
Tips for Dining Out with Gestational Diabetes
Dining out with gestational diabetes can sometimes loses its charm. The huge portions, rich sauces, and decadent desserts sometimes feel like they are just taunting you. However, whether it is a special night out, a gathering with friends, or one of those days where you’re just too tired to cook, everyone dines out once in a while.
Dining out can still be a fun experience, even with gestational diabetes. Your dietary restrictions are not so strict that they omit all of the best foods, and the healthier options honestly almost always taste better. Even so, dining out with gestational diabetes might seem like an overwhelming temptation, considering that you are eating not just for your own heath, but for baby’s health too. [Read more…]

Diet for Gestational Diabetes: Where Do I Start?
Diet for Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes is brought on when a woman becomes pregnant; this process occurs due to the hormone changes within the body because of the placenta. During pregnancy, the placenta delivers nutrients to the uterus so that the fetus may develop. However, as the hormone levels in a woman’s body changes, their body may not be able to efficiently manage the glucose levels.
Although these changes are occurring, a woman’s pancreas will naturally produce more insulin to offset the indifference. It is when a woman’s pancreas is not able to produce more insulin that glucose levels within the body rise, which leads to gestational diabetes. However, there are some dietary techniques including meal plans one may employ to help manage their gestational diabetes condition.
Dietary Techniques
One may follow some basic dietary techniques in conjunction with choosing appropriate foods to help manage their gestational diabetes. It is beneficial for one to eat three small meals a day at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also, it is also healthy to have two healthy snacks in-between meals throughout the day. It is important to not skip any of the meals or snacks because this helps to maintain insulin levels. When an individual is choosing foods to eat, it is wise to opt for fiber-rich, high-carbohydrate foods that will help to maintain glucose levels as well. However, during morning hours, it is not advisable to consume carbohydrate-rich foods as insulin levels are peaked at this time.
Foods & Drink
It is important for one to choose healthy foods and drinks to consume to help keep their gestational diabetes condition managed. Among choosing healthy foods, one should drink at least eight glasses of water per day to stay hydrated. Healthy food choices include: four servings of dairy foods, or 1200 mg of calcium/day, three servings of iron-rich foods such as rice, eggs or leafy-green vegetables. It is also beneficial for one to consume one food source containing vitamin C per day; this can be an orange, green bell pepper, kiwi, papaya or even a serving of brussel sprouts. Lastly, it also beneficial for one to consume one food source per day that is rich in vitamin A; this can include butternut squash, sweet potatoes, or carrots.
Final tips for one to try are to refrain from foods that are high in sugar, or fat as well as to avoid caffeine, alcohol, or tobacco. Drinking caffeine, alcohol or consuming tobacco products all can aggravate gestational diabetes as well as cause birth defects.
Following these dietary techniques and using a gestational diabetes meal plan will allow a woman to manage her gestational diabetes and keep it in control so that it does not ultimately affect their baby. Typically once the child has been delivered, a woman’s glucose levels will return to normal thus reversing the gestational diabetes condition.

Gestational Diabetes Symptoms: Do You Have Them?
What is Gestational Diabetes?
This is a specific type of diabetes that occurs in women during pregnancy. Basically, it is caused by hormones that occur during pregnancy that block insulin from doing its job in breaking down blood sugar. This leads to a condition of diabetes that a woman may have when pregnant, and usually clears up once the child is born.
Symptoms of Gestational Diabetes
The symptoms that will be experienced are much the same as with diabetes in general. You can have an increase in thirst. There will also be an increase in the frequency of urination that is disproportional to the amount of liquids that are consumed. Fatigue will set in with occasional blurred vision. Nausea and weight loss can also be symptoms of gestational diabetes. Many of these symptoms can be mild and easily confused with the effects of being pregnant.
Risk Factors for Gestational Diabetes
The symptoms alone are not enough to indicate a problem. In fact, because they are often so mild, they usually mean nothing, but when accompanied by risk factors, your health care provider needs to be informed. Among these factors are having diabetes in your family, being overweight before your pregnancy and having high blood pressure. A doctor can look at your medical history to determine what other factors may be applicable to your pregnancy.
Why Treatment is Needed for Gestational Diabetes
For the sake of the child as well as the mother, this type of diabetes needs to be controlled. Doctors will usually test pregnant women by the 24th week. Without a diagnosis and treatment, a woman can give birth to a baby that is much larger than it would normally have been with complications. In many cases, the baby will not be able to be born vaginally. This increase in size is due to the high levels of sugar in the mother’s blood. This provides much greater energy than a baby requires for normal growth. A baby will often have a condition of low blood sugar levels after birth. This is due to the baby’s pancreas producing high levels of insulin in response to the mother’s blood sugar, then at birth the amount of sugar in the child’s blood is suddenly low so they need additional sugar water or breastmilk at birth.
The Fundamental Treatment for Gestational Diabetes
There are several treatments used to control gestational diabetes, but fundamental to all of them is with diet. In fact, with a proper diet and monitoring of your blood sugar, most women can keep the problem under control. In general, a diet that is low to moderate in both fat and protein is needed. Carbohydrates are obtained from fruits and whole grains. All food with sugar is avoided or completely eliminated such as soda pop, candy, donuts and other sugary snacks.
There are medications that can be prescribed to a pregnant woman to keep her blood sugar levels from getting too high, but these should not be used to control high blood sugar levels that come from eating the wrong foods. It is much healthier for you and your baby to eat right to begin with.
You can learn more about a gestational diabetes diet from our meal planning solution that is a kit put together to guide you through your gestational diabetes and help you improve your health. Click here to find out more.

