Diagnosed With Gestational Diabetes, And I’m Super Confused/worried/tired…any Advice Or Help Would Be Nice.?
Posted by Zolly | Under Nutrition Tuesday Dec 29, 2009So I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes at 29 weeks, I’m thinking my blood glucose levels at the time weren’t all that bad since they haven’t been outrageous until recently.
I saw a dietician and she gave me a nutrition guide, and suggested blood sugar levels for fasting BG aswell as pre and post meal levels, and I test all the time (not sure how often I’m supposed to be testing? I probably go through 100 strips in about 2/3 weeks. I have no experience with this, and the doctor/dietician doesn’t seem to be of any help..) Also, when I eat the suggested foods I was given, it often spikes my blood sugar, but when I eat what I want, it doesn’t seem to have such a huge effect. Milk for instance, spikes my blood sugar very high, and she suggested I drink 1/2 cup with all three of my meals in a day, which i don’t do. I’ve been taking a calcium supplement to make up for my lake of milk consumption. Anyway, at this point I’m sick and tired of being confused about what I can and can’t eat, and I’m terrified of harming the baby with consistantly high blood sugar levels, I had an ultrasound at the beginning of this week, and the baby measured perfectly at 30 weeks and I was 30 weeks and 2 days so I don’t know if I should be freaking out (which I am) or not being so concerned seeing as how it isn’t causing any problems. Does anyone have any advice? I can’t get ahold of my doctor or my gynecologist until tuesday, and I’m afraid to eat anything, which I know can also harm the baby and I’m having a freaking nervous breakdown about this whole situation. Not sure what kind of help I’m asking for, but anything would be appreciated…
Aww, sweetie, first of all, relax! Stress can actually make your blood sugar spike, so being worried will not help. That being said, I’m in the same boat as you. My OB has me test 4x a day unless there is a HUGE spike in my sugar that needs to be closely monitored. So, I test first thing in the morning, after breakfast, after lunch, and after dinner. They have me test 1 hr after meals, some docs have you check 2 hrs after meals it just depends.
As for your diet, it’s strange they told you to drink that much milk. The lactose in milk is actually a sugar which can cause your sugar to go up. But as far as your diet goes, essential you just need to pare down the sugars and carbs. You can have whole grains though, just monitor how they affect your sugar and use them sparingly if they cause spikes for you. Eat lots of lean protein, like grilled chicken, and as many veggies as you want. You want to avoid starchy veggies though like potatoes, and carrots have lots of sugar as well. Most other veggies are pretty good though. You can have fruit, but try not to eat a lot of high sugar fruits like pineapple and bananas. Better choices would be berries. They have a relatively low glycemic index so you can eat pretty many of them. Also, if you REALLY want to eat some pasta, you can but only about once a week and about a cup full, but make sure you either get whole grain pasta or low-carb pasta (Dreamfield’s is yummy).
I’ll give you a sample of what I eat in a day so you can get an idea of what your diet should look like. I’ve got my sugar well under control at this point.
Breakfast
Bowl of Plain Oatmeal Sweetened with Splenda & Strawberries
Tea
Lunch
Big Salad with lots of veggies & sliced grilled chicken
Balsamic Vinegarette Dressing
Water
Snack
“Low Carb” yogurt
Dinner
Grilled Chicken w/ teriyaki sauce (sugar free)
Roasted Mixed Veggies
Small portion of brown rice
Hope that helps you a little bit. If you need advice feel free to email me I’d be happy to talk to you! :]
Edit: I just wanted to say that if it seems like your BG levels are spiking some days without any dietary reason, you should watch your stress levels. I can be having a great day food wise and have my levels go really high when something is stressing me out really badly. Keep track of that, it could be the issue!
do what works for you. unfortunately everything is trial and error. not everyone’s body reacts the same way. find out what spikes your blood sugar and avoid these foods.
here is a link to read more about gestational diabetes and how it affects you and your baby
congrats on your baby!
when you stress the baby is in stress i had the same thing just watch what you eat nothing fried do not drink any pops do not eat mac-cheese with mash-potoatos
Call the on-call ob-gyn staff and tell them exactly what you have written here. You should also stress that you see your blood sugar spike when you drink milk, and be prepared to rattle off your readings to whoever calls you back. It’s okay to say to these people that what they tell you to do isn’t working if that’s the case with your b.s. readings. They need to hear that. Please remember that a quality ob-gyn practice hears from “panicked’ pregnant women 24/7 — do not hestitate to call them at all hours. If you cannot reach staff off-hours, it’s a lousy practice and you should change doctors. I know of NO ob-gyn practice who does not have a sufficiently staff on-call nurse staff for off-hour calls.
Seriously — everything you wrote here, your medical team needs to hear it. It matters.
I hadthis with both my preg. 1st one I was on a special diet and had to test morning and two hrs after every meal. I ate bananas but that made my levels go up so I stopped then I would get bad leg cramps at night cause of low potasuim. So i’d eat banana with a spoonful of peanut butter and the protien ofthat helped keep the sugarlevel down. With my second preg diet wasn’t enough so I had to give myself 2 insilin shots a day.