Newly diagnosed Gestational Diabetes-advice?

suitern

Hello, as if already having a high risk pregnancy due to PTL wasn't bad enough already-I was just diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

My Dr. is setting up a time to see a nutritionist and sugar testing next week, but in the mean time what should I expect? I know literally NOTHING about GD since I didn't have it with my son.

mmorga15

For me it was really manageable with a GD diet. A GD diet isn't too far off of what my normal diet looked like so it wasn't a huge deal (load up on protein and veggies watch the carbohydrate intake). After that you will have to test your blood sugar a few times a day. It stinks at first but you'll get use to it. I wish you the very best and hope that you can manage yours with a diet as well.

heatherwhite1984

i had gd. i thought it was my fault. i was eating healthy. i was shocked how much i had to cut back on fruits and vegetables due to sugars that are in them. pasta was a craving of mine, so that was really hard. gd can make for bigger babies, even with the controlled diet. i had a 10lb'er. and it was not suspected that ds was that big, even two days before delivery. big babies can results in complications after delivery, so be careful and educate yourself since there is not much in pregnancy books about gd.

angelsnight

I had it with both pregnancies, the first I was diet controlled, but I only made it to 22 weeks so who knows.  This last one I was put on insulin around 15 weeks I think.  GD can definitely be very overwhelming, especially when everyone else is talking about how they just ate an entire pan of brownies and isn't pregnancy eating great.

But it is temporary and it isn't your fault.  I felt like a failure when they had to keep increasing my dosage, but it's nothing I was doing wrong, it's just how your placenta affects things.  Honestly I am a little afraid to go through another pregnancy without GD because I am afraid I would give in and eat and eat and gain 200 pounds.  With GD I could stay dedicated and the plus side is I didn't gain a single pound. 

Once you see the dietician it will be a lot easier to know what you can and can't eat and how much.  Find snacks and foods you like that work, don't try to force feed yourself things you hate.  Good luck!

whimsy515

I was diet controlled. Getting a personalized meal plan from the nutritionist helped a lot. GD is different for everyone. Pasta, fruits, some desserts didn't raise my levels. Yet, certain meats, cheeses did raise them. It's all trial and error, but very doable. Thanks to the GD diet, I didn't gain much weight and DS was only 6lbs.