Teenage munchies

[ScottB]

Please forgive me for asking this but we're new to this (son diagnosed last Saturday) and we can use all the advice we can get our hands on and right now we need help on food choices especially between meal snacks. We have a 16 year old who's 6'2" tall, 140 lbs. soaking wet and is an eating machine and loves his chips and sweets. Now that he's been diagnosed type 1, we know this can't last if he wants to keep his blood sugar under control. We won't be able to see his dietitian till the 25th but the sooner we can get a solid routine going, the better. Keep in mind he's a 16 year old who's very active so if any of you have tips that you think may keep a former junk food junkie happy, lay them on me.

Thanks a bunch. Scott Bail

[Amy C.]

First of all, your son will be very hungry until his body is convinced it isn't starving any more. He will need to eat quite a bit for that reason and because he is 16.

A teen with Type 1 Diabetes doesn't necessarily need to cut back on the food he eats -- snacks are allowed. A lot depends on the insulin regime he is on. Lantus and Humalog/Novalog allow snacks between the meals, NPH and a shortacting requires more discipline in that he has to eat a certain amount at a certain time.

You will get better advice if you let us know what he is currently doing for meals/snacks and the insulin regime he is on.

[sam1nat2]

Make a list of "free" foods and have a bunch of them available. My son also loves to eat and does so nonstop.
I would also recommend getting on the pump asap. We waited about 10 months, but the sooner the better.
There are several threads about the pump and with a teenager and growth spurts and eating like crazy, in my opinion its the way to go.

some free foods---
cheese
jerky
jello
lunch meat

also, is there a limit he can have? When we were first diagnosed they said 10-15 carbs for each snack.

[ScottB]

My wife and I are probably overreacting, in fact his current eating habits may only have to change just a bit but I'm sure that all of you can relate to the fact that we are absolutely, positively CRAZY about our boys and want to make sure that any decision that is make is the right one. Our minds were put at ease a lot when we had our first diabetes education class and the info that we get from all of you helps my wife and I sleep even better. Scott Bail

[Mom2rh]

In the long run, he will be able to eat "normally." Hopefully the diabetes educator and endo will take into account his appetite in setting up his regimen. The first thing you guys can do is get the Pink Panther book and learn everything you can about Type 1 Diabetes...unless you have a family member with it, you will have a lot to learn. The faster you learn it, the quicker you can get your son on a pump. That is the best treatment available so far for growing boys, in my opinion.

Hopefully, your endo has put him on lantus and novolog/humalog...then once he is stabilized and his doses are correct, you can learn to count carbohydrates and dose him according to what he eats. This is called MDI (multiple daily injections) and calls for 4-5 shots a day...or more depending on how often he wants to eat. But gives your son more flexibility in his food.

[Tamara Gamble]

When Tyler came home from the hospital he ate like a mad person and didn't stop. Free foods did not do it for him. Ten pounds the first week five the second. He eventually leveled out. The pump is the way to go for teens. They can eat when they want. Not only are boys bottomless pits but eating is a very social activity for teens. This allows them to feel a little more normal as far as freedom anyway. Ty had his pump about three months in. Best decision we ever made.

Good luck!

Tami

[LantusFiend]

I gained thirteen pounds in the month after I went on insulin. I haven't gained any additional weight in the seven months since then. At first it made me look fat, but the weight has redistributed and I look like my old healthy self again.

[OSUMom]

My son at diagnosis was 6' 3" 150 pounds. Our medical professionals did not tell him to change his eating habits but to count carbs and take appropriate amount of insulin. You really need to take the advice of your medical team, but I understand you haven't seen them yet. We've just been told not to overload on the amount of carbs in one sitting. My son is on an insulin pump. We pushed for that right away after diagnosis. He had the pump one month after being diagnosed because he was leaving for college.

He did change to no sugar drinks and only drinks diet soft drinks now, but still eats junk food sometimes sorry to say. ha! Hey sometimes junk food is good because it gives you the right amount of carbs on the bag! :D Pizza with all the fat in the cheese is difficult to work with - my son gets frustrated and doesn't eat it as much anymore.

