Need creative food ideas

[schmidita]

I am having trouble getting a variety of foods into Will's diet. I just feel like I am limited with the exchanges and I don't know what certain things count as. Does anyone have any good snack or meal ideas that they are willing to share? Also, is there anything that I can give him in between snacks/meals. He eats a lot of sugar free jello, but I just didn't know if there are more free foods that I am missing out on? Thanks

[wendyc]

First of all, how old is your son and what type of regimine is he on? How many carbs are you allowed to give him for a snack?

SF jello gets very old very fast!
If he's over 3, peanut butter is always great. High in protien, low in carbs. We do "peanut butter lollipops" basically, it is 2 spoonfuls of pb, and Abby just nibbles away at that. It's good because it takes a long time to eat.

Other items:
Ham or turkey wrapped around a cheese stick
Carrots dipped in salsa
Baked tortilla chips with salsa
fresh veggies with ranch dressing. I have one of those choppers that make the veggies look a wavy, she gets a kick out of that

Two great cookbooks that I refer to are:
Cooking up Fun for Kids with Diabetes by Geil & Ross (an ADA publication)
Americas Best Cookbook for Kids with Diabetes by Colleen Bartley

Both have some great snack/meal options.

[Emmasmommy]

For in between meals and snacks we go with cheese stick pickels raw hot dogs (i knows its nasty but she loves them) veggies (she loves red green and orange pepers) any lunch meats are carb free as well.

If your little one likes rice Emma loves Chicken with mushoorm soup and rice the only problem we find with this meal is rice takes longer to break down but shes on the pump so i just do a wave bolus so that she doesnt bottem out befor the rice breaks down but when she was on MDI it was a great meal because it does take longer to break down.

We love the book Cooking with Kids it has fun meal ideas that your kids can help cook.

[beckybuckley]

Don't forget pickles and olives .... along with cheese and a few little smokies makes a great low carb (really low) snack.

[A&Ds Mommy]

Dylan is allowed 15-20 grams of carbs at snack time and he will usually eat:
graham crackers
animal crackers
fruit
dry cereal
yogurt
peanut butter and crackers
cheese and crackers

[selketine]

Yes, please don't give peanut butter to a child under 3 yrs of age - I learned that the hard way with William.:( Even if they've already tried peanut butter or peanut items the allergy can still appear. If you think diabetes is bad then just add being touch allergic to peanut butter and you will really have fun then.

I suggest talking to your doctor about getting off the "exchanges" - that is really old school diabetes. Go to carb counting and you should be able to give a reasonable snack. She shouldn't have to snack on free foods all the time either. If you go to a basal/bolus approach to giving insulin that will give you much more flexibility (that would be something like Lantus for basal and humalog for boluses which is usually whenever she eats). It means more shots but more flexibility.

When William was really little (he was 26 months at diagnosis) we found that even a few carbs sent his bgl up so it was pretty much impossible to give a free food other than meat (and the fat can raise the bgl if it is fatty) or the jello you already do.