Do your kids eat foods with sugar?

[Ellen]

I thought this abstract was interesting. I still meet people who think because their child has diabetes, the child cannot have sugar.In our house we avoid artificial sweeteners, although if my son's blood sugar is very high we will buy him some diet soda.


Arq Bras Endocrinol Metabol. (javascript:AL_get(this, 'jour', 'Arq Bras Endocrinol Metabol.');) 2005 Jun;49(3):403-9. Epub 2006 Mar 16.Links (javascript:PopUpMenu2_Set(Menu16543995);)
[Introduction of sucrose in the diet plan of persons with type 1 diabetes: its influence in the glycemic control.]

[Article in Portuguese]

Costa PC (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Search&itool=pubmed_Abstract&term=%22Costa+PC%22%5BAuthor%5D), Franco LJ (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Search&itool=pubmed_Abstract&term=%22Franco+LJ%22%5BAuthor%5D).

To evaluate the influence of sucrose intake in the glycemic control, ten adolescents with type 1 diabetes were followed during eight months. Initially, they received personalized orientation on diet, self monitoring blood glucose and insulin dose adjustment; after four months, all patients introduced sucrose in their afternoon meals, throught the method of carbohydrate counting. Total cholesterol and triglycerides levels were measured in the beginning and in the final of the study. Hemoglobin A1C levels were measured in the beginning, after four months without and after four months with intake of foods with sucrose. All patients showed adequate pubertal development and growth; two had overweight and the others were eutrophic. After four mounths of follow up, the frequency of self monitoring blood glucose was reduced (p< 0.001). Total cholesterol and triglycerides values were in the normal range and A1C values decreased during the observed period (p= 0.027). Conclusion: the consumption of foods with sucrose, using the technique of carbohydrate counting, did not affect the metabolic control of adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

PMID: 16543995 [PubMed - in process]

[wendyc]

Do you know, my daughter actually has worse spikes from certain artificial sweeteners than natural sugar!

[Boo]

My son absolutely has sugar, though obviously, we limit it more than we would without diabetes. We also use the artifical sweeteners occasionally, but I try to limit that as well.

I find it amusing/frustrating at times such as Halloween when friends think they are doing him a favor by giving him the "sugar free" candy (which still has the carbs of course). If I know them well enough I'll thank them but explain so that they don't go to the trouble again. Otherwise, we just smile, thank them, then usually go home and pitch it!

I think if you completely eliminate sugar with kids, they will crave it all the more (unless you did this from a really young age). My son was 8 when he was diagnosed, so he certainly would know what he was missing!

[munchkingirl]

This is really interesting. I meet those people all the time too who question if I should be eating something because I'm diabetic.

But, I must say that for me, I drink diet soda and do NOT even touch regular soda. If I drink regular soda, even taking insulin for it, It makes me positively ill. I think that sometimes it could be just figuring out how your body will react to different things. Cause I will eat other things diabetics aren't "Supposed" to, as the general public thinks - but even in that, i avoid some things like the plague as well, just becuase of how my body and my blood sugars react and how I feel thereafter.

[wendyc]

It is so interesting how in the dark the general public is about diabetes (I myself only had a slight knowlege of the condition prior to my child being diagnosed), so many people think that if A has sugar, she'll just drop off into diabetic coma. I've learned to take them with a grain of salt. If it's someone who we are friendly with, I'll give them a quick course in Diabetes 101, and explain the effects of carbs, sugars on her body. I've also surprised many of them by explaining the not so nice effects that sugar free candies and cookies have on the body! Most of our friends and family now know to just ask what she can have, how much etc. They know I carry my carb book with me. They now understand that she can have pretty much what everyone else is having, just in moderation (shouldn't we all be doing that!!??), and there might be times if she's having a high day, we may have to pass.
The only way people will really understand diabetes is if we all keep talking about it and educating them:)

[pookas]

Hunter still eats all the same foods. He has a healthy diet w/ candy once in a while or a cookie for dessert. Moderation, just like before he was dx'd. The only change I've made is making homeade iced tea w/ Splenda instead of regular sugar. He only has maybe 1 small cup of that each day w/ dinner though, so I don't concern myself w/ the Splenda issues. Also, because of previous food allergies which he and his brother have outgrown, they never had soda and when I did try to give them some, they both spit it out and they just don't like it. Same w/ alot of candies. They never had them when they were little, so they don't like them now. As a matter of fact, Hunter also won't touch popsicles or freeze pops. Today, his dad got him a treat, a regular sized Hershey bar. He hasn't had a regular sized one since b4 dx. It was his lunchtime dessert =)

