High risk of Gestational Diabetes - Any advice would be great

I had an early GT test at 18 weeks due to extreme thirst & the results have come back not so great. My OB has told me not to panic but that I need to start following a low GI diet from today & be retested at 28 weeks. I had DS with me at the appointment and he was unsettled so I didn't get to ask a lot about it & just said I would google low GI when I got home....now I'm wishing I had stayed to chat more about it as there is so much info on google I have no idea where to start.

Can anyone help with low GI tips and I'm also wondering if anyone else was tested early & at risk of GD but managed to avoid it by changing your diet/lifestyle? I am now 23 weeks and have only put on 1.5kgs so far but I admit I have not been eating well as I'm turned off a lot of food & generally just not very hungry, I also drank a lot of Gatorade when I was really thirsty so I'm sure that probably hasn't helped.

Any advice that you could share would be much appreciated!

I had GD with DD1 it wasnt found out until 26 weeks when I went into pre-term labour with her, DD2 the results were high but borderline and I managed to avoid it JUST this time I was first tested at 18 weeks like you and retested again last week to find out i havent avoided it this time around.

Heres what i got on a handout at the drs:

When you first wake up in the morning, your blood sugar will normally be low. If you eat a breakfast that is high in starch and sugar (like pancakes and syrup, or sugared cereal with fruit) your glucose levels will skyrocket. However, skipping breakfast is not a solution! A small, high protein meal that includes a meat serving, a complex carbohydrate such a slice of whole wheat toast, and a glass of milk or cup of low calorie yogurt will start your day off smoothly.

A common mistake is waiting too long for lunch and dinner, then overeating. If your sugar level dips too low, it will tend to bounce higher when you finally do eat. A snack of vegetable sticks with low calorie dip, cottage cheese with a small serving of fruit, or whole wheat crackers with peanut butter can help get you through until lunchtime. Keep a tray in the fridge with healthy snacks you can eat on the go.

A serving of protein, one of vegetables and one or two of carbs - try whole grain pasta or pita bread for variety. Avoid white processed bread. Water or unsweetened 100% fruit juice is much better than soda, but if you can’t resist, make any soda you drink diet. If you can plan on some physical exercise after each meal you can eat two bread servings at a time for energy, or indulge in two bites of your favorite dessert!

Another snack to help you coast till dinnertime. Again, pick a serving of fruit and or vegetables to help you meet your minimum for the day. Vegetable / fruit juice blends are a great way to help you get enough of both of these important foods. Combine such a drink with a few tablespoons of soft cheese on a whole grain bagel for a quick easy snack on the road.

This is possibly the trickiest meal of the day. If you eat late and are inclined to crash into bed shortly afterward, you will need to guard against overeating. A whole grain wrap stuffed with chicken and salad trimmings is a good quick meal when you are beat. Drizzle some dressing over it, or follow up with a sugar free cookie to provide a little fat. This will break down in the early morning hours and help you make it to breakfast without your glucose levels bottoming out. If you eat earlier, and like a larger dinner, make sure you will be active enough to burn off some of the calories before relaxing. Try catch up any missing servings of vegetables and fruit at dinnertime; these are the most often overlooked throughout the day.

When you are up for more than three hours after dinner and your sugar level starts to dip, a light snack may be in order. This can be as simple as an apple or a small whole grain muffin. If you go to bed early, and constantly wake with drastically low levels in the morning, consider a wee hours foray to the kitchen to boost yourself. A half sandwich of chicken salad on whole wheat or a few peanut butter crackers with a cup of milk will be enough to keep you from crashing.



I have heaps more info too if your interested

Thanks so much MrsS, that's great info so far. I certainly am guilty of waiting too long between meals & generally have only been eating two meals a day due to nausea. I will need to force myself to eat small regular snacks from now on instead of 2 meals a day. I would definitely appreciate any other info you have to share!

i'll go through my info pack a little later and pick out all the key points

I did read a lot about preeclampsia and GD as soon as I found out I was preggy. I am guilty of eating some foods that are high GI at times, however I have basically endeavoured to snack over a 24 hour period mostly, and especially in the first trimester with morning sickness. So although not especially low GI - I was having biscuits or a piece of toast at 3am sometimes.

Through avoiding Listeria I have eaten a lot of cheese which again is not the best as it's salty but apparently lots of calcium is good for preeclampsia.

Low to Medium GI things I eat though are things like Basmati Rice, eggs, plain yoghurt, cheese, meats, fish (little tins of salmon), milk?, vegetables I am not sure but I basically am snacking no matter what.

as emc2 suggested calcium will be your friend right now! In the meal plans i was given theres milk, yogurt and cheese everywhere!

It's a mystery to me why GP's and/or hospitals don't look at diet earlier in the pregnancy. The only booklet I received mentions eating more carbohydrates and more fruit and veges, when this is not necessarily the right diet for everyone.

When I went to the ABA breastfeeding class, the lady there also gave us a handout about new research to do with the mother's diet and colic. It mentions that it is better to eat a lot of good fats, rather than eating more carbs and fruit.

A good book and/or wesbite is "The New Glucose revolution" by professor Jennie Brand-Miller. The website is glycemicindex yada yada........ that will give you so much good info and put you onto some good books you can either buy at most bookstores or get from the local library. For recipes you cn't go past grabbing a copy of the Diabetic Living magazine that is published once every two months, you can grab a copy from the newsagents and it has literally heaps of yummy recipes to try.......

Thanks ladies for your replies :)

emc2, forgive my ignorance but is there a link between GD & preeclampsia? I only ask because, while I didn't have GD with DS, I did end up with PE at the end of the pg with him (he was also a big bub & had issues with BSL's in the 1st week).

