Illness and Vomiting with GDM
Reviewed by CDE Mehandi Sharma · Updated
Illness complicates GDM in both directions, which is what makes it worth having a plan.
Being unwell releases hormones that push blood sugar up, so your readings can rise even while you are eating almost nothing. At the same time, if you are on insulin and cannot keep food down, that same insulin can take you low. Both can happen within a few hours of each other.
So the rules while you are ill are these. Keep taking your insulin as directed — do not stop it because you are not eating. Test more often than usual, not less. Keep taking fluids, in small sips if that is all you can manage.
If you cannot eat meals, aim for small amounts of easily tolerated carbohydrate at intervals rather than nothing at all — juice, thin khichdi, plain curd.
Contact your team the same day rather than waiting it out. In pregnancy the threshold for asking for help is lower than it would otherwise be, and nobody will think you have overreacted.
Go in urgently if you cannot keep fluids down for more than a few hours, if you have a high fever, if you feel faint, or if you notice reduced movements from your baby.
Vomiting also means any dose you gave for a meal may now be unmatched, which is a specific thing to mention when you call.