Eating Out

[johnstoc]

Hi All.

We are all told to take our fast acting insulin (NovoRapid) just before we eat.
What about when you are eating out and have several courses over a longer time period?

Do you take your 'full' (whatever that is) at the start of the meal.
Or do you take a smaller amount, at the start of each course (depending on the crab count on each course).

When we eat out a meal could last 2hrs. 5 / 10mins between courses, talking etc...

Would a fast acting jab 'cover' eating for 2hrs as opposed to 10/15mins eating at home.

 

[noblehead]

A split dose may be best in the circumstances you describe, whatever you do don't make the mistake of giving your first injection before the first course arrives on the table and just remember to keep quick-acting glucose to hand, if in doubt ask your DSN for advice.

 

[Robinredbreast]

A split dose may be best in the circumstances you describe, whatever you do don't make the mistake of giving your first injection before the first course arrives on the table and just remember to keep quick-acting glucose to hand, if in doubt ask your DSN for advice.

I would say exactly the same thing as Noblehead. RRB

 

[Riri]

I alwys inject with the mains. I dont have a pudd normally so by then I know the amount of carbs I've had. (I would have tested my BS at the start of the meal so that's the BS I then use to work out the insulin dose). I know that I will get a higher sugar spike if I've had some carbs for the starter as there's no insulin to cover at that point but, as it's eating out which doesn't happen all the time, I do it this way and put up with a higher numbers for a few hours. Im also on a pump but I haven't experimented with the delayed insulin (multi wave?) yet.

 

[l0vaduck]

Even when I was on MDI, I always dosed for each course separately. As others have said, I don't dose until I can see the food as you never know what will turn up on the plate, whatever the menu says, and I've had to send dishes back before and that would mean I'd be in trouble if I'd already dosed myself.

 

[johnstoc]

Some really helpful comments. Thanks all.

 

[iHs]

must admit that Ive tackled eating out at restaurants by injecting insulin all in one go when it arrives on the dinner table and just hope that what Ive injected will cover the food.... but that is with using Humalog and Apidra in a pen........ seemed to work ok even though you could argue that I was feeding my insulin with carb. Insulin takes ages to lower bg whereas carb makes bg rise fairly quickly.........

Since using Novorapid in a pump Ive bolused as Ive gone along with eating food as it turrns up at the table but insulin does tend to start stacking so its really essential that bg tests are done throughout the meal just to make sure that they are not dropping too much.................

 

[SamJB]

I find the best way to avoid unknown amounts of carbs when eating out is to avoid them. Easier said than done, but it stops me going high after a meal out

 

[l0vaduck]

must admit that Ive tackled eating out at restaurants by injecting insulin all in one go when it arrives on the dinner table and just hope that what Ive injected will cover the food.... but that is with using Humalog and Apidra in a pen........ seemed to work ok even though you could argue that I was feeding my insulin with carb. Insulin takes ages to lower bg whereas carb makes bg rise fairly quickly.........

Since using Novorapid in a pump Ive bolused as Ive gone along with eating food as it turrns up at the table but insulin does tend to start stacking so its really essential that bg tests are done throughout the meal just to make sure that they are not dropping too much.................

I've never worried about this concept of "insulin stacking", on the grounds that the carbs that I took the insulin for, are stacking as well! The only time I take it into account is when working out whether I need a correction. I would not correct during the meal because it's too soon to know whether the dose was accurate or not - I'd just enjoy the meal and correct later if necessary.