Melbel, thanks for the website recommendation, I'm off to check it out now :)

This is all very confusing though, one of the websites I looked at earlier stated to stay clear of saturated fats (found in dairy). MrsS, in the meal plans, do they recommend low fat dairy?

no it says full cream milk as for cheese and yogurt it doesn't specify .... i think ill have to go and get that magazine mentioned before

There is a higher risk of pre eclampsia with diabetes of any type but you can minimise the risk with diet and even medication. If you had PE with our last pregnancy and your baby had BSL issues it is possible that you had borderline or later onset GD that the testing didn't pick up. I am assuming your doctors/medical team are monitoring you because of your PE last pregnancy? It is not a given you will get it this time. You might like to discuss with them the use of low dose aspirin as a preventative measure. I am type 1 diabetic and my obstetrician had me on low dose aspirin until a few weeks before I was due to deliver as some research has shown it can be helpful in preventing PE...if it worries you talk to your doctors about it hun....

Saturated fats are only a problem because a certain amount is converted to glucose by the body and can cause delayed blood sugar spikes quite a while after a meal, it is a hard one to balance because you need a certain amount of fats for the baby's development. Personally i wouldn't/didn't worry to much about the fat issue, more the glycemic index of the food, aiming for low GI foods as much as possible.

Hi,

I had GD with DS a few years ago and am dreading being tested this time. I think all the main points have been covered, but some things that really helped keep my sugar low were:
- eat regularly, don't let your sugar fall then rise too high
- don't eat fruit on it's own - add some yoghurt or have something else that has a bit of fat in it
- food with fat tends to be lower GI because the fat helps to slow down the processing of it. That's why toasted muesli is low GI and natural muesli is medium GI
- regular exercise - even just a quick walk or something makes a massive difference
- if you need to indulge in something sugary, do it WITH a meal or straight after rather than on it's own
- If you have a really low GI meal, it can help lower the GI of the next meal... so, if you know you are going to have, say, a cake for morning tea, or whatever, then have a really saintly brekky to help slow it down.

Good luck!!!

In all my pregnancies I am classed as high risk to get GD. My first pregnancy I was the strictest and did Low GI diet from 7 weeks onwards. 2nd Pregnancy bit slack, this pregnancy am trying to be good but sometimes a bit slack havent had the GD test yet will in 2 weeks time.

With both my pregnancies before this one I avoided GD by eating low gi most importantly was:
Breakfast
Sourdough or wholegrain bread/toast (wholemeal or white bread is too high GI)
milk or yogurt
piece of fruit
was my daily breakfast
or bacon and eggs without bread is best too.

Lunch
Salads (made by myself)
add a protein (fish you can only eat 2 days a week) so add chicken or cooked ham or bacon
again sourdough or wholegrain bread only

Dinners
Are the hardest, yoiu can have a medium or high GI food in your dinner however you must have mostly Low GI food in it to lower the high GI.
Measure your rice or pasta to be 1/2 cup uncooked at most (San remo pasta is the lowest GI) and Basmati rice is the lowest GI
I made lots of casseroles with veges in the slow cooker or curries with veges added on the side and fruit as desert

Snacks - yogurt, cheese, fruit (low gi ones such as strawberries, apple etc, depends on what you like), crackers (vita weets but not many of them), nuts but I am allergic but some are good to snack on if you like them.

I recommend also the book Mel recommends. It helps with recipes and the GI foods.

Ohh in Woolies you can get Low GI potatoes now special brand cant remember what they are called (cause all white potatoes are high gi) or you can eat sweet potato. Pumpkin is not classified as a GI some people say medium GI some say high depends what you read.

Hope this helps

Seeing a dietician would probably be a really beneficial thing to do right now. Plus try to get your hands on a Gi diet book that has a comprehensive list of foods and their GI values in it. Good luck with it all :hug:

I have GD this pregnancy, and they recommend you see a dietician if you are at risk of it - they wanted me to see a dietician at 14 weeks because I was also classified as obese, although ironically I was eating healthy and low GI foods for the first 22 weeks of this pregnancy.

Basically anything that has a higher fat content than sugar content is classed as low GI (so yes, chocolate & ice cream are actually low GI lol).

Stick to 5 or 6 regular meals a day - breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and an after dinner snack, and also keep servings smaller, though you can eat unlimited vegetables.

The dietician will give you a basic outline of how many serves you are allowed to eat, which is usually as follows:
Breakfast: 3-4 serves of carbs
Morning Tea: 1-2 serves of carbs
Lunch: 3-4 serves of carbs
Afternoon Tea: 1-2 serves of carbs
Dinner: 3-4 serves of carbs
Supper: 1-2 serves of carbs (Supper is only if needed though)

Eat high carb foods with sugar levels below 5g per serving, and try to limit how many servings of carbs you have - potato's are considered bad carbs and your intake would need to be kept limited, and rice is a big no no as it puts your glucose levels through the roof and is high GI.

I don't have my information pack on me, but that is what I can remember from my first appointment with the dietician and the diabete's educator.

Hope it helps a bit :)

And also, don't be hard on yourself if you are unable to manage it or avoid it by diet alone - I tried so hard, limiting everything and only eating a very bland diet of vegemite, peanut butter, wheat bix and baked beans with salad, and I ended up needing insulin.
It's just the hormones associated with pregnancy and they really do wreak havock with your body and play up with the glucose levels.

Sorry to hijack. I dont have GD but my DH has recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Re: the low gi potatoes someone mentioned earlier - Coles has a brand called Carisma. They cook up and taste like any other potato and are around $4-5 for a 2kg bag.

This is a really good thread. I didn't know there's a link between GD and PE. All I knew was my Mum kept lecturing me about PE as my Nan and Auntie on my father's side had that; and on my partner's side which is possibly less relevant, one or two of his cousins had GD.