree with the more protein, more fat recommendation as well.

[besroma]

If I had anything that might spike my blood sugar, I ate a spoonful of natural peanut butter to balance my sugar level. It helped me tremendously.

 

I kept peanut butter crackers in my purse for emergency snacks.

 

I drank mostly water or milk, though I mainly drank milk in the middle of the day because milk also tended to make mine spike.

 

No juices or sodas for the rest of the pregnancy, and I would recommend keeping a food journal to see if she can identify what is causing the highs.

 

I am sorry she is stressed. GD is difficult, especially the first time around. :grouphug:

[Delighted3]

One thing that really helped my blood sugar during my last pregnancy with GD was to walk after every meal. I would walk a 1/3 of a mile after almost every meal. I didn't even walk fast. Sometimes it was pretty slow, but it really seemed to help with the the numbers. Numbers were always higher if I hadn't gotten that little bit of exercise in, especially after the evening meal. I also got to meet a lot of neighbors along that route. :001_smile:

Joy

[mommyx4]

I agree. Walk after every meal(I would walk on the treadmill for15 minutes). Also, eat lots of protein and no pasta/bread/etc. I would eat Joseph's pitas or Wasa crackers if I wanted *bread* but it was always with peanut butter or cheese. If your going to eat some carbs, always pair it with a protein.

[MrsMommy]

Walking is so important! I found I could "cheat" on my diet some if I was willing to work for it. :)

 

A lot of it is trial and error. I learned quickly that there were some things I just couldn't have, even if they were supposedly "OK." Protein and fat are very important. Even with all of those things I was consuming, I still lost weight! And, to be honest, the diet gets pretty boring. I was eating basically the same thing for breakfast, snacks, and lunch every day for 10 weeks or so...only the dinners varied some, and then I had to keep my portions small.

 

It was worth it, though. All five times I had it (although, I only really knew about it long-tern with the last three).