Best wishes! :cwds:

[ScottB]

Our diabetes educator did forewarn us that during this present time his blood sugar would go up and down like a roller coaster but we still can't help but freak out a bit when his meter shows a 400+ reading. We met with the educator on Monday and his doctor on Tuesday and his doctor promptly uppped his Lantus to 15 units, Humalog to 7 units and told him 5 units of Humalog for any between meal munchies. He's been recording his glucose readings all week and we'll be sending those readings to the endo unit sometime today and I'm sure his dosage amounts will change until his endo doctor can determine how his body reacts and until we get more info from his dietitian and learn about carb counting. At the moment they do want him to gain at least 10 more pounds and our son does too.

[Amy C.]

I have a 13 year old who is 6'1" and 135 lbs. As long as he either grows or gains weight (he usually just does one or the other), the doctors are not too concerned.

[KatelinsMom]

Hi, my teenage daughter (soon to be 16) is on Lantus and Novolog injections. Some of the snacks that she enjoys include things like popcorn, sunflower seeds, jerky, string cheese, hard boiled eggs, olives, dill pickles, etc. My daughter also gets really tired of the same snacks all the time.. Also the sugar-free Jello brand pudding is pretty good. It is hard to find snacks that are adequate for a teenager's appetite yet low enough in carbs. My daughter finds herself often having to have a shot of novolog with some of her snacks, as she is hungry and wants more than the allowed 15-gram snack. She just has to make sure that it has been at least two hours since she last had a shot in order to have a shot with a snack that is more than 15 grams of carbs.

[Hollyb]

Hi Scott, and welcome.

Yes, teen boys are eating machines -- and they need it. Especially after diagnosis your son will be really hungry as he has catch up to do. At first, trying to get most of the carbs into his meals with the insulin and keeping the snacks fairly small will give you the best numbers, but it won't be long before he has more choice. My son (15) tends to eat a fourth meal as a bedtime snack and would take an extra injection to cover it. If he didn't want to do that he'd make a really big omelette full of cheese, ham, peppers and onions and get pretty full on that. He's now on a pump and as many here have already mentioned, it's a real godsend to a hungry teen.

For these early weeks, just get your son to do his best with the between meal snacks but don't make him go hungry -- he needs the fuel. And let him know it won't be forever. We find with Aaron that even with a pump he really can't pig out on junk food without seeing it in his numbers later (sometimes much later), but he can have reasonable amounts of pretty much anything.

[D-Dad]

We put on 10% of our weight after diagnoses.

Your son could eat anything – but instead of his body producing the insulin – you’ll need to give it to him. Refined sugars (high glycemic index) will raise your BG faster and is not the ideal food – but it sounds like you should learn more about that later.

Right now the key thing to do is to record the time, amount of carbs eaten, type of food, BG reading and amount of insulin giving. This will help you and your doctors better determine how many carbs one unit of insulin will “cover.”

It would be easier to interpret the numbers if you only ate every three hours and if the food was someone consistent. But don’t make yourself (more) crazy.

Also, check out the insulin pens. They are very convenient.

It gets easier. Use this list to ask any question you have.

[ScottB]

He's already using a humalog pen and prefers it over a syringe. The diabetes educator did mention an insulin pump but didn't go any further than that because her main objective at that time was did give us the info we needed and answer a whole page of questions we had. She said the insulin pump is an option that will be discussed later. I popped the idea of an insulin pump to him and at the moment, he doesn't like the idea but keep in mind that we don't know diddly squat about it and what advantages it may have so his opinion could change once we're more informed about it. Yeah he's only 16 but he is mature for his age so an insulin pump is an option I'll let him choose for himself.

[Momof4gr8kids]

Scott, Do you, or your wife bake? By using splenda, and/or soy, or almond flour for part, or all of the sugar and flour you can cut the carbs, and the spike.

[ScottB]

Me? Cook? Are you crazy? We'd all be dead from malnutrition if I did :) Seriously though I'm glad you brought that up because that gives us even more options to play with and something that we'll be looking into because our boys do love my wifes home made chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. One of my concerns was that I was afraid my son wouldn't like some of the changes to his diet which right now is focussed on sugar free (we'll get to carb counting once we talk to his dietitian) making his transition harder but so far, especially after taking the advice all of you have given, it all tastes the same as before to him and he doesn't mind it all. We're making this a "whole house" change so nothing gets mixed up so I imagine from a long term perspective, it'll be a healthy choice for all of us.