Linda-[NEPA]-Mom to:
Hunter, 5 yrs, dx'd 11/14/05 type I
Colby, 6 yrs, migraines

[Jana]

Gabriel actually has more sugar now than I ever allowed before:p . I've always been a big health nut, and I was determined to raise kids that weren't addicted to sugar and processed foods. So, apart from his birthday, I had a pretty strict no sugar rule. However, since he was dx'd, my emphasis shifted to making sure he has a normal diet and a healthy attitude about food. Now he gets Ovaltine and chocolate chip cookies (whole wheat of course...I can't change ALL my ways :D ). We go to McDonald's too, and once or twice he has had only pizza or french fries for lunch. All and all...he eats a diet that's well rounded...with great food. I just want to do my best to make sure he doesn't feel restricted or denied. In the end, I think it will make life easier for him.

[jonathans_mom]

I have to agree... people almost freak out if they find out a person has diabetes. My son does not go without sugar by no means! It is limited and usually he gets it with a meal so that I can cover it with his meal time insulin. But there is no way I would even think about taking away the "regular" stuff. I have been trying for several months in this rinky dink town in which I currently reside to try to do different things to make people aware of diabetes and what it is about but have had no luck. They all seem to think that it is a contagious thing and if they hear about it the whole town will go under! Anyway, No I do not think a child should have to be taken away from sugar or it taken away from them. Just be careful and take care of it with the insulin and all will be ok. Even my son has been having outragous blood sugar readings (which are now coming down after tweaking with the insulin dosages :) ) but I do not incorporate that with the sugar because it was very limited at that time until we could get his numbers back under control.
Hope that this helps!

[linny6]

That's so interesting. I just posted that I'm concerned about my son and I automatically started thinking, "how sad that he'll be so deprived". Thanks for enlightening me. Since I had gestational diabetes, I assumed Type 1 was similar in its need to strictly limit sugars and carbs. Thanks to all who post such great info for us who are new.

Linn

[Kaylee's Mommy]

we typically don't do 'sugar free' because those things that are sugar free have more carbs in it.. I'd rather her just have the regular ones.. she gets enough artifical sweeteners from her drinks.. I don't need her getting it in candies too..

[cydnimom]

I do let Ryan eat sugar, but its counted and insulin given. The one thing I won't let him have is regular soda or sugar filled drinks. I'm sorry, but he doesn't need to drink a cup full of sugar at one sitting, so I do buy diet soda (as a treat) and we have crystal light always in the fridge so he can grab a fruit drink whenever. Candy is also had in moderation, but this would be the case whether he had D or not.

You still have to remember that extreme sugar spikes are not that healthy - and because most people bolus after the item has been eaten your child's blood sugar can go high and stay there for awhile. If Ryan is getting a treat I always bolus before because I know he won't turn down treats even when he's full - he's still a kid - no room for peas, but lots of room for dessert!

I am always concerned with being overweight as well - the last thing we need to deal with are health concerns that come with being overweight.

Just my thoughts,

[rickst29]

The one thing which *ALL* sodas have (diet, regular, caffeine-free, canffeined) is: ACID.

Drinking these products is like pulling the cap off your car battery and sucking the juice out-- they're HUGELY acidic. The acid wrecks your teeth much worse than the sugar does, and it keeps burning the whole way down (your esophagus doesn't like this).

Then there's the three optional whammys: #1, Caffeine is a diurectic, so if you drink a lot of Sodas it dries you out, you need to drink extra water too. #2, the non-diet versions have 40-50 grams of 'junk' calories which digest super-fast, that's not a healthy way to eat. And #3, several studies show that the diet sodas make you hungry, so they're not real effective as a 'dieting' tool.

- - - - - bonus opinion - - - - -
Some people, AND I'M ONE OF THEM, feel that Aspartame --> Wood Alcohol --> Diketopiperazine + Formaldehyde is not healthy.

(NutraSweet, Equal, Benevia.... many different names are used to try and hide what you're eating). As with Trans-Fats, Aspartame is BANNED from children's foods in Europe. Why not here? You know why. Has the FDA banned Trans Fats yet, or is the cost of manufacturing these 'foods' too important?

So maybe all the Aspartame deserve extra whammy points, if you don't trust that the FDA does it's job properly.
- - - - -

BTW, I eat lots of sugar- preferably as Grade-B Maple Syrup, which (for me) is a surprisingly "slow" food.

