A friend of mine is pregnant, about 33 weeks, and has just been dx'ed with GD.

She is quite slim, has only gained baby weight. However, she (I suspect) has hypo. Before her pregnancy, she had to eat constantly, was always hungry, and felt ill and shaky if she couldn't eat. She has several food intolerances (wheat being one) and IBS, and ADD (all food related, IMO). And she loves her carbs.

She's having a horrible time with the idea of giving up bread (she eats spelt, etc, even though I've told her that a problem with wheat means she'd be best off ditching grains entirely) and other carbs like rice, etc. She's also worried about "eating enough carbs for the baby".

My understanding is that her baby is going to be at a much greater risk of T2 and other metabolic disorders; also, that babies don't require anything as far as grains go. People have been having babies for millenia without any bread, rice or other starchy carbs. I've never been pregnant though, and since she's asked for my advice I want to give her information from other LCers who have been there, done that.

She is monitoring blood sugar at home.

Anyone here experienced with GD? What helped, what didn't? I am assuming she can LC just like the rest of us, maybe keep the carbs a bit higher and keep them coming from veggies as opposed to starches and fruits? She loves juice. She hates the idea of low carb (some addictive tendencies here with grains! I can relate) Also, what does her baby need/have to watch out for, since mum is GD?

Any advice, opinions, links etc are appreciated! I am going to send her some info from Weston Price, Nina Planck etc but I do want some real-life info from mums. Mums know all

If she's slim, I would suspect she is headed for later onset type 1 diabetes or type 1.5. These are autoimmune problems and nothing she eats or doesn't eat will stop them.

I developed type 1 diabetes at the age of 22 after having gestational diabetes while being slim.

I need to add that women who have GD are usually on insulin, so changing the diet would be very problematic until after delivery.

I've known plenty of women who are asked to control GD through diet and never get on insulin - is this your friend's situation? One thing I have heard a lot is women failing the screener test and never taking the GTT because it's assumed they have it and they are just stuck on the diet. They never actually have a formal GD diagnosis. All of the GD cases except for one that I have known have been with very slim women perhaps are like lowcarbugh points out actually undiagnosed type 1's.

It's always frustrating watching people not quite taking care of themselves. The best book on low-carb diets during pregnancy is the Brewer diet. It was developed in the 70's and the book has a lot of research behind it, not necessarily for diabetic mothers but it stresses the need for protein and fat.

Janine

I suppose GD has been redefined now. Elevated sugars are very harmful to babies and if they are really elevated to clinical diabetes level I can't imagine not trying to treat them.

A lot of people are frustrated by the ways its being given as a blanket diagnosis. My cousin was told she probably had it, so they weren't going to bother doing the GTT, she should just watch her diet. Sounds like absolute bullhockey to me and a scare tactic and bad medicine to boot. Some heavier women are being told they can pretty much count on having it because of their weight so they should change the way they eat. I refused the GTT because they are so cavalier about the diagnosis and I didn't want it on my record because it is taken as proof you will get Type II later in life. Some people, for all of these reasons, just don't accept it's a real conditiion arguing that people who have it are just previously undiagnosed diabetics. I think it's more complicated probably. When I looked up the definition, it is defined as any previously undiagnosed elevated glucose levels. This includes people who are just undiagnosed diabetics instead of the old definition which was more narrowly defined as people who only have elevated levels during the second half of pregnancy and people who are borderline. I've never known anyone who was asked to take medicine for it.

Janine

During my first pregnancy, I passed the GTT, but later on, posted 300+ blood glucose levels. They slapped my butt in the hospital. It resolved itself after delivery, but 6 weeks later, I had full-blown type 1 diabetes. I was totally unaware they have redefined it and are using it to predict type 2 diabetes.

The current thinking in diabetes is that the vast majority of slim people with type 2 actually have type 1.5, which is an auto-immune problem.

She failed the GTT. She's not been asked to take any meds.

What I find interesting is that prior to her pregnancy, she seemed hypo - shaky and feeling ill if not able to eat every couple of hours. She never went anywhere without food.

Never knew about 1.5 - interesting. She is very thin and has trouble gaining weight. Since she already has an autoimmune response to certain foods, it wouldn't surprise me if she had 1.5 - how is that tested/dxed? What makes it different from T2?

Like type 1, type 1.5 produces antibodies to their pancreatic beta cells. There is a test for it, but she probably won't be tested unless she develops diabetes. Type 1.5 is a slow, simmering form of type 1. There is not much you can do to stop it if you are producing antibodies against your own cells.

She needs to be very careful of her diet for the rest of her pregnancy. I'm sure you know that.

I think there is a way to tell from timing whether or not the diabetes is strictly gestational. If the GTT was early enough in her pregnancy, I think it means she already had problems and if it's later it could be situational. My relatively slim husband has horrible blood sugar symptoms - always good readings, but he had to go on a low-carb diet to fix the symptoms. His uncle developed Type II in his 30's. I hope she feels better.

Janine