My Son and food

[esselle]

Hello again,

Well I am now beginning to familiarise myself with this wonderful forum - as I have already written in another thread, I am mum to a boy (10) who was diagnosed 2 years ago with T1 diabetes.

What I am really interested in, after reading a good few posts in the food areas on this board, is other parents' views on what their diabetic children eat, as I am slightly concerned about my son's comprehension on what he should and shouldn't eat to help keep his BG levels in a safe range.

For instance, my son's favourite meals generally include high carb foods such as pasta and jacket potatoes, he will eat salad, limited veg, but really does not like fruit, with the exception of grapes and oranges - yes both v high in fruit sugars! Typically for breakfast, he is not a big cereal fan and prefers toast (again, really packed with cards), for lunch he likes to have a small sandwich, orange juice carton (NAS), yoghurt and a small treat, but if I pack fruit, he ALWAYS leaves it I am conscious that I can't FORCE him to eat foods he doesn't like, but I would ideally like to decrease the types of food that make his blood sugars 'spike'. I guess as a family we have always enjoyed a lot of carbs (probably why I feel like a total stodge some days!!), but I really want to help my son, and as a consequence ALL of us in the family!

I would be really grateful for packed lunch suggestions he will enjoy (i.e. are wraps better than bread?). Please note that I most certainly do NOT want to cut carbs out of his diet altogether as they are (IMO) an essential part of any diet, and my son's diabetes nurse and dietician told us not to restrict him too much, but obvioulsy to match his insulin to the foods he eats etc. Also, evening meals for the family which are not overloaded with carbs?

Hope I don't sound silly, I just thought it might be good to get some ideas - we are all prepared to change for him, without making him feel that he is missing out so much that it tempts him to rebel when he reaches his teens!

Thank you

 

[ams162]

Hello
have u done a carb counting course, we dont tend to limit things quite so much since doing one as we just match the insulin to the amount of carbs per meal which we finally feel gives us a bit of freedom hes been taking fruit bars that everyone else has been taking for years in their lunch and id always said no to or a cake which makes him feel more like everyone else instaed of never being allowed them and then sneaking food to compensate. otherwise he takes a sandwhich and a bag of crisp sometime those fridge raiders chicken bites or pepperamis and cheese strings or yoghurts but generally he takes similar things everyday
anna marie

 

[SophiaW]

I agree with you that carbs are an important part of a child's diet and it's not something that I would ever consider cutting out for my daughter's diet either. If the insulin is matching the carbs he's eating then there's no reason he shouldn't follow a healthy balanced diet and eat what most other children have for lunch. Obviously avoid sweets in his lunch box but any health conscious parent shouldn't have sweets in their child's lunch on a regular basis in my opinion, whether they're diabetic or not.

My daughter doesn't like bread so she never has a sandwich in her lunch box, but if she did eat bread I'd happily give her a sandwich with a savoury filling. Instead she'll have some savoury oat biscuits with cheese or an oaty bar (cereal bar). She has a yoghurt but we try to choose ones that are healthier and not too sugary. I never buy those muller corner yoghurts that are packed with sugar. Occasionally she has a bag of crisps but I don't like the high salt content so we restrict these to a couple times a week rather than every day. She loves a salad (cucumber, tomatoes, celery, sliced peppers, carrot sticks) with feta cheese and olives. Now that she's on the pump her BG copes much better with fruit juice, in the past I always stuck to the no added sugar squash as a drink but the flavours available are very limiting. I now give her the Calypso Aqua Juice which is a diluted juice drink, we get them in 200ml juice boxes. She also likes the little cartons of milk that can be bought through the school. Occasionally I'll include a small chocolate coated biscuit or plain biscuit of some sort (she's particularly partial to the gingerbread men from M&S). I give her any fruit, melon is particularly good as it's lower in carbs. Grapes have been no problem but I keep it to a small serving as they are quite high in sugar. Fridays she'll get an extra treat like a small sized fairy cake or muffin.

