intense sugar

[Hollyb]

Do you all try to reduce sugar in your children's Type 1 diets? Does anyone else have pancakes with (gulp) real maple syrup? Aaron was really opposed to the kind with artificial sweeteners, not because of the fake sweeteners but because of the fake maple. I fret over him having maple syrup even though he has reasonable amounts of sugar in other things -- just seems like it is so concentrated it is bound to send him through the roof. So far, though, his 2 hour post-test is always fine and sometimes even too low. Which, of course, he waves in my face triumphantly! But I just can't shake the feeling we are doing something "bad"...

[Momof4gr8kids]

Holly, For us we have both kinds SF, and regular. My DH can cover regular no problem, my DD can't. When Julia covers regular syrup she will go low between 1 and 2 hours after. She does this with juice, and honey as well. If she chooses to eat these things, we just keep an eye on her BG, and give a snack with a little more umph to it, or treat the low, if we are to late with the snack. Julia doesn't mind the SF kind though, so that is usually what she gets.

[Amy C.]

I think that Real maple has a lower glycemic value than the fake stuff made with high fructose corn syrup.

My son had a half cup of real maple syrup with his waffles. I bolused all the insulin for the meal about 20 minutes before he eat. Two hours later, he was under 150. Usually he has 1/4 cup with pancakes. When I bolus before the meal, the sugar stays in range.

His sugar went sky high with the fake syrup and once he had the real stuff, he wouldn't even touch the sugar free syrup.

As long as you cover the extra sugar, you should be able to work high sugar meals into the meal plan.

[rickst29]

I have two other suggestions for those who like food which TASTES GOOD:

Buy 'Grade-B', not 'Grade-A'. Grade-B has more taste, even though it costs less! Grade-A is more clear, while Grade-B is darker and has a lot more "Maple Tree stuff" in it.

For Pancakes, moving from a traditional white-flour based mix to buckwheat (1/3 buckwheat, 2/3 whole wheat flour) slows it down a lot too. Here at my house, we only make Pancakes very seldom-- but my wife is sensitive to Gluten (though not Diabetic), and we use 2/3 oat flour, 1/3 buckwheat. It's GI seems to be VERY smooth, with hardly any back-filling needed.

BTW, buckwheat actually isn't related to wheat at all. But the strong taste is very much an 'acquired' thing, you might start with less than 1/3.

Quantity is key, I never eat more than two 4" pancakes, and certainly not in a meal with Juice of any kind. The combination would just be way too much carb at once. We have fancy non-cured bacon on the side, my wife is also sensitive to nitrates. Butter on the cakes also slows them down, and because the Grade-B tastes REALLY STRONG, I use only about 1/4 cup for both pancakes.