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Help please!!!!

J

jonchris

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi all!
Ok so I am mega confused at the minute and really need help.... I am a type one diabetic and have just discovered that I am pregnant. I have no idea how many carbs I should be eating in a day or per meal. I really need to keep my blood sugar under control but am getting spikes after eating meals ( that I didn't get before pregnancy). My gp suggested that I watch my carbs but that is the only info he gave me!!! He told me that he was also unsure and would refer me to a specialist.... But I need to get this sorted now (as referral could take weeks).
Sorry for the long essay but any advice would be so welcome at the minute.

Thanks in advance
 
Hi @jonchris :)

Congratulations on your pregnancy :) I wonder if your GP is getting confused with gestational diabetes? When I was pregnant for the second time, a midwife assumed I had GD and then went on about diet things that weren't relevant to a Type 1.

You don't need to restrict your carbs (but obviously eating loads and loads isn't wise either), you just need to adjust your insulin to take into account the special situation of pregnancy :) If you're spiking, try having your bolus earlier. Move it gradually and carefully. That should help with the spike. When I was pregnant and on Humalog, I had to have my breakfast bolus 45 mins before eating.

Are you on a pump or injections? Have you seen your diabetes team yet?

Somewhere here is a post I made about what I ate during pregnancy. I'll try to find it for tomorrow or at least repost something similar. I was told to eat 3 nutritious meals a day, plus two snacks. My total daily carbs were around 180g very approximately.
 
Sorry - just saw your comment that the referral could take weeks. I would question that, as I was seen days after informing my DSN I was pregnant. I then saw a great diabetic/obstetric team who were fantastic. Can you phone your DSN?
 
Thanks so much for your reply, this has helped me more than you will know!

I am going to phone my Dsn first thing in the morning and have a chat with him.

Thanks once again x

P.s.. A look at your post about what you are during your pregnancy would be really helpful, so thank you for that. I look forward to having a look at it xx
 
I'll search it out when I'm more awake :)

In the meantime, if you have a read round this Pregnancy section, you should get an idea of pregnancy as a Type 1 :) You might also see things you want to raise with your DSN or check.

The other important thing to say - apart from seeing your team as soon as you can - is that you should be on a high dose folic acid tablet. You may be already, but if not ask. It needs to be prescribed and is a 5mg dose per day. You may also be offered a low dose aspirin to take. I was, and took it with no issues.
 
Yeh I am on 5mg folic acid and 75mg asprin. Also I have just written a list of things that u am going to ask my dsn tomorrrow.

Thanks again xx
 
@jonchris I found the post I made and I've copied it below and added bits:


I concentrated on trying to eat nutritious foods (after the nausea had gone!). I tried to incorporate them into my weekly meals, so my meals varied day to day as I couldn't get all the food in on one day : D So plenty of healthy fats, calcium, iron, protein, carbs, fruit and veg.

I tended to keep breakfast the same the majority of the time - cereal (a mix of good quality not too sweet granola and a bran cereal) with full fat milk, and a 100ml glass of orange juice.

Lunch was usually a sandwich with protein and some veg items like salad or avocado, and an apple or a few dried apricots or prunes, maybe a few squares of chocolate or something.

Evening meal was protein with a moderate helping of pasta, rice or potatoes. plus some kind of dessert item even if only a decaff coffee milkshake and a digestive biscuit, etc

I also incorporated a glass or two of full fat milk. I either had this as a snack with a food item, or as dessert (made into a non sweet milk shake as above) with another item. I had a snack mid morning and mid afternoon. I had things like hard boiled eggs, cheese, crackers, fruit, cereal bar, dried fruit, small scone, digestives and cheddar, etc, etc

Sometimes I had proper desserts like apple crumble, ice cream or a cheesecake made to a pregnancy safe recipe.

I rotated my evening meals so I knew how much insulin to have from memory (I weigh things like pasta to make sure the carbs are accurate). But do bear in mind your insulin resistance will increase a lot and your ratios will rise.

I used Lucozade and sweets as hypo treatments.

I tested my BS frequently, including every night around 2am. During the day I monitored it often, adjusting as necessary - so extra insulin if I needed to correct, or glucose if I was low. My aim was to stay within the target range as much as humanly possible. The only way to do this, in my opinion, is to,test often and react. I had spikes later in pregnancy, but corrected them so was only at that higher level for a short time. I also learnt from any highs I had and tried to prevent the same thing happening again.

Hope that helps :)
 
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