Holiday breakfasts

hose1975

Well-Known Member
Messages
108
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hello, all!

I'm pregnant with my second and have GDM *again*. Sigh. Got diagnosed at 17 weeks, on insulin already at 19 weeks. I usually have porridge as for breakfast as I have very little time in the morning to make anything else (and I've never been a toast / bacon / eggs fan - they sit around like a concrete bowling ball in my stomach and I just feel queasy). I have to take insulin to control my post-breakfast BG. To be honest, I'm a little browned off (and that's putting it politely) as I have lost nearly two and a half stone between my pregnancies, taking me from a BMI of 30 to 23 along the way, and I really thought I'd dodged the bullet this time.

So far, so like a lot of you (I'm guessing). My question is this: I am going away for a long weekend, which was booked right at the beginning of the pregnancy. It'll be a typical northern European breakfast as I'm going to Sweden (meats, cheeses, rye bread, the usual gubbins). Of course, I don't usually eat this type of thing in the morning so my question is...

How do I know how much insulin to take before breakfast?

At present I take three (and probably should have four, but I'm dosing up) units of Novorapid before I eat. Should I maybe try one unit on the first day, see what my post-breakfast readings are and then adjust the dose the second day if needs be? I'm pretty certain I'll be eating the same things and in about the same amounts. I will be asking my doctor tomorrow, but wondered whether others have had to deal with a similar situation. I don't want to take too much and fall over, but neither do I want to risk some scary-high readings (and I pulled a 9.9 this morning - eek!).

Thanks for any advice you might have,

Jo
 

daisynova

Active Member
Messages
35
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Congrats on your second pregnancy!

With your breakfast, I am guessing you have around 40-50grams of carbs in your porridge breakfast normally so I would check the carb totals of what you will eat on your holiday. Generally a croissant will be around 20g then more if you add jam or marmalade. Have a wee google online for carb counting or get a hold of a copy of Carbs and Calls. Once you know the carb total of what you are eating (or about to eat) then you can give yourself enough insulin to cover it. So if you give 4 units to cover 40g then use that as a guide - 1unit of insulin per 10g carbs to be eaten.

Not entirely accurate but it should help you keep those highs down x
 

hose1975

Well-Known Member
Messages
108
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Thanks for the advice.

In the end I had quite high fasting numbers and two small slices of bread (no idea how much they weighed, to be honest, so no real idea of how much carbohydrate was contained within), with a fairly hefty quantity of cheese and meats. I injected two units, on the basis that if it proved to be too much I had GlucoTabs on hand. Joy of joys, I appear to have got it spot on ;)

Cheers

Jo