Maybe a dumb question...

[tymaxtess]

This may be a really dumb question, but I hear you guys talking so much about how your kids can eat whatever they want, but it really sounds like their diet is different than it was pre-diabetes?

If so, what changes have you made when it comes to eating?

If Tessa has emerging diabetes, I am thinking it will be easier to start making these changes now when it can be more gradual. Is that true?

[Kirsten]

The biggest difference is that we really avoid high carb drinks. They just cause high spikes and aren't really necessary for good nutrition. Griffin gets plenty of vitamin C from fresh fruit.

On another thread they talk about having trouble with spikes from milk, but we've never had that problem. If Tessa turns out to have diabetes (and I hope not) then you will probably find some foods that you will avoid because they make her BS unmanageable, but these can vary from individual to individual.

Kirsten

[allisa]

I agree with Kirsten.....

We mostly avoid High carb drinks and excesss candy. Kids with Diabetes should be able to eat as they like....they just need to be aware of how many carbs and treat those carbs. This invloves either careful planning or extra shots ( bolus if on pump...that's waht makes pump so attractive )

[wendyc]

We really haven't made too many adjustments to Abby's diet. I think one of the reasons is that she was 4 when diagnosed, so she hadn't really been introduced to many of the super sugary candies and sodas (she never had soda pre-d). We do avoid things that are high carb/sugar such as a slurpie (d or no-d I don't let my kids have these) and if they wanted a smoothie from Jamba Juice, I would be more apt to split one small between the two of them because they are huge.

I think if you need to modify diet at all you want to focus more on whole grains, complex carbs, fruits and veggies. Try to stay away from processed foods and make fast foods a treat. We try and limit Mickey D's or BK to no more than 2x's a month. If we are on the run we try to have Subway or D'Angelos sandwiches.

I would do this slowly so as to not create food issues with your daughter. You don't want to be saying NO all the time, this could lead to her sneaking things you are trying to lessen or eliminate from the diet.
If there is a particular candy or sweet she has to have, build it into lunch or dinner so that there is protien to work with it. This is what we do and it only has a minimal impact on bg's.

Best of luck.

[Amy C.]

When my son was first diagnosed, we had to feed the insulin because he was on NPH and Regular. Now he eats what he wants to, with the except of regular soda. He never drinks that.

[tymaxtess]

Right now they eat these sorts of things for snacks:

Trix Yogurt or gogurts
Goldfish crackers
Crackers and cheese
Granola bars
Raw veggies
Fruit snacks
Cookies and milk
String cheese or cheese curds
Teddy grahams
Juice boxes


Any of those that you just don't have or should be slowly eliminated from our choices? I think our meals are pretty healthy (with the exception of breakfast where we rely too heavily on sugary cereals). Most lunches are sandwiches, fruit, veggies, etc. and most suppers are a main dish/meat and veggies and fruits.

What about pizza? We do eat alot of pizza and we do go to McDonalds 2-4x/month. We can start reducing all of that now if necessary. I want to make choices that are healthy anyway for all of us and if we start now it will be less of a "shock" to our family routines if diabetes becomes real in our family.

[Kirsten]

Fruit snacks are really carb dense food. I consider them equivalent to candy. We only use them when Griffin is low. Instead of juice boxes, we use minute maid Fruit Falls or KoolAid jammers 10 (2g per pouch).

Kirsten

[MamaC]

Stacy,

Your snack list looks almost identical to ours, but we don't do fruit snacks. As Kirsten said, too carb-dense for a regular snack for us. And juice boxes are usually reserved for treating low BG, unless he is not starving and wants to use it for some of his meal carbs.

Tom's on a pretty high-carb diet as he is a growing teenage boy. Even still some days he just isn't that hungry!

