Hello all ☺️

[Beekind]

Hi, we found out last Tuesday my daughter is type 1, was a complete shock to say the least. She’s doing well and has a sensor fitted already and now grasping carb counting!
I’m finding this a bit stressful to say the least, I’m not the best at maths as it is and finding myself using Google a lot and the calculator!
Breakfast and lunch I find quite easy but main evening meals baffles me!!
I’ve had quite a lot of information thrown my way and feel a little bit overwhelmed.. any tips or advice would be appreciated xx

 

[Inka]

Welcome @Beekind and sorry to hear about your daughter’s diagnosis. It is an awful lot to get used to to start with. My tip is to get a little notebook and write down her even8ng meals with the carb counts. That way you’ll build up a library of carb counts that you can refer to. Put the weight of things, eg 100g cooked McCains Oven Chips, two fishfinger and broccoli = 46g carbs or whatever it is. I stick to the same amount of pasta most times because I then remember the carb count and can just add on any sauces or extra carbs. It makes things easier.

If you haven’t already got it, this book is often recommended here:

Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas

It’s good to refer to over time and it can be reassuring to have. There’s a lot to learn so my advice is that you pace yourself. Don’t worry about understanding everything at once. Get the basics going first.

 

[Beekind]

Welcome @Beekind and sorry to hear about your daughter’s diagnosis. It is an awful lot to get used to to start with. My tip is to get a little notebook and write down her even8ng meals with the carb counts. That way you’ll build up a library of carb counts that you can refer to. Put the weight of things, eg 100g cooked McCains Oven Chips, two fishfinger and broccoli = 46g carbs or whatever it is. I stick to the same amount of pasta most times because I then remember the carb count and can just add on any sauces or extra carbs. It makes things easier.

If you haven’t already got it, this book is often recommended here:

Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young People by Ragnar Hanas

It’s good to refer to over time and it can be reassuring to have. There’s a lot to learn so my advice is that you pace yourself. Don’t worry about understanding everything at once. Get the basics going first.

Thank you for replying, I feel so overwhelmed with it all. I will definitely get a note book and definitely do what you suggest as I probably would find that easier to look back on. I’m sure in time I would be able to gauge it all but right now I just don’t have the brain space I will check out that book as well thank you so much xx

 

[Inka]

Writing on recipes is also helpful as you start cooking favourites. I use a pencil to add the carbs and portion size, eg 1/4 serving = 38g carbs. That’s a timesaver too.

It does gradually get easier, I promise. The first few weeks are overwhelming with all the new things to think about, but slowly things become more routine.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Beekind

Sorry to hear your daughter has joined our exclusive club.

I’ll tag in @Thebearcametoo and @Sally71 too, who are experienced parents of CWD.

I second the idea of building up a ’cheat sheet’ of carb counts/values. I have a list on my phone which details things like dry weights of pasta (so that I can weigh out portions before they are cooked then just divide the pan into equal platefuls when it’s all mixed together).

Don’t fret about being gram-perfect with counts. There are lots of other factors that affect glucose levels, so getting meals roughly right (within 10g of carbs or so) is plenty precise enough.

It is such a steep learning curve to start with, so be kind to yourselves, and just take things steadily. It will get easier!

You’ll be amazed how quickly this will all become second nature. You’ll be accurately guesstimating carb counts at 100 yards before you know it.

You might find the book Carbs and Cals helpful too. It has lots of pictures of various portion sizes along with their counts, which can help getting a visual feel for things.

 

[Thebearcametoo]

Hi and welcome.

We had a notebook so we could scribble down numbers and also had a list of carbs for common foods. The carbs and cals book is still used a lot. You will get the hang of carb counting but it takes time. And you’ll develop the party trick of looking at a plate of food and being able to make an educated guess at how many carbs there are.

You won’t always get it right. And even if you get it right it won’t always be right as carb counting is more like weather forecasting.

The first few months are really difficult but I promise it does get easier.