Julie, I only know from my own experience with Gest. Diabetes, but I was told to use Aspartame while PREGNANT and then immediately switch to sugar when NURSING. I remember vividly because I had just purged my cabinets of evil sugar when I delivered three weeks early and had to purge them of evil nutrasweet. I wasn't told why not to use artificial sweeteners, but I was told to avoid them. It is a pain for mothers with G.D. who have to switch from one to the other and back again. In almost every case the G.D. disappears upon delivery (immediately, even, my midwife said I could have cookies on the delivery table!), so the sugar doesn't pose a problem. They did check my blood sugar just to be sure, but that wasn't until the 6 week check-up. I'll post this as this is the second G.D. question and others might be intersted. Please feel free to contact me privately if anyone has other G.D. questions that can be answered by a non-medical-professional mom who' been through it. Linda V., chocoholic once again [log in to unmask]