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Diabetic newbie

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deanodean

Newbie
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2
Hi everyone hope your all well. I have quite an ignorant question as I’ve never been in contact with someone who is diabetic. My partner has 2 kids and in both pregnancies her blood sugar levels were all over the place. These kids are 7 and 9 now. Weve been together 4yrs and she’s not been diabetic since kid 2 as far as I know. We found out 2 months ago she is expecting my first, her 3rd child . Again her levels are starting to do strange things and she has been given insulin to have in the evening but told to keep jelly babies by the bed in case of a hypo during the night? I’m really worried about her and want to know what signs I should look for if this happens and how to get sugar into her if she isn’t fully conscious? Google seems to give conflicting answers and I just want to be reassured on what to do just incase. Thanks in advance x
 
Hi @deanodean ,

Welcome to the forums.

If you need to correct low blood sugars, liquids work faster than solids. Orange juice, normal cola and lucozade will do the job. There is also a product called Glucojuice which is exactly 15g of carbs and should correct levels without making a person hyper afterwards.

Take a look at this info page........
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/what-is-a-hypo.html
 
Hello, and welcome on the forum. First, congratulations with your partners pregnancy! Second, I don't know anything about gestational diabetes, but more knowledgable people will be along soon :)
The first place to look for information is your partner, I think, as she did this twice before.
In general, if hypo but not fully concious, only give something sugary when she can swallow safely, otherwise, call emergency. You don't want her to be choking on top of a hypo. Or use injectable glucagon if you have it and when it's safe to use in pregnacy (I have no idea).
That said, with a little luck, neither wont be nessecary :)
 
deanodean said:
Hi everyone hope your all well. I have quite an ignorant question as I’ve never been in contact with someone who is diabetic. My partner has 2 kids and in both pregnancies her blood sugar levels were all over the place. These kids are 7 and 9 now. Weve been together 4yrs and she’s not been diabetic since kid 2 as far as I know. We found out 2 months ago she is expecting my first, her 3rd child . Again her levels are starting to do strange things and she has been given insulin to have in the evening but told to keep jelly babies by the bed in case of a hypo during the night? I’m really worried about her and want to know what signs I should look for if this happens and how to get sugar into her if she isn’t fully conscious? Google seems to give conflicting answers and I just want to be reassured on what to do just incase. Thanks in advance x
Click to expand...

There is a sub forum on here for gestational diabetes. You may find some of the discussions on there useful.

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/gestational-diabetes.21/
 
Gestational diabetes’s, wow ok I didn’t even know it had that name. Thanks for the replies, she’s quite relaxed about it and a lot of info has slipped her mind as it’s been so long but when she said about a hypo I just wanted to be prepared. Doc said no to lucozade as the recipe has been changed? I’ll look up the sub forum and the links provides, again many thanks x
 
deanodean said:
Gestational diabetes’s, wow ok I didn’t even know it had that name. Thanks for the replies, she’s quite relaxed about it and a lot of info has slipped her mind as it’s been so long but when she said about a hypo I just wanted to be prepared. Doc said no to lucozade as the recipe has been changed? I’ll look up the sub forum and the links provides, again many thanks x
Click to expand...

Good luck!
 
xfieldok said:
No, on the bottle I saw, sugar was not mentioned in the ingredients. I can't link on my phone, if you look up lucozade on the Ocado site you will see.

I knew of a couple of cyclists who used to carry it for emergencies, they had to find something else.
Click to expand...

Ocado? Why? My screen shot comes from https://www.lucozade.com/ , a bit more reliable than a supermarket I feel. Many soft drinks manufacturers have 'reduced' sugar content in their drinks to get round the sugar tax rules, they haven't removed sugar completely.
 
xfieldok said:
No, on the bottle I saw, sugar was not mentioned in the ingredients. I can't link on my phone, if you look up lucozade on the Ocado site you will see.

I knew of a couple of cyclists who used to carry it for emergencies, they had to find something else.
Click to expand...