 

[Hazza]

We don't really restrict the amount of carbs that we give to Lily but we are aware of the differences like fruit or pizza for example.
For breakfast She will have a couple of small set yogurts and some cereal so about 30 carbs. Then at school she has a packed lunch with a sandwich a frube a cheese string a couple of jaffa cakes and some fruit which adds up to between 60 and 70 carbs.
We tend not to make a big deal about it as she is only just 8 and as you say we don't want her to rebel when she gets older. We try to encourage her to be sensible and to make sure that she is aware of her need for insulin to counter the carbs. Being recently put on a pump has helped a lot as she likes to snack (don't all kids). She knows that she can have cheese or Meat and that is free so she will ask for these when she is hungry, but she is also allowed ice cream or a small chocolate (one of those small multipack ones) and we bolus for then accordingly.
We would not want her to miss out on the things that her friends take for granted although she knows there is a difference.
We can only do our best for our kids and hope that they will take on board the messages that we give them. We all worry for them and hope that they will look after themselves as they grow into adults, but eventually they will leave the nest and we will still worry.

Harry

 

[esselle]

Thank you all, it seems I am doing similar with my son to a few of you anyway - he's pretty good in the sense that he appreciates he can not just have a packet of sweets randomly as other kids can, but his dietician has explained to him that if he does want a sweet treat, to have it as part of a meal rather than just on its own between meals, which he tends to adhere to. When he does snack (bearing in mind he is not a fruit fan!) he tends to ask for a bit of cheese or a couple of slices of ham, which are obviously carb free-ish so I allow this. The only time I really struggle is like for instance on Sunday, for his birthday, we had tea, but then later went to the cinema to watch a film of his choice and of course he wanted popcorn and a drink and I didnt have a CLUE how many carbs would be in the popcorn or slush! (Please bear in mind that this was a birthday treat and i certainly wasn't going to deprive him that). Generally, I am ok carb counting with stuff like potato products etc and a lot of carb content is on the packets of things, so I think I do ok.

Oh how I wish I could take this away from him though, as this is on my mind 24/7 so I guess i've lost a little of my own life and happiness too, which I wish I could reclaim

 

[Hazza]

I really feel for you Esselle. We will be going through the same thing more or less on Saturday as it is Lily's birthday and we are taking some of her friends bowling. Then there will be party food as well. We will have to guestimate as best as we can as to the amount of carbs.
Last year we took her friends to the pictures and then to Pizza Hut, I wouldn't dare do that now :roll: .
It does help being on a pump as you can bolus between meals but when she was on injections she had her treats with her meals as you do for your son.

Harry

 

[leggott]

Once you have learnt to carb count then snacking does become easier. We allow our kids to have a treat on the weekends which they can have between meal. We work out the amount of insulin required and them give them their required dose. I took my dAugter and her friends to Pizza Express for her birthday. The only problem with pizza/pasta is that they take a long time to be digested. We normally split the insulin dose giving half just after they've finished eating and the other half about 30 mins later. I'm not advocating this all the time, but once in while won't hurt and allows them to enjoy the same things as their friends.

As for lunch box ideas - homemade popcorn, oat cakes and cheese slices, pots of rice pudding, crisp bread, bread sticks with dips, cold flaked fish, tuna and sweetcorn, couscous, cold pasta salad... Along with fruit and raw veggies.

I understand how stressful if is and for us having 2 children with type 1 makes it extremely stressful to eat out, (hence why it's a very occasional thing). It would be great to have a day off, but sadly it is something that needs to be dealt with 24/7!

A dentist friend of mine was telling me how bad it is for kids to eat sweet things in between meals and that she sees so many young kids with bad teeth because of this. At least our kids will grow up knowing how to look after their bodies as they will be taught from a young age the Importance of healthy eating and eating occasional treats with their meals.

 

[esselle]

Oh my goodness, leggott! you have two little ones, both with T1! That must be pretty rare? boy that must be hard, what a shock it must have been x