How harmful are keytones on baby.

[Rach.jame]

My Dr informed me that burning body fat releases keytones which are harmful to baby, What are these affects? and is it possible to burn body fat without releasing keytones.

[JDRF-Team-cd]

In answer to your first question, the following is from the www.diabetes.org website:  

"Despite advances, babies born to women with diabetes, especially women with poor diabetes control, are still at greater risk for birth defects. High blood glucose levels and ketones (substances that in large amounts are poisonous to the body) pass through the placenta to the baby. These increase the chance of birth defects."

In response to the second question:  

Weight loss can be accomplished eating fewer calories and by exercising to help burn fat and calories and keep weight off.

Please talk to your health care professional for instructions on calorie intake and exercise while pregnant.

CD

[JDRF-Team-LRS]

Hi there,
It's hard to tell from your msg if you are pregnant & concerned about ketones passing thru to your unborn child or if you are asking about a baby who is, for some reason, burning body fat.

I'm not a physician, but will try to give you some ideas to consider as you follow up with your doctor or your baby's doctor.

A natural byproduct of anyone burning fat is the formation of some ketones.  When guided by a physician, people *can* safely lose weight and can flush any resulting ketones from their bodies.  I can only imagine that things get a whole lot more complicated if a pregnant woman is trying to nurture a healthy unborn baby while also losing her own body fat.  That's really an important question to talk to one's doctor about.  A person with diabetes must be very careful to limit the formation of ketones, especially when they form from burning fat due to experiencing very high blood sugars.

Some diabetics attempt a very dangerous form of weight loss where they deliberately don't take enough insulin to cover their needs.  The result is that they endure long periods of time with dangerously high blood sugars.  This is considered one form of bulemia and can lead to horrible permanent physical damage & untimely death.  With attention to the underlying emotional pain, a person on this course *can* resume a healthy, normal, diabetic life.  I know 2 people (one male, one female) who have come thru those terrible times & are now not only coping, but thriving.

If you would be willing to clarify a bit more about your situation, perhaps others will have some helpful comments.

[Rach.jame]

Thanking you for you comments, Sorry to be un clear, I am Pregnant only 6 weeks and have been exercising and wanted to keep doing so but am concerned that by burning my fat stores will produce keytones and am unsure what affect they have on my baby. I had never heard of keytones before but when my Dr said to lose weight while pregnant may be harmfull to my baby I just wanted to get some more information, When I asked why or what they do she was unsure.
Thankyou for you information.

[JDRF-Team-LRS]

I just noticed your reply and wanted to encourage you to test for ketones and to avoid getting high levels of ketones.  From the little bit of reading I've done, ketones can harm your baby severely.

Are you diabetic?  Gestational diabetes?  Type 1?  Type 2?  If so, it's important that you work with a high risk pregnancy team.  It's not "right" that the medical team of a diabetic pregnant woman couldn't answer the question "what are ketones?" or "what harm can ketones do to my baby?"  

If you're not diabetic, then it may be sufficient to work with your existing team, but ask your questions of your physician and insist upon answers -- or find a new team.  

In a quick Internet search where I entered the phrase
Ketones Placenta (notice the spelling of ketones, by the way), I found a couple of sobering sites.  
http://yourmedicalsource.com/library/diabpreg/DPG_bloodsugar.html
http://www.childbirthsolutions.com/articles/pregnancy/eating4two/index.php  

Because they are not sites authored by physicians and I'm not a physician, the best I can say is that they suggest it's extremely important to avoid building up ketones while pregnant.  Follow up with your physician and insist upon working with folks who can answer your very good questions.

[donny398]

My wife and I just had a baby 3 months ago. Most information we have looked at says that the baby's eyes should start to focus by now. Our son's eyes have not though. She had gestational diabetes when she was pregnant. We tried everything to keep her ketones down but nothing worked and the endocrinologist didn’t seem to concerned, however now we feel this may have effected the development of our son if anyone has information please let us know.