Becky

[wendyc]

Right now they eat these sorts of things for snacks:

Trix Yogurt or gogurts
Goldfish crackers
Crackers and cheese
Granola bars
Raw veggies
Fruit snacks
Cookies and milk
String cheese or cheese curds
Teddy grahams
Juice boxes


Any of those that you just don't have or should be slowly eliminated from our choices? I think our meals are pretty healthy (with the exception of breakfast where we rely too heavily on sugary cereals). Most lunches are sandwiches, fruit, veggies, etc. and most suppers are a main dish/meat and veggies and fruits.

What about pizza? We do eat alot of pizza and we do go to McDonalds 2-4x/month. We can start reducing all of that now if necessary. I want to make choices that are healthy anyway for all of us and if we start now it will be less of a "shock" to our family routines if diabetes becomes real in our family.

You're snack list pretty much mirrors ours, except cheese will not pass Abby's lips:D
We treat fruit snacks as candy and use them as a special treat or lows. Teddy Grahams (or any graham cracker) causes spikes in Abby. You said you rely on sugar cereals for breakfast. I would try and steer her away from those as cold cereals tend to cause big spikes and that combined with the sugar can wreck havoc on bg's. Maybe try the lower sugar cereals (there's Frosted Flakes with less sugar and I think Apple Jacks too). As for pizza and McD's, that's a personal choice, just be prepared as to how her body might react to those foods. Pizza will cause highs for several hours because it is high fat/high carb and the body takes longer to process it. Same goes for Chinese food and fast food. If you are very concerned about this, you could always ask that the pizza be made with less cheese or you could make it yourself using lf cheese. When we go to McD's, we give Abby only 1/2 the fries. We can get away with that for now as she's only 5!

I honestly don't think you need to adjust your menu really at all. A good book is the GI Handbook by Barbara Ravage. It tells you what foods are high/low on the glycemic index. So, you can get an idea of what foods will do what to bg's.

[tymaxtess]

Thanks everyone. Tessa doesn't really like cereal very much (and neither do I for that matter--it is just Dad and the boys that like it), so that shouldn't be hard to change. What do you do for breakfasts?

As for pizza--that is a habit that will be hard to change, but we can start with making our own--maybe that will help. Also--McDonalds--Tessa only eats about 1/4 of the fries right now and 2 nuggets, so that shouldn't be too bad. Maybe we can just add other foods that will balance that--some veggies, etc.

What about the cookie and milk? They almost always have that as a bedtime snack right now. Should we look to have something else?

[Kirsten]

Cookies and milk are a good bedtime snack for us.:)

Kirsten

[MamaC]

Stacy,

We have kept pizza in our meal rotation - in fact, Tom has a slice nearly every day (the only thing in the school cafeteria that he will eat). We also have it at home though less frequently, and he eats far less than he used to (kid could kill close to a whole delivery pizza on his own). We use some of the thin crust frozen varieties to cut the carb count.

Tom eats honey nut cheerios (a store brand) every morning for breakfast. Once in a while he'll have a frozen breakfast biscuit or frozen waffles or frozen pancakes (there is NO WAY I'm cooking at 5:30 AM when he needs to be up for school).

Cookies and milk should be fine but you may have to adjust quantities.

McDonald's is a treat for Tom - get yourself a nutrition guide from your local McD's or a Calorie King book for reference. He gets 90 grams of carbs per meal (which I think is higher than most) and a nice Crispy Bacon Ranch sandwich value meal just about fills that :D

Becky

[AmyMcCracken]

I agree with everyone elses comments. This list looks a lot like ours. However the Gogurts and Trix Yogurts REALLY spike Kaylies blood sugars. These will raise her BS more than Fruit snacks.

[tymaxtess]

Thanks everyone! You have all been so helpful! Since we have no diagnosis at this point, I don't feel the need to make any drastic changes or eliminate her favorite things, but at least I can start being more aware of what she is eating and how it makes her feel and we can all start making some more healthy choices.

Is there anything that your child used to eat before that you have totally eliminated?

[beckybuckley]

I haven't eliminated any foods from Alyssa's diets, just the pure sugar sodas and juices. The things we avoided eating for a while had more to do with difficulty trying to figure out the carbs, but with the Salter scale it's made that much easier.