[LantusFiend]

I eat sugar.
The only way in which I've changed my sugar intake since diabetes is in condiments. I don't eat jelly sandwiches anymore with sugar jelly because I don't want to bother to measure the jelly. With peanut better I can estimate and be close enough- with jelly I can't. I tried a Splenda sweetened jelly, and it claims to only have 5g carbs per tablespoon, but both times I ate it, measuring it, my blood sugar went about 150 points higher than I had expected based on the carbs it claimed to have! I would have been safer with sugar jelly.
I also eat more sugar because of hypos.

[Mama2H]

My daughter actually gets more sugar now than she ever did before she was dx. I used to severly limits sweets but now have to keep them in the house to treat lows. Diet pop is a special treat, I try to push the crystal light instead. Hailey actually doesn't mind a mild low because it means she gets a sweet lol.

[thebestnest5]

We've always tried to reduce/watch the use of sugar and bleached/white flour in our house. But, we still eat foods containing these items...just not in massive quantities. I would rather my kids have the fresh cut mangoes in the fridge (they contain sugar/fructose) over the large slice of chocolate cake at the work Christmas party...but yesterday...they each had a HUGE slice of chocolate cake at the party and that was fun for them and me. We just don't eat like that ALL the time. In fact, my kids had to scrape off the frosting because it was "too sweet". Yay!!! Their palettes are adjusted to healthier eating; because that's how they are fed MOST of the time. So, I feed them healthy at home which is most of their meals; but I do not withhold treats unnecessarily because I don't want my kids to feel like they are "missing out" or "deprived". BTW, I will not feed my kids foods like sugar-free chocolate bars, yuck! They eat real chocolate--good stuff from Trader Joes, Thanks Rick! :) I also bought some grade B Maple Syrup at TJ's last week. My kids will be enjoying that! :D

[Jensmom]

We still use sugar as we always have in our house. Jennie has never been much of a sweets eater anyway, so we've never had a problem letting her have what she wants. We have just been through two Christmas parties at school and ballet class, and I have just monitored what she has had. We did not even have to give more insulin, because Jennie didn't eat enough to warrant an extra dosage.

My mother was a type 2 diabetic, diagnosed in the late 60's. It is just amazing how the diabetic diet has changed since that time. When Jennie was first diagnosed, I actually thought that I had some knowledge of what we were getting into. Boy did I have a realization when we started out diabetic training!! We are grateful that our little girl can live a normal life, doing and eating like her friends.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season!

Colleen

[MyrandaDawn]

We definantly don't do artificial sweeteners. Sometimes I wish we could. But it gives Vince and BIG stomach ache. And we really don't eat alot of sugar anyway. But I'd never not give it to him just because he has diabetes. We actually just got back from the coffee shop, where we sat and talked about the book he's reading (charlotte's web), ate a doughnut, and had an italian soda. Mmmm....Ok, so it was one of those days you just NEED a doughnut.

[Twinklet]

When Emily was first diagnosed, I went out and bought a bunch of sugar-free foods. Our Endo flipped when she found out I did that and told me to throw them away! :eek: She said she'd rather Emily have sugar than artificial sweeteners. So, she does eat sugar, but we just bolus for the carbs.

She does drink diet pop once in awhile, and we also use Crystal Light. I don't like the high spikes with regular sodas. If she REALLY wants a sugary drink, I have her bolus 15 minutes prior to drinking it, but in general, I discourage it.

[rickst29]

....They eat real chocolate--good stuff from Trader Joes
I haven't been to TJ's recently, and haven't bought one-- but the Lindt 85% bar is getting RAVE reviews from the online chocolate sites. It's also cheaper than the Chocovic and Valrhona bars.

The kids might not like it, of course.

[Ellen]

Ah Valrhona. We buy the bulk Valrhona Manjari in the cooking chocolate section at Whole Foods. Yummmmmmmmm

[cassandra]

it seems like although i am an "experienced" diabetic, so much research and technology has come up since i was diagnosed that i really need to go through the whole diabetic training again. some of you newbies know more about it than me now!!! i guess you can't leave it up to your doctor to keep you informed to what's up!

[Ellen]

The Diabetes Research Institute in Miami Florida offers a fabulous "Mastering Your Diabetes" education. Perhaps there's something similar where you live?

http://www.diabetesresearch.org/ManagementandEducation/MasteringYourDiabetes/

[beckybuckley]

what are the splenda issues? We do diet sodas and I use splenda in her iced tea and oatmeal. Is splenda linked to more health issues and are they specific to diabetics?

[thebestnest5]

I haven't been to TJ's recently, and haven't bought one-- but the Lindt 85% bar is getting RAVE reviews from the online chocolate sites. It's also cheaper than the Chocovic and Valrhona bars.

The kids might not like it, of course.

Thanks! I'll have the check out the Lindt 85% :D .