Hi, DD started taking hot lunch at school recently and I've been working with the cafeteria staff to get carb counts. The serving size on tater tots was 12 with a weight of 86 gm. Typically if we are home I weigh food but because she'd be in school I had her count out 12 tots and then (Because of my mild OCD) I weighed them just to see. Big Mistake! 12 tater tots weigh no where near 86 gm. My questions for you that have been doing this a little longer than me, do you typically weigh or count? Can anyone think of a reason this would be so off? Silly topic I know but it boggles my mind. Thanks
If I have a scale, I weigh it. Even slices of bread. I empty out cans and weigh the food (Chef Boyardee's "about 2" servings is "about" 1.5 or less). I think manufacturers can be off by a certain percentage.
This is me also!!! But we have been doing this since she was 13.5 MONTHS and carbs really count when they are that little.
School lunches are hard, the carb counts are way off and their healthy lunches are very high in fat. I have had to adjust his I:C ratio to adjust for their menus - he eats the same things everyday and he actually adds 8-10 carbs and extends his bolus. It is not perfect but I am not going to make him take his lunch we just do the best we can. I don't know how old your child is so this may not be an option for you - if I did not have confidense that Daniel will feel low or high and could not handle all situations I would not gamble on the lower I:C ratio and adding carbs to guess at the right amount of insulin but this is what works for us . His ratio for lunch at school is 1:12 and I change it to 1:15 or 16 when eating at home. You kind of just have use trial and error to see what works. He had many days he was high after lunch before I realized the carb count had to be off. Good Luck
I think tater tots are pretty standard, so those, I'd probably just count. The ones we buy are almost exactly 2 carbs apiece. (There are also mini ones that are almost exactly 1 carb apiece.) That being said, we weight a lot. I was horrified at how "off" the school carb counts were. Luckily, he's decided that the lunches that I pack for him are a lot tastier than the school lunches, and only eats at school when they're having pizza.
