Please help I'm new and just been diagnosed with Gestational

[Littlelorna]

Hi everyone

I'm a newy and am 27 wks pregnant with my first baby. I was diagnosed last week as having gestational diabetes and I'm terrified and feel completely lost :cry: I've had a GTT and it came back as 13 after the glucose drink. I saw the diabetic specialist last wednesday he said i had to experiment with my diet to bring down my BS levels and sent me home with a glucose monitoring kit. The new diet didn't start off too good 2 hours after breakfast i was getting readings of anywhere between 8.7 and 12.4 after eating granary toast, porridge, weetabix all what the dietician had recommended. Same after dinner after having potatoes etc, so have fast come to the conclution that these are foods i need to avoid ( that goes for watered down fruit juice too!). I have now been eating natural yoghurt with fruit added for breaky, literally salad, salad and more salad with cheese a bit of meat or soup for lunch and dinner, or roast veggies with some kind of meat. For snacks it's fruit or cashew nuts or 2-3 ritz crackers and i've been managing to keep my BS to a normal level but i'm not sure how long i can keep it up!. The thing is I'm absolutely starving, i feel sick because i'm hungry it doesn't matter how much salad i push down my neck an hour or so after i'm starved again, i've started to lose weight (i'm not over weight to start with) and i feel so worried, fed up and not really sure what i'm doing. I'm really anxious about doing the right thing as i really want to protect my baby (Fundus measurments are normal so far so have been told that bubs is of 'normal' size so far) so therefore wondered if any of you guys could give me some tips and answer some questions...i'd be so greatful

- any ideas on what i can try to eat?
- has anybody tried using GI diets rather than just looking at overall carbo levels, does it help?
- if i manage to keep my BS levels down does that stop the baby becoming overly large?

I've been trying to ring my dietician for a couple of days now but haven't been able to get hold of her..very reassuring hey! I'm so worried, what am i going to do? Thanks for your time everyone x

 

[hanadr]

You won't get your blood glucose down on bread, porridge and weetabix. You could try telling the doctors it doesn't work, but unless they are diabetics themselves, they tend not to believe you.
There is no metabolic necessity for eating carbohydrates, so if you cut them down, your blood sugar should come down too. If you eat less of those foods you listed, you won't hurt your baby. He/she needs protein, good fats and viamins and minerals. So meat, fish, eggs cheese and vegetables, with a little fruit. Try it for a few days and see if it does the trick. Start with a breakfast of scrambled eggs. Test before and an hour after eating. then try a green salad, with low carb dressing and do the same. Try different foods and keep a record of what the effects are on your blood glucose. Show it to your care team. They will throw their hands up in horror and tell you "you must eat carbs!" You don't need them, but a little might be ok. remember gestational diabetes often leads to huge babies and early induction of labour. Keep a log of your food, your BG and tie it in to your baby's scans
Let us know how you get on and we all wish you and the baby a safe delivery in a few weeks time

 

[hanadr]

PS
I'm surprised they didn' put you straight on to insulin!