Anyone Had Gestational Diabetes?

hi J.,

I had gestational diabetes with my twins who are now three and what you have to do is look at the carbs on everything and actually now there are a lot of low carb things out there things that say no sugar added are great you can have pasta and bread but you have to limit the amount you eat like only 1 cup of pasta my husband has diabetes now and he has been controlling it with his diet he eats a eggbeater omelet in the morning with low carb cereal you can basically eat any kind of meat they have virtually no carbs in them the carbs are what break down into sugar and as far as desserts sugar free pudding or jello are good even sugar free ice cream the nutritionist can tell you more thats just a little to get you by till then if you have any other questions my email address is: ____@____.com

My name is B. and I have two three year olds and a 5 year old and good luck

i had the diabetes with my first kid. this one not yet i only 5 1/2 months. eat six mini meals a day 3 meals and 3 snacks.
apples are a good fruit to eat. eat mostly meat veggies and fruit. my best suggestion buy a food scale it helps with portion sizes. drink lots of water. read the labels on all food products. low sugar low carbs. anything under 12g is good
just a few examples. it is what helped me to get through it.
u can cheat too. just if it says on the label a 1/2 cup only eat that. good luck i hope this helps e-mail me if u want to for any other suggestions

i had GD with my first pregnancy. i met with a nutritionist and had to take insulin. one big thing is to watch portion size. a lot of what we think is a good amount of something is really a lot bigger than what the portion should be.

obviously try to avoid sugary stuff (including fruit juices). also, don't overload on carbs (they can turn to sugar). that was the hardest thing for me since i'm not big on meat/protein. an example of what they had me eating was an english muffin with a 1tbsp of peanut butter, half a banana and a cup of milk for breakfast. some cheese for a snack...i think i had sandwiches for lunch but can't remember exactly, then for dinner some chicken/meat, veggies and maybe a small carb.

sorry i can't remember more than that. good luck!

Hi,
I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes as well and was really scared. Depending on the severity will depend on what you can and can not eat. My best friend got it as well and needed to take injections I did not nad just needed to watch my diet and blood sugar. The best thing it to watch what you eat until you go to the dr's, but I snacked mostly on crackers usually about 4-6 at a time and that was all I was allowed. You will need to watch the calories an fat grams.
Hope this helped a little.
T.

I also had gestational diabetes. It's really not that hard if you can control it with diet and exercise. Here is the guidelines I was told to follow. All of these are carb intake levels.
Breakfast 30g
Morning snack 15g
Lunch 45g
Afternoon snack 15g
Dinner 45g

This includes everything that passes your lips including milk, juices, EVERYTHING. You can't carry over from one meal to the next. So if you don't use your 30 carbs at breakfast you lose them. You can't add them to your morning snack. Also, you can subtract out the amount of fiber. For example, if you have for breakfast something that is 35 carbs but has 5g of fiber that equals 30g of sugar intake. Read every label carefully. Just because it says sugar-free doesn't mean it has no carbs, which turn to sugar. If I knew that I was going to go to McDonalds I would go the the web site. All the nutritional info is there (it is for most fast food) and I could plan my meals ahead. This way by the time I got to the resturant I was actually craving the food I planned for. Also most grocery stores have books in the produce dept so you can find the facts there as to what carb intake is for the fruits and veggies. Most veggies don't have many carbs (I think a whole can of green beans has 3). You can have an orange for snack. Avoid rice and pasta (their really high in carbs even for one serving).
Here is the hard part. Your going to have to take your blood sugars several times a day. I had to do 4 (Once in the morning before I ate, and then 2 hrs after every meal). I had to keep a record (below 100 on an empty stomach and below 120 2 hrs after eating). Your doc's office will want to see it so bring it with you. They will show you how to do it. Your fingers will get sore, but it's all worth it. You start to know what you can have and what you can't. I knew when my sugar was going to be high, the baby moved less.
Here is the reason your doing all this. The sugar that gets to high in your blood stream passes over to the baby, which raises their blood sugar levels. This causes the baby to release insulin which is a growth hormone. Causing you to have a large baby, and an increased risk for c-section. I controlled my sugars very well with just diet. I had a very healthy 7lb 3oz baby boy. I did have a c-section but not because I was diabetic. He was stuck in my pelvis and after 4 hrs of pushing they went in and got him. You just have to be careful. This can be done. Gestational diabetes is the #1 pregnancy complacation. This is something you can control. You just have to remind yourself that it's not about you and the reason your doing this is for the health of your unborn child. You do have control over this. You can do it.

