School Trip - Pizza Hut All You Can Eat Buffet [emoji85]

[Jayden2407]

Hi I’m after a little advice, my son was diagnosed 4 weeks ago type 1 and is insulin dependent (4 injections daily)
He is due to leave primary school soon and they are taking the children bowling and to Pizza Hut (buffet) now I’m aware of carb counting and we know my sons ratio, usually do the carb counting then enter on the monitor telling us how many units of insulin to give before that particular meal.
How the ****** **** am I going to work around an all you can eat buffet if I’m not with my son?! He isn’t carb counting himself yet but is aware that the carb and cals book gives him an idea of food and portion size to go off...
what the best thing to do? Any advice?
I was thinking maybe pre meditate his meal, count the carbs myself then let him know what he should have?? I don’t want to deprive him of more food that I give him after working out the carbs

Edited by moderator for language

 

[Ziggy2017]

Hi I’m after a little advice, my son was diagnosed 4 weeks ago type 1 and is insulin dependent (4 injections daily)
He is due to leave primary school soon and they are taking the children bowling and to Pizza Hut (buffet) now I’m aware of carb counting and we know my sons ratio, usually do the carb counting then enter on the monitor telling us how many units of insulin to give before that particular meal.
How the ****** **** am I going to work around an all you can eat buffet if I’m not with my son?! He isn’t carb counting himself yet but is aware that the carb and caps book gives him an idea of food and portion size to go off...
what the best thing to do? Any advice?
I was thinking maybe pre meditate his meal, count the carbs myself then let him know what he should have?? I don’t want to deprive him of more food that I give him after working out the carbs

Hi @Jayden2407 does your son have a mobile phone? If he does why don’t you get him to send you a picture of what he’s eating and you can work out the carbs. Hope this helps

 

[Jayden2407]

Hi @Jayden2407 does your son have a mobile phone? If he does why don’t you get him to send you a picture of what he’s eating and you can work out the carbs. Hope this helps

Hi @Ziggy2017

Yes he does and he takes it to school. That’s one way I suppose I didn’t think of that -thanks! He’ll just have to put all food he’s going to eat all on one plate so I can count the carbs won’t he?
We usually inject the insulin units ten mins before eating, is it possible to inject just before eating (we don’t eat out a great deal and so don’t do this a lot) will it affect his levels if he doesn’t wait 10 mins?

Thank you

 

[porl69]

Hi @Jayden2407 that is a difficult one to answer, especially for Pizza AND for a buffet pizza.
I find Pizza raises BG very slowly and usually take half my bolus just before I eat and half around an hour after. Taking a photo of what he is going to eat is a good idea. trying to count the carbs on his plate will be difficult. Will he be coming straight home after going to Pizza Hut? You will have to keep a close eye on his levels for a few hours after his pizza buffet. May need a few correction doses. GOOD LUCK with this one. Keep us upto date on how it goes

 

[Heyrehair]

I agree with porl69 - Pizza is well known to be complex in how it affects levels.

There's a great article here that has helped us - https://www.sugarsurfing.com/single-post/2017/12/18/How-to-Sugar-Surf™-a-Pizza

Hopefully this will help you calculate a plan so that your son can enjoy his trip out.

 

[Ziggy2017]

Hi @Ziggy2017

Yes he does and he takes it to school. That’s one way I suppose I didn’t think of that -thanks! He’ll just have to put all food he’s going to eat all on one plate so I can count the carbs won’t he?
We usually inject the insulin units ten mins before eating, is it possible to inject just before eating (we don’t eat out a great deal and so don’t do this a lot) will it affect his levels if he doesn’t wait 10 mins?

Thank you

No problem

 

[Fruitella]

Hi, if you could agree with your son how many slices he will eat plus the info above is this link of use?
https://www.pizzahut.co.uk/order/pdfs/gb/nutritionals.3224aca736196489c2b79004551b59dc.pdf

It is for their delivered pizzas. It has the number of slices but would need to tally this with the pizza slice size for the buffet.

 

[Phoenix55]

As he is so recently diagnosed and is about to leave it is unlikely that the school staff have had time to do meaningful training except what to do in an emergency. What they would probably appreciate is an extra adult body if you can manage it, I am surprised they have not already approached you to see if you could help out. Make it clear to your son that you are not there to spoil his fun but to help and to make sure that he stays well not to stop him eating or having fun. You will be able to see what he is eating and when so that will take some of the guesswork out, although the experienced t1 on the forum agree that pizza can be tricky.

 

[slip]

For him sending you a picture of the food he's loaded up on his plate - if he's like any 11 year old his eyes will be bigger than his belly - so if you use that method err on the side of caution. TBH err on the side of caution anyway, as mentioned pizza is difficult to get perfect, so don't even try at this stage - just ensure he stays safe.

