# Hypos in non-diabetic pregnancy



## LeeLee (Nov 28, 2012)

Can anyone help with this one? My non-diabetic daughter is 14w pregnant and having frequent hypo symptoms. At 2.5 hours after eating and an hour after a full sugar Ribena, her bg was 3.6 this evening. Help!


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## Northerner (Nov 28, 2012)

3.6 is low, but not hypo for a non-diabetic. Diabetics are advised to treat '4 as the floor' because this gives a margin for error, but a non-diabetic is unlikely to drop below about 3.3 I believe before the liver is prompted by glucagon release from the pancreas to release more glucose into the blood to raise levels again. 

It's possible that she is having reactive lows from eating/drinking fast-acting sugar, which can cause an overproduction of insulin to deal with it and send levels on the low side until the glucagon  response kicks in  Keep the jelly babies handy, but don't overtreat!


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## LeeLee (Nov 28, 2012)

Today's low was after a snack of a 2-inch piece of smoked sausage, 5 cherry tomatoes, a Ryvita and a few crisps. She eats little and often, and also whenever she gets symptoms (extreme exhaustion, headache, feeling faint/dizzy, palpitations, sweating). She avoids sugary rubbish most of the time. We are in the middle of a house move so she can't register with new doctor until Monday.


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## Northerner (Nov 28, 2012)

LeeLee said:


> Today's low was after a snack of a 2-inch piece of smoked sausage, 5 cherry tomatoes, a Ryvita and a few crisps. She eats little and often, and also whenever she gets symptoms (extreme exhaustion, headache, feeling faint/dizzy, palpitations, sweating). She avoids sugary rubbish most of the time. We are in the middle of a house move so she can't register with new doctor until Monday.



Very unlikely to be reactive then! Hope the move goes well and she can find a good doctor


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## trophywench (Nov 28, 2012)

Hiya

As Northerner said, 3.5 is OK for a non-D, it isn't clinically hypo (that's 3.3 and below) and in any case odd though it seems, hypos for diabetic pregs don't actually harm the baby as long as they are not prolonged.

I'm not suggesting this is the way to go for the next 6 months, but it may help right now -

I think she needs to eat more carbohydrate and slow-acting carbohydrate at that - she only had about 15g carb absolute max with that lunch, it wasn't slow enough acting and that clearly ain't enough for her, at the moment, anyway.

You can slow ordinary fast carb down a bit with fat.  So pasta say, slow down with loads of cheddar.  Ditto pizza.  Bread - slow down with butter.  That's butter, made from cows milk, comes in a solid unmovable slab - not the messed about stuff in tubs that spreads easily from the fridge.  Slap it on those spuds.  Fruit - pour the double cream on.  Full fat milk on cereals.

And speak to docs asap, her team need to know she's hypoglycaemic asap  anyway and should be able to suggest the proper way forward once you've fire-fought through this week.


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## LeeLee (Nov 29, 2012)

Thank you for the advice.  She finds the symptoms scary - even though we've established that she's not clinically hypo, feeling faint is not a good thing especially with an active toddler to look after as well as the unborn baby and the house move to deal with!  Timing is rubbish, but we'll get it sorted.  Hey-ho.


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## AlisonF (Nov 29, 2012)

It's a horrible thing for her to experience, but research shows that insulin requirements do drop for most pregnant women towards the end of the first trimester. As diabetics, we notice that. As a non diabetic, I suspect she's just seeing the same thing in which case its perfectly normal, just need to eat more.


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## newbs (Dec 1, 2012)

Just a thought and I'm sure she will have done - but has she recently had her blood pressure checked?  I had low bp throughout my last pregnancy and fainted several times because of it, my symptoms were similar to a hypo (headache, dizziness, exhaustion).


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## Lizzzie (Dec 3, 2012)

I have a friend who definitely experiences 'hypos' despite being non-diabetic and he has a miserable time with them.  

I have no answers (although an Earlier suggestion of low gi food sounded sensible, especially if she knows when she is most vulnerable to it and could protect herself accordingly) but hope she recovers from this soon and would be fascinated to know what the medics say at her appointment if you'd be so kind as to share?


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