[BRANDYB]

When Haley Was Diagnosed The Doctor Really Stressed To Us That She Could Eat Anything She Wanted. Only Cut Out Cokes And High Sugar Drinks. He Said It Was Important To Make Her Feel As Normal As Possible-no Different Than Any Other 9 Yr Old. We Did Cut Back Her Sweets So At Dinner If She Wants Something Sweet We Add It Into Her Dinner Ratio So She Only Gets The One Shot. If She Ate Something Sweet After School That Would Be An Additional Shot. Add It Into A Meal And You Don't Have To Give Another Poke. The Less Shots The Better!::)

[Hoping4theCureinWV]

Rather than eliminating foods at this point, I would suggest starting to incorporate more awareness of portion size and carbs in the foods that you serve or buy if eating out. When my son was dxd, it was a tough emotional challenge and having to suddenly measure and figure out the carbs in his foods was frustrating. After you do it for a while, you get pretty good at estimating. You also learn a lot about reading labels and realize that serving sizes are usually much smaller than the servings we tend to dish out. Having a good grasp on carb counting and on portion sizes is a healthy habit anyway and will be something that will really benefit you if you do indeed have to use it. Best of luck!

[kel4han]

Changes we made are to Coke zero, and Sprite Zero. Water drinks from Capri Sun w/ 2carbs. Mini Juicy Juice instead of the regular size. Those have 15c. Good for us becuase we get our fruit in there, since Maddison wont touch fruit:( A good bedtime snack is peanut butter with a graham cracker or two and some milk. a special day will have it sprinkled with a 1/2tsp of mini chocolate chips. Sugar free pudding is our new favorite too. Whip cream has low carbs. So instead of those beloved brownies or choc chip cookies before bed we have new choices. Its better off this way anyway. :rolleyes:

[Stacjean1]

We do a lot of bananas, apples, oranges, pears and grapes. Goldfish crackers are great, too. But that's really what he ate before, too. I don't do a lot of dried fruit now, as that seems to really raise his bs and also, he only gets juice if he is low. He drinks a lot of Crystal Light, Diet/Caffine Free Dr. Pepper (his fave) and the Lite V-8 fruit juices (like 3 carbs in a glass!) he also likes the handi-snak cheese and crackers.

I am always looking for great 10 carb snacks, so we don't have to do a bs check for that.

The biggest change in his (and our family's) diet is that we don't eat as much fast food. He loves a happy meal, but the fries really spike his bs. Those are big "treats" now. Which is good, because really, they are horrible for you. I have also tried to get him to eat a little less fat, like not bacon or sausage every day for breakfast, but that is his favorite thing and I introduced some canadian bacon instead, but he doesn't like it.

One thing he loves, too are peanut butter and jelly uncrustables, and I cannot remember right now, but they aren't too high in carbs.

[Mama Belle]

For breakfast we do waffles. Kids usually love waffles and they are easy to carb count because they are roughly 15 g each. My daughter doesn't like syrup, so she usually just has a little bit of canola margarine on hers. She also is big on bacon and eggs, but usally only gets those on the weekend when we have time.

Pizza is a tough one. My daughter has the same response to pizza no matter the type, even home made (her dad tried that out for a while and she still got the delayed highs). We rarely get pizza when my daughter is around and I look forward to the day when she is on the pump and I can hit her with that first dual wave bolus! WOO HOO!

Our list is pretty similar to everyone elses. I also buy the nutrigrain breakfast bars for post low snacks, they are easy for her to eat in the middle of the night. Like others have said, the biggest thing you could change right now is to get rid of the liquid sugar (this means popsicles too -- although the sugar free ones are pretty decent).

[Mama Belle]

One thing he loves, too are peanut butter and jelly uncrustables, and I cannot remember right now, but they aren't too high in carbs.

My daughter loves those ... they have them at her school for lunch, which I hate because they always make her high.