[Momof4gr8kids]

Scott, I think you'll actually like counting carbs. Your son is on Lantus and novolog, or humalog? Carb counting is just a way of adding up carbs so that you can acurately dose insulin for what is eaten. As long as your son doesn't have high cholesterol, BP, or any other food issues you probably wont have to do any other restrictions. Make sure the diatician you see is well versed in type 1 diabetes, though. Kids shouldn't have to go on a adult weight loss type of diet.
Jamie

[miss_behave]

send him to this site to convince him for the pump! http://2betr.com/ I really think pumping is the best and most flexible therapy for a diabetic teen :)

[Amy C.]

his diet which right now is focussed on sugar free

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but sugar-free does not mean carbohydrate free. It is too bad you weren't trained on one of most important aspects of managing the blood sugar from the get go. We eat as normal around this house and adjust the insulin to what he wants to eat.

Sugar free has other ramifications on the digestive system that we avoid.

[ScottB]

Right now he's on Lantus and Humalog. Please don't be too critical on his medical team for not informing us more on carb counting, they just haven't gotten that far yet. Our educator had her hands full as it was dealing with my wife and mines anxiety and answering the page full of questions we already had at that time. Right now we're recording all his glucose readings and reporting them to the endo unit by phone or email 3 times a week. His doctor did up both his lantus and humalog dosage Tuesday but at the moment his dosage amounts are still ball park figures which I'm sure they'll be "fine tuning" a bit more once they see what his average is and carb counting will indeed be a topic when we have our first visit with his dietitian and I imagine even then his dosage will be tweaked even more once we're more informed on that. You have to give them at least a pat on the back because it was them that steered us to this site.

Their main concern at the moment is to get his glucose level in a safe area until they themselves learn more about our son and see how his body reacts to his dosage level compared to what he's eating. I have noticed over this past week that his levels are gradually coming down. Most of the time it's in the high 200's with the lowest being 107 and 114 both before lunch. Yeah the 200's are still high but it's gradually coming down and it's a lot better than the 400 and 500 spikes I saw earlier this week.

The bottom line is that he feels so much better now, he's got more energy, stamina and his sense of humor is strong again. We basically got our kid back again.

[toriajj]

hi scottb,
i am a non-freqquent poster but found this site soon after my 17yr old son's dx 12/12/06. he was hospitalized for four days and dayton children's hospital has a kick-butt diabetic team that educated us fully on what to deal with. sounds like your doc is doing the same, but i made the same assumption to go to sugar-free. since we are carb counting, jake(my son) can have "regular" foods as long as covered with his novolog. he was initially given about 3 free snacks of 15 carbs daily but that hasn't been enough, so he has opted to received sometimes several novolog injections a day. he is 6ft 2, 170lbs, an avid soccer player, baseball player. he has NEVER eaten like this in his life! so don't be surprised/alarmed by the AMOUNT of food-seems to go with teen boys and this dx. we keep very accurate records of jake's carb intakes and adjust his novolog accordingly. once he got over the initial "fear" of the injections, he has decided he'd rather eat what he wants, when he's hungry and have extra shots..
lots of good luck vibes coming your way. after 5 months of this in our lives, i have to say we are doing a pretty good job. jake gets his first a1c in two weeks-so we'll know more then.
this board is amazing, friendly and quick to respond to concerns and questions. i have learned so much about d1.
ps my son does get moody/sulky at times. he's generally an even-paced, quiet, studious jock-type:) i always cut him a "little" slack not knowing if it's a low coming or teen-age attitude. he always apologizes later for his grumpiness. just wanted you to know that there can be attitude adjustments needed too(more from me than my son i think) we learn that we do what we have to do and that as parents, we'll do anything we can to ensure our d1 kids a positive future.
toriajj

[ScottB]

I think we are very fortunate because I've found out that not only is the endo unit we take him to considered one of the best in our state but his doctor is too. Our son has only met her once so far but he likes her already. Not only is all this new to us, but our son is a brand new patient to his doctor so once we as parents gain more knowledge and his doctor learns more about him, I feel a solid plan will develop. We're just now coming down from the newly diagnosed jitters.

Scott Bail