Eating Enough for Your Baby

A common and understandable reaction to GDM is to eat as little as possible. Every reading feels like a test, and eating less seems like the obvious way to pass it.

This is the one direction the advice does not go. GDM management aims at steadier blood glucose, not fewer calories, and pregnancy is not the time to be eating too little.

Your baby needs protein, iron, calcium, folate and enough energy to grow. Cutting food broadly to chase numbers puts that at risk, and it often does not even work — fasting readings in particular are driven by your liver overnight rather than by dinner, so they may stay high however little you eat.

The signs you may have gone too far: constant hunger, dizziness, feeling faint, losing weight during pregnancy, or being told at a scan that growth has slowed. Any of those is a reason to speak up rather than to try harder.

What to do instead is redistribute rather than reduce. Keep the protein and vegetables generous, and it is the carbohydrate portion at each sitting that gets smaller — with the total spread across more, smaller occasions.

If you are frightened of eating and your readings are still high, say exactly that at your appointment. That is a treatment conversation, and often the point at which insulin is the right answer rather than more restriction.