I have the entire Gestational Diabetes diet typed out on a document, if you want you can send me an email and I can send it to you. It's pretty easy to follow, you get used to it! There are a certain amount of foods from each food group to eat at each meal, and they want you to eat various snacks also during the day. Often I wouldn't have enough room for all that food! The midwife said out of all the food they want me to eat, if I'm truly not hungry enough to eat it all, to skip something only from the breads food group, so keep that in mind. With the diet, not only was I able to control it completely without insulin or other medications, but it also helped me with my many, many stomach issues (I have irritable bowels... ugh) so it's really a diet you can live on and feel great, cause you're really getting ALL the nutrition you're supposed to get. Let me know if you want me to send you the whole diet so you can get a look at it, and even start up on it now if you don't want to wait till next week! My email is ____@____.com

-K.

I actually am insulin resistant,which can be a precursor to type II diabetes..... so I (should, but don't do a stellar job of it)watch my "sugar" intake..... the first thing they're going to tell you is to watch your simple carb intake- this means white breads, crackers etc.... you'll want things that are WHOLE GRAIN (I'm sure the nutritionist will explain further) like oatmeal, whole grain breads etc... Also they may want you to watch certaing fruits and veggies, although they're good for you things like grapes and bananas as well as carrots are high sugar..... they explained it to me like this, whne you eat you want to take a 7 inch plate, you want it to be 1/2 full of veggies, you want about 2/3 of the other half to be your lean protien and the last 1/3 of the other half to be your carbs. As far as drinks, the best thing you can do is the suggested 6 8oz glasses of water every day, and yes anything like crystal light can be counted toward that I know you're preggo so caffeine is probably out, but if it's not, it does have a tendancey to hinder your body's ability to absorb water so caffeine drinks cannot be counted to your daily intake. My favorite snack..... almonds, unroasted unsalted plain baking almonds..... Please, don't be scared, it's an adjustment, but it's worth it for a healthy baby and a healthy you!!!

I developed GD when I was pregnant with my daughter. They pretty much make you watch what you eat. With me they wanted me to watch my Carb intake. For breakfast I would have a piece of fruit and oatmeal, and a 4oz glass of milk. Or Yogurt with a piece of light toast or wheat toast and a 4oz glass of juice, but I would add 4oz of water to the juice to dilute it. Juice is very high in carbs. So mixing it with water you can drink more. I also had a half of a bagel with cream cheese with again 4oz of juice. All you have to do is look at the carb counts on the food packages and eat what the serving size is. I was limited to a total of 45 carbs for breakfast and 65 carbs for lunch and supper. Watching what I ate during my pregnancy really helped with the GD. I actually lost weight when I was pregnant, after I started with the food plan the hospital advised for me. Just one downside to the GD was that in my case I had to take insulin shots everyday, does not mean you will have to. I was overweight to begin with thats pretty much why. My daughter was born very healthy at 39 weeks, 1 week before I was due at 8lbs 11oz. With no sign of low or high sugar. Good luck to you.

I had GD with both of my pregnancies. All you really need to do is use common sense and eat healthy. You really won't harm your baby in a week, and it certainly won't happen by making 1 bad food choice. Eat whole grains, plenty of veggies and lean proteins. I would eat eggs and whole grain toast in the am with a small (4 oz) glass of juice and a glass of milk in the AM. Cheese and crackers or a sall piece of fruit for snack. Things like that. Good luck!!

You got some great advie already. I had GD with my son. THe Dr, put me on a diet I was allowed 30 carbs for breakfast, 30 lunch 30 dinner. I never ate after 7pm. I was allowed 3 snacks 15 carbs for the snack . I also had to test my blood, but the biggest thing was the excercise after each meal I walked, and that really helped

Good Luck