Drinks parties

[fencesitter]

Hi all
William & I have been invited to a pre-dinner drinks party as a thank you for volunteering as ushers for a local show. As he is only 15 he won't be knocking back the booze (I hope!) but he will probably be offered a glass of something fizzy as it's quite a posh do. I expect there will be nibbles too. He's on MDI. How do you manage in this kind of scenario? I think it will be a good learning experience in a safe environment, so I'm keen for him to experiment a bit before he faces similar situations late at night without his mummy there 😱
Thanks
Catherine

 

[DeusXM]

The hardest part of this is probably the grazing, rather than the booze.

For a first timer, I would recommend not bolusing for the carbs in any booze he might have (which will be a lot in beer, minimal in spirits and middling in wine). This is because (as you may know), alcohol distracts the liver from producing a basal flow of glucose, although this effect doesn't really happen until about 3-4 hours after drinking.

For the nibbles, I'd personally recommend he eats what he wants, guestimate the carb count and then bolus accordingly - maybe do a slightly smaller bolus just in case.

Then he should be testing regularly - I'd say every hour. This will do several things for him. Firstly, it'll flag up if anything's gone wrong and needs correcting urgently. Secondly (and more importantly), it'll give him a wealth of data that will help him understand how these kinds of situations will affect him, which will make doing this stuff far easier in the future.

And you want to know the most important thing he should do at this event? Enjoy himself and not worry too much about managing his diabetes - he won't get it spot on for his first time so he shouldn't worry if he goes too high or maybe has a slight low. As long as he's got insulin, glucose and a tester, there's nothing that's out of his control.

 

[Urbansoulpie]

Hi

I would agree with the above approach.

My advice would be to also watch out for a spike in blood sugars later on, just becasue party nibbles tend to be high fat foods which can really cause problems with high blood spikes.

Hope you get on ok!

 

[Copepod]

Drinks parties are tough - often the only non alcoholic drinks are ornage juice (which obviously needs insulin to cover) or water, sparkling if you're lucky. Very frustrating is you're either under legal drinking age or driving (my partner doesn't drive, and I don't drink any alcohol if I will be driving in next few hours, so that happens to me a couple of times a year, although I will have one alcoholic drink if we can cycle there & back.

For me, the ideal situation is when tea / coffee is offered (or diet soft drinks) and peanuts, so I don't need to test often, estimate carbs and inject. And, yes, accept, that levels afterwards are likely to be a bit haywire. Test before bed, adjust / eat if needed and things should be OK by morning.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Buffets and nibbles are my complete D food nemesis!

So much stuff in nibbles is high carb, but you eat such small bits at a time that I find it very easy to underestimate what I'm eating. Additionally the nibbles are drip-feeding in over a long period so (depending on how boluses usually work for your lad) you might need to split the guestimated dose to spread the action over the course of the evening. As other's have said I'd tend to ignore the carbs in any drink at this stage, but just bear in mind that alcohol in higher quantities *might* need a little carb to cover a dip later when the liver gets busy processing it and reduces background glucose output.

For the nibbles I'd favour 60% of the overall guess upfront and the remaining 40% maybe 2 hours later, with tests in between to check on progress if that's possible.

Hope you have a brilliant evening and all the D-faffing doesn't get in the way too much!

 

[Ellie Jones]

'Posh do' with canap?s more of a nightmare than the Wedding Reception/Party with Buffet... And I'm attending one of the former at the end of October😱

I'm like copepod, my husband doesn't drive either, so generally alcohol isn't much of a factor, and you be very surprised how long I can nurse a glass of wine!

On one hand you need to give yourself some slack, on the other hand, you up monitoring to ensure that you'll don't end up going too high or too low...

The ideas already put forward I can't really add to..

It is, a case of 'don't bash' yourself up, if control goes a little out of kilter, except it's not an everyday event, and under the circumstances, increased monitoring is the order of the day, to ensure that you not hitting lows or excessive highs, rather than trying to get it exactly right..

For my 'Posh do' I've got several game plans in mind, based on past experience... But which one I will chose won't be decided until the day as I need to see how the day is panning out, to see which might be my best game plan to put into action...

 

[StephenM]

I agree with all of the advice. What I would suggest it putting a can or two of his favourite diet drink in your handbag just in case the only non- alcoholic drinks are tea/coffee/water. And hypo treatment might be useful.

 

[fencesitter]

Thank you all very much for your replies, it's a huge help. I will let you know how we get on (it's not until Friday week so I'm worrying about it well in advance!!)
🙄

 

[delb t]

We have managed to get through 3 teenage parties to date- H has tea prior to going- brings about 4 bottles of beer and a diet coke- will pick at a few crisps through the eve.about a handful in total- no injections for beer and then inject half a dose with a sandwich before bed- I had to bite the bullet and ring the nurses-as they were going to a major party after prom- seems to have worked so far- always a worry though

 

[Caroline]

Can't offer any advice, but I hope a good time is had by all and there are no horrors or unwnted side effects afterwards.