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Mum2Type1D

Mum2Type1D

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Hi, just thought I’d come and say hi. My 9yr old daughter was diagnosed on 11th January this year… Type 1 diabetes came as such a shock. She is also Autistic & has a tic disorder. We are currently on a huge learning curve, trying to get ourselves into a good routine with all the injections & food planning. We are finding it hard to reduce her carbs… due to her sensory issues with food… beige foods are her staple diet!!!

Looking forward to having a read through this forum & learning from you all.

Jess x
 
Morning Jess, @Mum2Type1D, welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your daughter, it must have come as a horrible shock to you, I hope you and your family are doing as ok as you can under the circumstances.
I'm not type 1, nor a parent, but I know that a few of the regular posters on here have children with T1, hopefully one of them will be along later and connect with you.
In the meantime, there's a parents thread that might be of interest.
Best wishes, Sarah
 
Hi and welcome from me too.

Type 1 myself but not a parent. I was diagnosed just under 3 years ago and I can tell you that it does get easier, but my heart goes out to parents who have to care for their children with newly diagnosed diabetes as that just seems like it must be 10x more difficult and such a huge responsibility.
You sound remarkably calm about it which is impressive. I hope your diabetes team are being very supportive and you have a telephone number to contact them when you need help.
I shall tag some of the other parents who are regular contributors who will hopefully come and say hello when they next log in..... @Thebearcametoo @Sally71 and @Bronco Billy.... and perhaps have some tips for you.
Which insulin's have they given your daughter and how are you all managing with injections?
Have they given you a Freestyle Libre which is sensor that is applied to the back of her arm and is scanned to get glucose readings. It can take the strain off finger pricking although those are still necessary in some circumstances.

Anyway, just wanted to say "hello" and if you need to know anything just ask. Hopefully you can find some balance with carbs, but as Type 1s, we should be able to eat pretty well anything as long as we balance it with insulin. I choose to eat low carb as it helps me to control my disordered eating but I am very much the exception, so I wouldn't worry too much about what your daughter eats at this stage, just learn how to match it with insulin..... and don't expect to get it right all the time. In fact, if you get it somewhere near right half the time at this early stage you are doing really well. It is very easy to set your targets too narrow with diabetes and give yourself a hard time when you don't achieve them. I think sometimes DSNs don't realise how negative this is and the mental impact it has. One of the great things about the Freestyle Libre system is that your range is usually set between 3.9 and 10 and you are aiming to keep within that range 70% of the time which to me is much more achievable rather than targets of 4-7 before meals, where you feel such a failure if you are 8.1. The mental aspect of managing diabetes should not be underestimated. Don't try to be a perfectionist and be really proud of yourselves when you get it right but see the mistakes as learning opportunities, rather than "getting it wrong".
Good luck!
 
Hello from another Autistic, with tics and a beige food habit! I am older than your daughter though. How are you getting on with it all? You mention cutting down her carbs… how much have you been advised to cut them down to? A balanced diet is good and it’s fine for that to include carbs so long as you know how to balance insulin to match.
 
Hi and welcome. My kid is almost 12 now and was diagnosed 3 years ago. It’s a lot to take onboard to begin but you will get into the swing of it.

Just your reference we do somewhere between 80-100 carbs per meal and often 4 meals per day. A lot is carb heavy as kids need carbs to grow and they like what they like. I try to get some fat and protein in there too (Greek yogurt or eggs along with breakfast for example). We do big meals including dessert to try and cut down on snacking but at the moment with puberty and growth spurts it feels like I’m always providing food. To begin with it’s fine to stick with what they ate before. Making big changes in diet can make it harder to work out ratios etc. in the first few weeks you’re mainly doing data gathering so don’t get too bogged down in the smaller details.
 
Hi Mum2Type1D, welcome to the forum.

Just popping in to say hi, so glad you found us as there are quite a few people on the forum with similar experiences. I was also wondering whether your doctors' surgery offers any additional support?

As kindly linked to above, it might be worth looking through the parenting section and posting there.

If there's anything we can help with, do let us know.
 
I don’t think I can really add anything, just to say that if you are carb counting then your daughter can pretty much eat what she wants as long as you match the insulin dose to the food. I think my daughter probably eats far too many carbs (I do make sure she has some meals which contain vegetables but she seems to have a lot of snacks and a very carb-heavy tea!), but when we have her 3-month check ups at the hospital they are always very pleased with her so we must be doing something right.
 
Mum2Type1D said:
Hi, just thought I’d come and say hi. My 9yr old daughter was diagnosed on 11th January this year… Type 1 diabetes came as such a shock. She is also Autistic & has a tic disorder. We are currently on a huge learning curve, trying to get ourselves into a good routine with all the injections & food planning. We are finding it hard to reduce her carbs… due to her sensory issues with food… beige foods are her staple diet!!!

Looking forward to having a read through this forum & learning from you all.

Jess x
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Hi Jess, it's a HUGE learning curve, isnt it?! Your daughter doesnt have to have a carb restricted diet. She can eat exactly the same as she did before. The only difference is now you, and she, will have to carb count so that her carb intake is balanced by the right amount of insulin. Cheesestrings are really great no carb snacks... no insulin needed! Good luck, Jenny
 
Hi @Mum2Type1D, welcome to the forum. It’s the steepest learning curve you will ever climb, but you will get there, I promise, even with the additional challenges you have. It will get easier as you learn more and gain experience, but please don’t be afraid to ask anything. There’s no such thing as a silly question.
 
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