Lucozade have launched a Zero range which, as you say, uses aspartame, and would be useless for hypos, but their other ranges still have sugar in them, reduced now because of the sugar tax, but still usable in a hypo, just need to drink a bit more for the same effect.
 
urbanracer said:
Ocado? Why? My screen shot comes from https://www.lucozade.com/ , a bit more reliable than a supermarket I feel. Many soft drinks manufacturers have 'reduced' sugar content in their drinks to get round the sugar tax rules, they haven't removed sugar completely.
Click to expand...
Not sure. that's not what I see in my local shop. Could that image be from a US site?
 
xfieldok said:
Not sure. that's not what I see in my local shop. Could that image be from a US site?
Click to expand...

I'm still not seeing the point you're making, mate!

See my post #11 above.

T1s who use luco for hypos tend to deal with these things in advance by buying ahead so there's a few bottles already in the office/house/car/wherever, so we walk into a shop, check the bottles to see if it's the Zero version or the 8.9g per 100ml non-Zero version, and we then buy the latter, and sit it on top of our desks at work or wherever.

Luco is still a good way of treating hypos, provided we avoid the Zero range. It's just a case of reading the labels on the bottles, and we're all pretty much used to doing that!
 
Scott-C said:
I'm still not seeing the point you're making, mate!

See my post #11 above.

T1s who use luco for hypos tend to deal with these things in advance by buying ahead so there's a few bottles already in the office/house/car/wherever, so we walk into a shop, check the bottles to see if it's the Zero version or the 8.9g per 100ml non-Zero version, and we then buy the latter, and sit it on top of our desks at work or wherever.

Luco is still a good way of treating hypos, provided we avoid the Zero range. It's just a case of reading the labels on the bottles, and we're all pretty much used to doing that!
Click to expand...
I was replying to the OP. The doctor had said not to use lucozade. Page 1 of the thread.
 
xfieldok said:
I was replying to the OP. The doctor had said not to use lucozade. Page 1 of the thread.
Click to expand...

Sorry if that came across bad - all too easy to do in text on a mobile.

The OP said at post #5 that the doc had said not to use luco for hypos as the recipe had changed.

I think that was incorrect advice, as luco, provided it's not the Zero stuff, is still perfectly viable as a hypo treatment.

You then offered a view that luco now just had aspartame in it and cyclists had stopped using it.

I felt that that compounded the doctor's error, so I pointed out that one needs to appreciate the difference between luco Zero and ordinary luco.

I hope that the OP will be reassured that non-Zero luco is still a good hypo treatment, as it has a decent 8.9g per 100ml, unlike Zero, which has nil.

I've always had a bottle of the Pink Lemonade version kicking around the office/home before the recent changes were made. It was 8.9 even before the others were switched down from 17 to 8.9. It's always been fine for me, so any doctor who says it can't be used anymore is flat out wrong.
 
I read somewhere, sorry can’t remember where, that rubbing honey into the hypo persons gums was a much safer alternative as there was less chance of choking, as with liquid.
 
xfieldok said:
No problem. So long as the right advice gets out.
Click to expand...

Yes, it can be a confusing business at times! I've pretty much always got a couple of packs of dextrotabs and a GlucoJuice bottle in my pockets, but like to have a bottle of luco to hand in the office/home as well. Pretty easy to do as there's a wide variety of Tescos and Scotmids located around me, but they make it damned complicated by putting the Zeros next to the ordinary ones - gotta read those labels...
 
I have glucose tablets stashed all over the place and I am Type2!

The likelihood of my getting a hypo is ridiculously small but better safe than sorry.
 
Petaluk said:
I read somewhere, sorry can’t remember where, that rubbing honey into the hypo persons gums was a much safer alternative as there was less chance of choking, as with liquid.
Click to expand...

That's a good point, Petaluk, and it's something I'd likely do because of risk of ambulance delays, jam would be good for it too, but if there's an unconscious T1 or gestational diabetic, it's call an ambulance straight away, and use any spare glucagon kit that's handy.
 
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