Type 2 Diabetes

[Maddy83]

Hi
I found out today that i have diabetes & im 3 months pregnant my question is how can i control this so my baby wont be affected. I take insulin but its really not helping. Wgat is the blood sugar levels surposed to be from 70 to 200 what. Can someone help please. Thanks for taking the time out to read my post.

[Maddy83]

My blood levels are on 120 to 150. They have'nt but me on a carbs diet. I just have to eat small portions & a snack every to hours. It's very confusing cause on dr tells me one thing & the other says another thing. Im not a sweet eater the main problem with me was that i would just eat when im hungry & thats worst cause i would eat large amount of food.
In the morning i take 42 units of the nph & 24 of the regular then before dinner 12 units of the regular one then before bed 24 units, of the nph

[Super_sally888]

Hello,

I am now 18 weeks pregnant and on insulin.  this is my second pregnancy on insulin.  You are also welcome to send me message / discuss by sending me a private message.

it is very important to control your blood sugar to avoid complications with the baby.  Early in pregnancy high sugars can affect development, late in pregnancy your baby may get too large.

First, target range for blood sugar in pregnancy is 70 - 120, with 120 being the maximum (at an extreme you should aim to never exceed 140).

I assume you have a test kit to test blood sugar.  during pregnancy it is important to test frequently.  Generally I test, upon waking up, 2 hours after each meal, and also before each meal.

My target before eating is 70 - 95, though usually I am in the 80s.  My target 2 hours after eating is to be back in the 80s - 90s (though not higher than 120).

What insulin are you taking?  You can also expect the dose of insulin to increase during the pregnancy.  It will be important to match your insulin dose with what you are eating so that you can avoid both high and low blood sugars.  If you are having lows it may become necessary to eat small snacks between meals.

To help control your blood sugar (aside from the insulin) you need to adopt the followign for diet and exercise:-

1. Ideally 30 minutes of exercise after each meal.  However, this may not always be possible, but do aim at 30 minutes of moderate exercise (brisk walking, stationary bike, swimming, etc) every day.

2. Avoid white carbs.  By this I mean white bread, rice, pasta, all candies and sweets and processed foods.  Avoid fruit juice.

3. Carbs should be whole grain and minimally processed.  Also you need to be careful with portion control even for the whole grain carbs - probably limiting 1/2 - 1 cup of these / meal.

4. Instead you should focus on eating plenty of non-starchy veges, lean proteins, nuts, non-sweetened dairy.  Avoid tropical fruits and grapes (which are very sweet), and instead eat fruits like apples, pear, and berries.  Limit the portions of fruit.

5. Always make sure you eat fat and protein with each meal as this will slow down the carbs being absorbed.

Seeing you are newly diagnosed, ask your doctor to refer you to a diabetes educator.  However, do be careful about how much carbs they recommend you to eat.  The traditional approach is to ask diabetic patients to eat a high carb diet, but truely this can make it much harder to control your blood sugars.  

A diet focusing on lower carb foods (with plenty of veges and minimally processed foods) is really the way to go.