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Probably a really stupid question...

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stacey_w

stacey_w

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
hi all! Just wondered if anyone can help. Jelly babies and other jellies are supposed to help hypos. The other day during one of Riley's many hypos we decided to try jelly babies. I gave him 5 and retested 15 minutes later and he had gone lower! We just went back to the old faithful glucotabs but I wondered...because his ratio is 1:28g, should I have given him a higher amount of jelly babies in order for it to have made a difference or do jellies just not work for him?
 
No idea Stacey but if you want to feed me a few green jelly babies I will be your friend for life!:D
 
I don't think that it's a case of them not working for him in particular. If they are not working then you are probably just not giving him enough of them. I personally find that orange Lucozade works better than anything else to bring me quickly out. It is however literally just water, sugar and orange flavouring and as such it's not very healthy. The problem I have is I have grown rather too attached to it.
 
Diabeticliberty said:
I don't think that it's a case of them not working for him in particular. If they are not working then you are probably just not giving him enough of them. I personally find that orange Lucozade works better than anything else to bring me quickly out. It is however literally just water, sugar and orange flavouring and as such it's not very healthy. The problem I have is I have grown rather too attached to it.
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Thanks Liberty. Will try giving him more next time
 
I can't stand jelly babies you can have them all lol!
 
Jelly babies contain 5g each of glucose, GlucoTabs are 4g each. Therefore 3 JBs are actually slightly more than 3 GlucoTabs. Jelly babies seem to work quickly enough for us, although as they are not pure glucose it makes sense that they might be just a little slower to work. On the other hand it might just be that that particular hypo was just a bit more stubborn than usual (we occasionally get one that won't come back up for an hour, usually at bedtime 😱😱)

So you should only use 3 jelly babies at a time then wait the 15 minutes and retest. Do NOT be tempted to give him more than that at once, you may find that once they do get through his blood sugars will go into orbit!
(It's actually very easy to over treat a hypo!)

As for other sweets, they should still do the job but might not be so quick, jelly babies contain glucose which is the simplest form of sugar and therefore the quickest to get through the stomach. I think most other sweets contain other (more complex) forms of sugar.

Sugary drinks go through the stomach even quicker, at night time (or during one of the more stubborn hypos I mentioned above) we use Ribena or something similar (obviously not the low sugar version!) and hardly dilute it at all - that does the job, you only need a very few mouthfuls!! Absolutely revolting stuff that I would never buy in a million years if I didn't have hypos to deal with, but at 2am when you just want to get back to bed it's miracle stuff!! (Have found that hypos during the small hours are most easily treated with liquid, if I stick a straw in daughter's mouth she will just suck it and I don't have to spend ages trying to wake her up!)
 
Also not all Jelly babies are created equal...no really Bassets are around 5g of carb, but M&S jelly babies are lower (more juice less refined sugar), and haribo whilst more delightful are smaller and you need more in my experience because whilst slighter higher in carb by weight there's less sugar. I am now a jelly baby expert given that they are the lesser of many evils, although I'd be delirious if I never had to see one ever again 🙄
 
Thanks for the advice! I've not tried any high sugar drinks with Riley yet but may be an idea 🙂
 
Lucozade - NOT!!! Lucozade 'Sport' which contains caffeine - has a decent mount of glucose and the thing is generally Stacy whatever you have, it needs to stay in your mouth a little while - since glucose (and sugar but that's slower than gluc itself) starts to be absorbed through the inner cheeks. So Dextrotabs need 'crunching chewing and sucking' to eat them, they therefore stay in the mouth longer than just necking a draught of Lucozade, OJ, 'full fat' Coca Cola or any other drink.

My prob is I can't chew easily at all, and swallowing is also difficult, when I'm hypo - so Dextrotabs just can't do it - unless I'm only about 3.6 or something. Consequently I opt for orange Lucozade, because there's a chance as long as I drink it slow enough, it will get to the sides of my mouth enough and also dribble down my throat easily. Useless when mega low cos I'd just choke to death! LOL

You need to do a test - give Riley a precisely measured 10g carb and test test test - by how much does his BG increase? (eg -10g increases my BG by 2.5 to 3.0) and so calculate what he needs - but the minimum for a kiddie is 15g which errs of the safe side normally. Re-test after 15 minutes. Another 15g if the first hasn't given a decent increase by then, retest again. Don't attempt to correct any resultant high until AT LEAST the next mealtime as long as that's a couple of hours, or the one AFTER, it a meal is imminent. Only have the basic matching amount of insulin for the carbs, don't try to be as clever as some of us old uns do with the benefit of decades of experience and an insulin pump.

You have to even out your 'usual' BG slowly - and it's better - less harmful - to run a BIT high for half a day sometimes, than yo-yo.
 
I find that if I have a particularly fast-falling or stubborn hypo that liquid works much better than jelly babies, so have some cheap tins of cola in the fridge - doesn't happen often that I feel the need for them, maybe once every few months. The rest of the time, jelly babies work fine 🙂 I'll usually try the JBs first, but if I am still dropping fast go for some cola 🙂 It's sometimes very hard to avoid overtreating as your brain is pleading with you to EAT EAT EAT!!! 😱
 
I've had hypos where I have drunk 2 bottles of Coke (individual sized bottles) and still hypo 15 minutes later. it does happen. And it's scary when it does.
 
Lucozade is fastest working for me, other liquids a close second. I tend to use Skittles/JBs/High Glucose Sweets when out and about as easer to carry but just accept that they will take more like 20 minutes to work and that over treatment in the first 10 minutes is a real risk (are any minutes longer than those first ones waiting for BGs to come back up a bit?!?). Can't abide dextrose tabs and haven't used them since the first year of dx!
 
I also use Jelly Babies. I was given some nice Jelly Bears for Easter.
I find the waiting frustrating but know that if I rush to test and retreat I end up over treating.
The BG will rise if you are treating it, it is just hard to believe sometimes.

I have cartons of cranberry juice next to the bed and use those at night.
They are quicker, although I have got caught out when wit hypo brain I could not get the straw in.
The carpet suffered when I turned the carton upside down.
 
SB2015 said:
I also use Jelly Babies. I was given some nice Jelly Bears for Easter.
I find the waiting frustrating but know that if I rush to test and retreat I end up over treating.
The BG will rise if you are treating it, it is just hard to believe sometimes.

I have cartons of cranberry juice next to the bed and use those at night.
They are quicker, although I have got caught out when wit hypo brain I could not get the straw in.
The carpet suffered when I turned the carton upside down.
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Oh no SB! What a nightmare! Xx
 
Arrgghh Dave! - the cream will slow the honey down cos that's what fat always does - that's why one should not eat chocolate (for hypos) unless it's desperate and it's high cocoa solids dark choc.
 
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