• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

How to motivate a teenager?

elsalisa

Active Member
Messages
33
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hello all! I have a 12 year old, she was diagnosed 4 years ago. And when she used pens (Novorapid) and Levemir, she was losing weight rapidly.
Then she was given Medtronic 640G. It didn’t work well for us at all - she started gaining weight.
In May last year she was given fiasp- that’s when her weight went up even quicker.
Her height is 154cm, her weight is 60 and I can’t motivate her be active and follow a diet. “No, thanks!”. Today she put on her school uniform and was on the verge of tears - 3 weeks of school holidays when I couldn’t get her out of bed...
I feel like a loser. I don’t know what to do.
 
Big hugs to you You're not a loser.
I have 3 teenagers one of whom is chunky and under motivated though not diabetic. As a personal trainer with a big interest in nutrition you can imagine how useless I feel at times!
Firstly I imagine your daughter is going through puberty which is a time when insulin demands go up in order to lay down body fat in the right places and for growth. This could be another reason she isn't energetic but equally it could be erratic blood sugars which would also cause appetite fluctuations. It could just be the puppy fat pre growth spurt phase and obviously you don't want to be making a big thing of it. Sadly girls seem to divide into the sporty types (minority) and the non sporty ones who hate to get sweaty and feel self conscious doing much! Hopefully she is confident about handling her diabetes with exercise? In which case is there anything she might enjoy doing e.g. swimming, zumba, junior gym sessions, badminton ? (Not to assume she can't play team sports but many girls just don't want to). Or can she be trusted to cycle off by herself /walk a dog?
As a pre teen I was weighted as a newly diagnosed type 1 which did contribute to a later eating disorder as many type 1 teens do. I am not saying this is the case for your daughter but I think providing healthy meals for the whole family with treats as just that plus walking together may be the only things that will be achievable right now given that most teens don't like being told what to do by their Know Nothing parents. This may mean that you have to stand back in frustration as she lounges around on her phone!
I think it is also important that she starts to learn some self care with regards to testing, dosing and food choices as in just 6 years she could be off into the adult world.
Are your diabetic clinic concerned about her growth or insulin and blood sugar levels btw?
 

Thank you so much for your reply!

Diabetic team was concerned when Lisa was 45 kilos a year ago. But now she’s 60 and they probably try to ignore it.
Diabetic specialist in diets only repeats she must consume 200 carbs a day. 200 carbs!

She did a lot of sports before she was diagnosed in 2017 (she was 9 year old). A year before that she had a minor hand surgery, was told not to do sports for about a month and that’s when she began gaining weight. And couldn’t control it even when she began swimming and cycling again. It was strange and then she was diagnosed... maybe it’s psychological, I don’t know, she gradually rejected sport after that and started losing weight - after she was diagnosed and given insulin, not before, as type 1 diabetics usually do!
This pump probably ruined everything or maybe Lisa thought that she can now eat anything freely and started hiding sweets. She goes to school - I can’t control her there. Plus stress - she sees other girls, they all slim, and she’s in despair she’s different (even though she’s not bullied).
I tell her about my friends with type 1 - all of them are into sports. Nah, now way. Dad invites her for a walk (we live near forest) - no, thank you. Only one thing made her interested recently - I found Conquerors community where you can get a real (and quite beautiful) medal for walking “to Mount Fuji” or any other place of your choice (virtually of course
). She even got her first medal and she was serious about that but on holidays she had a minor surgery again - ingrown toenail. Grrr... now we have to do the same with another toenail. God help me.

As to meals - I try to cook healthy food, bought several books with recipes for diabetics but she didn’t like anything.
 
Couldn't see your insta link but this all sounds familiar to me as a mum and as a teen.
I'd question the notion of 'needing' 200g carbs daily even for a growing girl and if her insulin needs or blood sugars start to be erratic or go up then it is worth mentioning it to your team I'd say. You can't drop the carbs without dropping her boluses obviously but its entirely possible she has a body type that doesn't do well on low quality carbs (school tuck shop stuff) . My son bemoans the stuff his skinny friends and brother can eat but its worth pointing out that those kids will fatten up in later life and that he's got potential to get good and strong as has Lisa. I am glad that athletic is the new skinny as when I was her age it was Kate Moss or nothing!
My son is also victim to school food where in a short break it is easier to buy a panini and a muffin than queue for the hot meal so you can only educate and do what you're doing with the healthy real food. She will be listening but sounds fairly stubborn at this point (not a bad thing for life !). At least she's found one thing she is enjoying (similarly mine used to enjoy chasing virtual fairies via Pokemon at a similar stage).
Something to note is that the diabetic cookbooks are typically on the low fat/healthy wholegrain carbs variety so you may want to check out other low carb options - this is a good one that I have used:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diabetes-Weight-Loss-Cookbook-life-changing-diabetes-ebook/dp/B07LFG5RXY
 
elsalisa said:
And when she used pens (Novorapid) and Levemir, she was losing weight rapidly.
Click to expand...
Did she have high blood glucose most of the time at that time?
elsalisa said:
Then she was given Medtronic 640G. It didn’t work well for us at all - she started gaining weight.
In May last year she was given fiasp- that’s when her weight went up even quicker.
Click to expand...
And was this when her BG started to get lower? In what way didn't the pump work well for her?
It's very common to gain weight quickly after having been malnourished from having high BG.
 

Thank you, I have just ordered the book!

Yes, Lisa always had a bit of extra weight. But when she went to school at 4 she quickly regained normal weight. It’s mostly about physical excercise, no one can stay in healthy weight lying on sofa whole day long... problem is how to make her get up. She did karate at some point but found it boring (well, I saw how kids were trained - boring indeed). I think about offering her to walk in the evening, maybe it will work. Teenagers...

Yes, she’s addicted to sweets and chips. Hard to control her when she’s at school as I said, and I understand her at some point because taking glucose when she’s hypo is not fun. Of course cookie sound better. **** it... at least I transferred her from usual ice cream to OPPO ones - they don’t seem to be sugary and they don’t cause spikes.

In just a year, after fiasp (or maybe it’s a coincidence) we went from 8 units of Levemir (8 for day, 8 for night) to 13. I just don’t feel it’s right but that’s also when she hit puberty so maybe it’s hormones too...
 
Antje77 said:
Did she have high blood glucose most of the time at that time?

And was this when her BG started to get lower? In what way didn't the pump work well for her?
It's very common to gain weight quickly after having been malnourished from having high BG.
Click to expand...

No, she lost weight when being on honeymoon, she never was higher than 8-9 and we though 9 was high.
Honeymoon actually lasted for about a year as they said. But when we got pump and dropped Levemir she quickly started gaining weight.

I don’t know why it changed everything so dramatically, we just saw her losing weight more and more, she became so slim, even thin, and then she was given pump, sugars became higher... we changed cannulas because they bent, they got blocked, sugars were jumping, but not as critical as now, up to 12-14, and still we managed to keep a good HbA1c, as we also had pens (just in case). Right now her HbA1c is 58, we were kindly asked to bring it back to normal...


She is back to pens now, she doesn’t mind at all because at some point she was hysterical that she’s attached to a machine, like she’s not a normal human anymore. Levemir is 13 for the day, 13 for the night, fiasp for meals. But still lack of sport I guess and extra weight cause sugar spikes. And at 3am too, so I wake up at night to give her extra fiasp.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…