This is a nightmare scenario even for a seasoned professional T1D . But don't let that put you or him off the idea of going - you both need to learn to live fully with this condition so treat it as a learning exercise, the results don't really matter so long as you learn from them.

I hope he enjoys his celebratory meal out!

 

[Juicyj]

Hi @Jayden2407 Contact Pizza hut and get them to send you their nutritional information or drop in and get it direct from the restaurant so you can plan ahead or if you can blow up this, then all the information you need should be here: https://www.pizzahut.co.uk/restaura...8598_nutritional_booklet_210x297_ra_v2-1.pdf/

 

[Diakat]

What time will they be there? Lunch then home? Small bolus on side of caution and correct once home?

 

[Jayden2407]

I agree with porl69 - Pizza is well known to be complex in how it affects levels.

There's a great article here that has helped us - https://www.sugarsurfing.com/single-post/2017/12/18/How-to-Sugar-Surf™-a-Pizza

Hopefully this will help you calculate a plan so that your son can enjoy his trip out.

That’s a great article! Thank you

 

[Jayden2407]

Hi @Jayden2407 that is a difficult one to answer, especially for Pizza AND for a buffet pizza.
I find Pizza raises BG very slowly and usually take half my bolus just before I eat and half around an hour after. Taking a photo of what he is going to eat is a good idea. trying to count the carbs on his plate will be difficult. Will he be coming straight home after going to Pizza Hut? You will have to keep a close eye on his levels for a few hours after his pizza buffet. May need a few correction doses. GOOD LUCK with this one. Keep us upto date on how it goes

Thank you, I will. I’m not 100% sure what time he is going with school but he is very independent and does his own pricking of his finger and injections so I’ll make sure he knows to test his sugar levels an hour or two after and his meter will give him the correction dose amount automatically.

 

[Jayden2407]

Hi, if you could agree with your son how many slices he will eat plus the info above is this link of use?
https://www.pizzahut.co.uk/order/pdfs/gb/nutritionals.3224aca736196489c2b79004551b59dc.pdf

It is for their delivered pizzas. It has the number of slices but would need to tally this with the pizza slice size for the buffet.

Thanks very much for this! I will print it out and hand to the teacher so they can help him carb count

 

[Jayden2407]

As he is so recently diagnosed and is about to leave it is unlikely that the school staff have had time to do meaningful training except what to do in an emergency. What they would probably appreciate is an extra adult body if you can manage it, I am surprised they have not already approached you to see if you could help out. Make it clear to your son that you are not there to spoil his fun but to help and to make sure that he stays well not to stop him eating or having fun. You will be able to see what he is eating and when so that will take some of the guesswork out, although the experienced t1 on the forum agree that pizza can be tricky.

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I get where you’re coming from but knowing my son he’ll be all stroppy about me going.. he’s a really good kid and has taken all of this really well as a newly diagnosed diabetic. Plus I don’t want him thinking I’ll be following him on all school outings I will download and print the nutritional info and hand to the teacher. He’s very independent and does his own finger prick and injections so once the carb counting is done he’s a dab hand at all the rest

 

[Jayden2407]

For him sending you a picture of the food he's loaded up on his plate - if he's like any 11 year old his eyes will be bigger than his belly - so if you use that method err on the side of caution. TBH err on the side of caution anyway, as mentioned pizza is difficult to get perfect, so don't even try at this stage - just ensure he stays safe.

This is a nightmare scenario even for a seasoned professional T1D . But don't let that put you or him off the idea of going - you both need to learn to live fully with this condition so treat it as a learning exercise, the results don't really matter so long as you learn from them.

I hope he enjoys his celebratory meal out!

Thank you very much!!
Yes I will take it as a learning curve, I’m going to print the nutrition info off and give to his teacher, once carbs are counted my son will do his own prick and injection.

 

[Jayden2407]

Hi @Jayden2407 Contact Pizza hut and get them to send you their nutritional information or drop in and get it direct from the restaurant so you can plan ahead or if you can blow up this, then all the information you need should be here: https://www.pizzahut.co.uk/restaura...8598_nutritional_booklet_210x297_ra_v2-1.pdf/

Thanks juicyj, I have printed this and will give to his teacher

 

[slip]

He looks a cool little dude BTW! (actually he's probably not that little is he?!) I'm glad both you and he have a positive attitude it certainly helps, tell him to enjoy his pizza!

 

[ExtremelyW0rried]

I probably wouldn’t let mine go.
It’s sucks but plenty of things unfortunately have to stop when you are t1.
Take him out somewhere nice for the day instead.

 

[DCUKMod]

@Jayden2407 - I really do admire your desire not to become a helicotor parent, where your son's T1 is concerned. I imagine it must be really hard, but successful parenting (generally speaking of course) is about rearing independent, free-thinking young people.

Sounds like you're doing a cracking job.