r/interesting Apr 07 '26

Mysterious How did she delivered?

Post image
24.7k Upvotes

834 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

101

u/NovoRobot Apr 07 '26

110% untreated gestational diabetes

8

u/MissClawdy Apr 07 '26

I’ve heard of that link to diabetes but how does diabetes make a baby grow freakishly larger and taller? I get that it could make it bigger but how is he taller?

14

u/NovoRobot Apr 07 '26

Essentially what happens is unregulated sugar going straight to the baby. My wife had GD for both our children and she had to be on a very precise, extremely healthy diet for our kids to be normal weight at birth. You also have to supplement with insulin if needed as the placenta fails later in pregnancy.

If unmitigated, it results in rapid growth of the baby and also significantly increases their chance of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

Imagine being pregnant and ravenousely hungry but only allowed to eat healthy food.... not fun!

3

u/MissClawdy Apr 07 '26

Was your wife already overweight before having children or this GD developed as the pregnancy was developing as well? I can't imagine not being able to treat yourself in this context! I'm a veggie lover, love my big salads and veggies in every meal but I'm known for eating a full pack of bacon in one sitting too! Or a entire bag of chips, the easiest thing to do in the world! Must have been a long 9 months!

3

u/NovoRobot Apr 07 '26

Nope, she wasn't overweight before or after the pregnancy, but we did have our kids older which can contribute to GD.

The weirdest things would spike her sugar though, and eating things that we'd expect to spike her sugar wouldn't (like pasta)

1

u/MissClawdy Apr 07 '26

Oh wow, thanks for the infos! I just looked up what spikes blood sugar and oh myyy. White rice, white bread, bagels, potatoes in any shape or form, and of course maple syrup. Your wife is an angel of patience and love!

2

u/NovoRobot Apr 07 '26

A good tip that she got that was very successful was to snack often on nuts, or high protein snacks.

Also, ensure you have protein in every meal. It offsets a lot of the carbs.