Gestational Diabetes Treatment – What Choices Do I Have?
Gestational Diabetes Treatment Is Important
Pregnancy can be a joyous occasion as mom and dad prepare for the arrival of the little one. However, women are not without minor to major complications during these 9 months. Conditions from morning sickness and fatigue to major complications can hospitalize the expectant mother from several days to weeks. Gestational diabetes is a condition brought on by pregnancy and is characterized by high sugar levels within the blood. Symptoms include excessive thirst and urination. Expectant mothers may also experience blurred vision, bladder infection and vomiting unassociated with pregnancy, and this makes you wonder what is the treatment for gestational diabetes.
Reasons to Solve the Problem
There are potential short and long term risks for mother and child due to gestational diabetes. Large birth size, breathing difficulty and low blood sugar levels at birth are but a few. There is also a risk of the mother developing metabolic syndrome after the child is born. This condition is associated with heart disease and other heart related conditions as diabetes and stroke. There is also a greater risk of childhood obesity for the infant, especially if you don’t pursue any gestational diabetes treatment.
Solutions for the Problem
Gestational diabetes often is tested and diagnosed during the 24th week of pregnancy. Doctors are still unclear regarding aggressiveness of treatment or start of initial screening. However, they do agree treatment will severely reduce complications associated with the condition. Although rare, some women are prescribed insulin to combat gestational diabetes. It is recommended women who do require insulin should always have a sweet food available to prevent low blood sugar. Low blood sugar is initially characterized by lightheadedness and nausea. If not treated right away the condition can be dangerous. Most cases of gestational diabetes can be treated with exercise and proper nutrition, especially the use of a meal plan.
Proper exercise helps to maintain healthy weight and blood circulation. Proper nutrition is the thing that keeps a mom from insulin dependency during pregnancy. Proper nutrition, as part of your gestational diabetes treatment, will provide foods that do not cause blood sugar levels to spike. Mothers must not forget they are eating for two and must be able to maintain an eating program of appropriate foods that do not add empty calories. Empty calorie foods include candy, cakes, ice cream and other sugary foods and cereals. Expectant mothers should also be aware of juice intake. Some makers claim their products to be sugar free or 100% juice. However, some of these products contain sugar and are contraindicated for the mother with gestational diabetes. Each trimester will require eating habits to be adjusted to the baby’s needs. Some doctors prescribe prenatal vitamins during pregnancy. Mothers must realize vitamins are not meant to replace nutritional needs but to aid the pregnancy. Therefore, whole grain foods that are rich in fiber will give mother and baby a tremendous advantage. High fiber foods help digestion and may alleviate constipation associated with pregnancy.
Fortunately, gestational diabetes often disappears after birth. Proper care and nutrition during the condition will reduce long-term risks upon mother and child, and is the proper gestational diabetes treatment. You can use a gestational diabetes meal plan to make life a lot easier on you and your family to help solve the treatment issues you might encounter. Read more about our gestational diabetes meal plan on our information page.

Gestational Diabetes – How Often Should I Check My Blood Sugars?
You know you have to check them, right? I read a Facebook post yesterday where a woman wrote that she was afraid to check them.
Let’s think about that, shall we? I mean, I am afraid of a lot of things. Data is not one of them. And, that is what you are gathering.
It might feel like a judgement against you, especially if you have not been following a healthy gestational diabetes meal plan. If you have been snacking too much, or eating too big of portions. But the damage is already done and you are already making it worse by ignoring it. Sticking your head in the sand doesn’t make it any better. Face up to it.
Ok, now that I have that off my chest, I want to talk about how often to check your blood sugars.
First of all, make sure you know what your doctor or dietitian wants you to do. Best practice in the beginning when you are still learning – and if you have to take insulin – is 4 times a day.
When you wake up
One hour after you start eating breakfast
One hour after you start eating lunch
One hour after you start eating supper
*Any time you feel “funny” or different.
You need to check your blood sugar at least once a day after you are past the early stages and are well balanced. If your doctor wants more – do it. If you end up checking it once per day, vary the time that you check it so you get a good idea of where it’s at throughout the day. Our bodies handle sugar and insulin different depending on a lot of things. Best that you understand your body, because it’s different than other pregnant and gestational diabetic women.
In the morning, you may have what is called a “dawn phenomenon“.
Basically,it’s that your blood sugar is higher than normal because your body (in the middle of the night) gets a little low on blood sugar so it reacts by making more blood sugar. Add that to the fact that you may be low on insulin, and it’s going to be a little elevated. Many women counter this by eating a little larger evening snack and making sure it has a combination of protein and carbohydrate. That way it takes longer to digest, and gives your body carbohydrate throughout the night. It’s not a good idea to counter the higher blood sugars by skipping a bedtime snack.
Most women are taught to measure their blood sugars about one hour after they start eating, also known as “post prandial”. This is the time when your blood sugar is likely to have peaked and should be below 140 mg/dl. If it’s higher than that, look at the meal and see where the carbohydrate is lurking. Earlier this week I wrote about a gestational diabetes meal plan for a week, and I know it’s hard to understand that a lot of foods have carbohydrate in them.
Ask your doctor how you should treat your blood sugar numbers – the answer may be that it depends… Either way, you have to check them. Not checking them is putting your baby at higher risk, and you as well. It’s just information that you can use to make a decision about how to treat your blood sugar levels. That’s it, that’s all, and you need to track them throughout the day.