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1st Weekend home.

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Siannie 49

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Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
Bit overwhelmed with the task of preparing our first Sunday lunch, with a newly diagnosed Son with type 1. Plus he doesn't normally eat fruit or much veg. But he did eat it all. That's a fab start. Any tips or tricks to preparing meals. What's the best snacks for him to eat of an evening. He's a 15year old growing lad.
 
Hi sorry you’re having to go on this journey but you will soon get the hang of it.

We like to make sure there’s some fat and or protein with some carbs if a bed time snack is needed. Milk is handy. Crackers and peanut butter or cheese. If he’ll snack on hard boiled eggs and cooked meats they’re good. (Lots of protein/fat without carbs can still spike glucose levels so a mix of some carbs in there and some insulin is generally a good idea.) But sometimes kids just want what they want so it depends on his tastes.

My daughter is now 10. We tend to do big meals with dessert so she needs fewer snacks. Breakfast is often porridge, a smoothie and some toast but if you have a kid who likes eggs that would help. Lunch she has a sandwich, crisps and some fruit and often something else for dessert. For her we find somewhere around 60-70 carbs works well at keeping her full enough and not needing lots of insulin which can mean bigger dips if we’ve got anything wrong. Some kids do well with low carb, she doesn’t so far. You’ll work out roughly what sort of foods and carbs work for him. If he’s very active and likes sport then he may be able to eat more carbs without needing a lot of insulin. Just do your best. Some days you can do everything right and still end up with a hypo or two or with a high. Diabetes is just like that. So don’t worry too much. Everything is treatable and you can still get a decent long term glucose level whilst having a lot of blips on the way.
 
Welcome to the forum @Siannie 49

Sorry to hear about your young’un :( But glad you have found the forum so soon. Nothing quite like having the diabetes ‘hive mind‘ to consult when things are confusing, befuddling, annoying or just downright nonsensical.

I would suggest getting hold of some resources to help you estimate the carb counts of meals and portions. My advice would be not to stress too much about absolute accuracy, rounding things to 5-10g of carbs is generally near enough, but a idea of how many carbs are in what just by eyeballing a plate will go a long way towards flexibility and freedom in the long term, even if you need to do a bit of weighing and measuring to start with.

Maybe gamify it, one person doing a calculation by weighing, and getting various family members to guesstimate it?

Books/apps like Carbs and Cals are well, thought of, as is something like the Collins Calorie Counter (which also gives carbs per 100g).

Plus there’s the sides of packs too

You'll be estimating carb content from 50 paces in no time 🙂
 
For snacks... I would say it depends how much faff is off-putting. You could have anything, in theory, but my experience is that any food/insulin calculation carries a degree of ’frustration risk’, so my go-to nibbles tend to be things I can have without generally needing an extra dose. A handful of nuts generally does it for me.

The snag with the ‘just dose for anything’ approach is that the more doses you have, the more you risk stacking insulin on insulin and getting unpredictable results. So it can be done, but it’s not all that easy, and won’t always work the same.

Others like to have things like hard boiled eggs, chunks of cheese, olives, a bit of cold meat etc. Dark chocolate (85% or so) can be good too, because you get a proper cocoa hit from only a square or two, without lots of sugar. Having said that, when I do fancy chocolate (or cake... or biscuit...) I just dose and go for it, or combine it with an activity that I know will drop my BG like brisk walking or something else physical but not too intense.
 
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Good to be home I am sure, but understandably a worrying time.
I am not sure there is any other advice I can add to that above.
So I will just say keep in touch and keep asking.
 
Just like to say hi from me. I have had type 1 for seven years, but my 16 yr old daughter was diagnosed on Friday night and home from hospital today so I know what you are going through, but also have a lot of experience and knowledge. Please feel free to message me whenever. I will be using the forum loads myself as I feel new all over again! We are getting hold of a load of no/low carb snacks that my daughter likes - e.g pepperami baby Bel's, olives so that she can just help herself when she wants to those things.
 
My go to snacks...nuts, fridge raiders, chicken satay sticks, cheese, pickled onions, pork scratchings, salami.

Edit: an egg is 5g of carb for me, I have to take insulin with it so isn't a free food. Everyone's different so keep experimenting.
 
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It might help to find 'fat head' dough, and go through the making of it - it can be used for sausage rolls, pizza and other pastry like purposes but is not starch laden - and as the teenagers are most likely old enough to understand that it is not the same as the bread and pastry options it might help in future eating plans. It is actually good to eat, so you might need to make it, and make it again.
 
Hello, I was 15 when I was diagnosed and my parents didn’t really change anything with our meals I don’t think any of us really understood it very well, my parents still don’t massively. But my advice is don’t baby him too much, that was something I hated when my parents did that. Obviously be the (clearly) supportive and wonderful mother you seem to be and have healthy meals, but don’t change anything too much so it feels safe and normal to him. Sorry if that’s not very helpful I just thought I’d give it from a teenager’s in perspective. 🙂
 
libbyscott said:
Hello, I was 15 when I was diagnosed and my parents didn’t really change anything with our meals I don’t think any of us really understood it very well, my parents still don’t massively. But my advice is don’t baby him too much, that was something I hated when my parents did that. Obviously be the (clearly) supportive and wonderful mother you seem to be and have healthy meals, but don’t change anything too much so it feels safe and normal to him. Sorry if that’s not very helpful I just thought I’d give it from a teenager’s in perspective. 🙂
Click to expand...

Just butting in. Lots of older people on here, some might even be described as fogies, so it is nice to see a younger perspective. Keep contributing!
 
Funnily enough Doc, we do tend to get younger people in certain sections, eg Parents and Pregnancy, LOL !
 
Good point TW, but I don't lookat those sections! 🙂🙂
 
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