I am going to donate blood this afternoon or tomorrow and I was wondering... after they give you cookies and juice is it a bad idea to skip that? Like if I just say no thanks to both?

Just wondering....

I found out the hard way that it's a bad idea to skip them! If you don't want to have cookies and juice, maybe you could take a healthier snack with you and eat that instead?

Yup, I've done it. I just say no thanks or I'll just ask for water. What you might want to do is take a snack of your own. Some water (replenish fluids) and maybe some snackable veggies or nut/raisin mix or whatever is easily portable for you.

The center where I donate has healthier snacks in addition to the doughnuts and cookies. I always bring a bottle of water, but they should offer you some as well in addition to juice. When I donated less than a week ago, I had a 110 calorie bag of pretzels and some string cheese - totally reasonable on a low-cal diet. You also want to make sure that your next meal is a good one, so plan your calories around that.

Bad idea to not eat afterward. Donating blood drops your blood sugar, so you want something that will bring it back up. Plus, they're removing approximately 650 calories worth of stuff from your body and you're going to have to replace at least some of it, and certainly some of the fluids.

And way to go for donating! The people who need that blood, even if you won't know who they are, thank you.

I have 1 cup of grapes with me and some water. I can have that! I just didnt want the calories from the cookies, I know that it is important to eat I just didnt know if it HAD to be cookies.

When I was born they almost killed my Mother. I was born by C-Section and they left some (or maybe all) of the placenta in. She started bleeding and wouldn't stop. They ingored it for a bit and told her it was normal to bleed after having a baby. Finally they realized how bad it was but it almost too late. It took them a long time to get blood into her, all her veins had colapsed. The finally got it into her jugular (sp? neck anyway). My mom said while it was happening she had an out of body expierence (if you believe in that, she didnt for a long time she thought it wasnt real until she read stories of other people having them) anyway she said she could see all the doctors as if she was sitting some where else, and she could hear the doctor's screaming "were losing her, were losing her" and she wanted to scream 'I am not going anywhere, I just had a baby!'

Anyway that is why I donate blood. It was there for my mom and I want to make sure that there is ALWAYS blood for someone else.

This will be my 7th time donating It doesn't always go so well, they have missed the vien a couple time and had to switch arms, and last time something happened and the bag didn't fill up, I hope this time it goes well, the last 4 times have been bad!

Yeah, you definitely want to eat something - they give you juice and cookies 'cause they'll help bring your blood sugar level back up quickly. I find crackers work, too. I've skipped it and gotten all dizzy and thrown up, so it's best to eat.

Maybe I wont worry two much about the calories and just eat the cookies and juice (or maybe just the cookies and some water), I dont want to throw up and I have to come right back to work after!

I just wanted to say GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love hearing that people donate blood!!! My bestest friend in the whole world had leukemia and she needed A LOT of blood during her transplant.

we need more people like you!

My DH has had many many blood transfusions and I'm very thankful for all the people who donate. I've tried many times, but I seem to be borderline anemic and they won't take mine. My parents and sister were/are over five gallon donors though!

I get hypotension after I donate blood. So I usually have a full glass of lemonade with some sugar.
(I think its a good idea to have juice or something to not let you get hypoglycemic or get hypotension!)

Because I do a red cell donation I can only give blood every 4 months ~ I am O-Neg. and very much in demand. I would NEVER leave without taking the 15 minutes to have some juice and crackers/donut/cookies. You sure don't want to pass out or get woozy driving home!

Don't worry about a few calories over something like this!!

I donated blood, ate my cookies and skipped the juice (but had some diet cook with me and water as soon as I got back to work)

All went well, I filled the whole bag and they didnt miss a vien!

Glad everything went well. You definitely don't want to skip the last part. It may not be juice and cookies, but you do want to get some fluids and sugar back into your body. I have heard somewhere that the sugary snack part is more of a ploy to keep you there sitting down for 10 more minutes than for your blood sugar (apparently it either doesn't go down that far or the cookies don't replenish it that quickly) but I get light headed if I leave too quickly afterward.

SoTypical, I have goosebump on my arms. What happened to your mother when you were born is almost exactly the same thing that happened to me when my daughter (now 2) was born! I bled out during the emergency C-section, lost too much blood PLUS they left bits of the placenta inside of me. Noone would listen when I said something was wrong until I ended up back in hospital, via ambulance for a second surgery when the baby was 2 weeks old. It's the first time I've heard someone else say they've had the same thing happen to them (or their mother, hehe).

I've been anemic ever since but I'm hoping that's passed now and I can start giving blood again. I (laughingly) told my Slimming World consultant that I was gonna give blood on weigh-in day, right before class!

Mummy_Tummy - I don't know what happened to my mom exactly - I think she just had a totally stupid doctor! I think it was within a matter of a couple days that all this happened - like she never actually went home. When it first started they told they had left the plecenta in and then after then denyed it and the next day all the staff on the floor had changed. I know she had been in labour for a long time with me and they should of done the C-Section MUCH sooner. I know when my mom had my little sister 10 years ago she told then right away, I am having a C-Section and no one argued! haha

The scary thing for her was a few years ago they realized that during that time the bags of blood we never being tested and she had to go have a bunch of tested but she is A-OKAY! When I got my new doctor a few months ago we were talking about something and he was saying that he delivered a baby and something like that happened. I guess its not that un-common!