Our 3 year old has been diagnosed Type 1

[madasafish2013]

Hi all

We are newbies and 3 weeks tomorrow our 3 year old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. We have all settled into a good routine now but Freya is a fussy eater and I wonder if anyone has handy tips for healthy toddler meals or recipes we could use to help her?

Thanks all 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Well you won't need to feed her any differently to how you did before, there isn't a special diet for us!

You just have to know the amount of carbohydrate and jab accordingly, so bolus after eating when you know how much if any of the carb, she ate.

With the 'fussy' bit, I think you'd get more help on a mum and toddler site, wouldn't you?

 

[Northerner]

Hi madasafish2013, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about your little one's diagnosis, but good to hear that she is coping with it well 🙂 What insulin is she on? If she is on a fast-acting insulin with her meals then, in theory, she can eat what she wants as long as the insulin dose is sufficient to 'cover' the carbs in the meal. Have you been taught carb-counting? In practice, you should probably steer clear of sugary food, since this is likely to 'spike' her blood sugar levels up quickly - most cereals fall into this category, unfortunately. What does she like eating?

I'd highly recommend getting a copy of Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents by Ragnar Hanas, which is a superb reference book and covers all aspects of Type 1. You might also be interested in getting a JDRF children's 'KIDSAC' with Rufus bear.

Please let us know if there is anything you are unsure of and we will do our best to help! 🙂

 

[Robin]

Hi Madasafish, and welcome. I think diabetics who can eat what they like and bolus afterwards, without getting major spikes in a blood Glucose levels, are fairly uncommon. Most of us have to adjust our eating to some extent, usually by making sure we have a mix of carb, fat and protein at each meal.
The only way I've found of learning what I can eat is to keep a food diary, and note down what the meter readings are saying. Then if there's something your daughter particularly likes, but you find it spikes her blood sugar, you can try it with different combinations of other foods until you reach acceptable readings.
I think that the problem with looking for advice on faddy eating on a general site, is that you won't get replies that incorporate the diabetic expertise you get from other parents on this site. (Neither of my children are diabetic, though, so I can't claim to have faced your problems, but both went through faddy phases around your daughters age, which I think is quite natural, something to do with the children of Mr and Mrs Caveman having to be carful of eating strange things that might have poisoned them)

 

[Redkite]

Welcome to the forum, but sorry to hear about your little one's diagnosis. My son was 4 at diagnosis, and ironically his eating became a lot less fussy because he was simply starving and willing to try anything (he'd lost a lot of weight very rapidly in the couple of weeks before diagnosis), so I made full use of the opportunity to introduce lots of new foods!

Generally speaking, you need to follow the same rules you would for a toddler without diabetes. Don't reward refusal to eat with a nice sweet pudding. If insulin has been given, and the carbs in the meal are not eaten, replace with an alternative amount of carb that isn't a treat (e.g. some orange juice or a piece of banana, NOT sweets or biscuits). It's not ideal to give insulin after eating, but we did have to do so at that age, because he could be unpredictable or simply take a long time eating something. Giving insulin after the meal takes off the pressure to *make* her finish her meal. If you have an insulin pump, you can even split the dose by giving part of the insulin upfront (a "deposit") and giving the "balance" of the insulin when you know exactly what she's eaten. Never get into food battles that mention diabetes (e.g. "you have to eat up your potato or you'll go hypo"), because that's a sure way to her learning a short cut to hypo sweeties. Good luck!

 

[trophywench]

That's what I meant about bolusing AFTER eating Robin - I agree with you about jabbing after - BUT if the child 'goes off' what you've jabbed for midway through eating it - you're gonna be a bit stuffed, so it might be easier while she's going through this phase, to do it after, is all! Less of a song and dance, which it IS exceedingly important to avoid, both food wise and diabetes wise.

 

[madasafish2013]

Hi All

Thanks for your many comments - Freya isn't injecting with the "carb counting" at the moment, she has Humulin fast and slow acting insulin twice a day which we now have at a level she is managing with. As Freya never had many sweet treats before being diagnosed she doesn't really miss them, and is very good if we tell her she can't have chocolate or sweeties (especially on Halloween). I tried to take advantage of her two week "hungry" period when first introduced to Humulin but she still doesn't really eat any differently - looks at veg like it's going to eat her rather than the other way round. At least she loves Pasta, Rice and Noodles which is a bonus, as she will only eat Chips in the Potato bracket. Trial and error and don't panic if she won't eat her carbs at tea-time is what we have quickly learned in the three short weeks since diagnosis.

 

[madasafish2013]

Hi Madasafish, and welcome. I think diabetics who can eat what they like and bolus afterwards, without getting major spikes in a blood Glucose levels, are fairly uncommon. Most of us have to adjust our eating to some extent, usually by making sure we have a mix of carb, fat and protein at each meal.
The only way I've found of learning what I can eat is to keep a food diary, and note down what the meter readings are saying. Then if there's something your daughter particularly likes, but you find it spikes her blood sugar, you can try it with different combinations of other foods until you reach acceptable readings.
I think that the problem with looking for advice on faddy eating on a general site, is that you won't get replies that incorporate the diabetic expertise you get from other parents on this site. (Neither of my children are diabetic, though, so I can't claim to have faced your problems, but both went through faddy phases around your daughters age, which I think is quite natural, something to do with the children of Mr and Mrs Caveman having to be carful of eating strange things that might have poisoned them)

I agree Robin, we have always maintained a food diary and noted her sugar levels from day 1 and it's a good habit to get into. Regarding the recipes, yes this is exactly why I posted on here and not on a general "toddler" site as many recipes may not have the correct balance of carbs and proteins that Freya needs. I suppose, the other alternative is to look at my toddler cookbooks and tweak the recipes to suit her - like you say if something spikes her bloods, I can then adjust the ratio again and re-try! We'll get there eventually

 

[Redkite]

Hi All

Thanks for your many comments - Freya isn't injecting with the "carb counting" at the moment, she has Humulin fast and slow acting insulin twice a day which we now have at a level she is managing with. As Freya never had many sweet treats before being diagnosed she doesn't really miss them, and is very good if we tell her she can't have chocolate or sweeties (especially on Halloween). I tried to take advantage of her two week "hungry" period when first introduced to Humulin but she still doesn't really eat any differently - looks at veg like it's going to eat her rather than the other way round. At least she loves Pasta, Rice and Noodles which is a bonus, as she will only eat Chips in the Potato bracket. Trial and error and don't panic if she won't eat her carbs at tea-time is what we have quickly learned in the three short weeks since diagnosis.

Just to say I'm quite surprised that your daughter has been put on a twice daily injection regime of mixed insulin. This is what my son started off with back in 2005 and it was outdated even then. Our consultant was well behind the times (we've since moved hospital). NICE guidance is for all children and young people to commence multiple daily injection (MDI) therapy or insulin pump therapy FROM DIAGNOSIS, to include carb counting education for the family. It is much much easier to manage a small child's diabetes if you are on MDI or a pump, as you can match their eating, you don't have to force them to eat when they're not hungry, you can manage sickness and tummy bugs better, etc etc. I recommend you get a copy of the Ragnar Hanas book "Type 1 Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Young People" and you can get a better understanding of the advantages of these regimens over the one you've been given.

 

[madasafish2013]

Thanks Redkite
Our nurses advised this because of Freya's age and to get things started off it wasn't too much of a shock to her. We are seeing the dietician on Thursday to discuss the Carb Counting regime as an option now that she is settled with the twice daily doses. Because her blood sugars were off the chart, this was the safest option to bring them down at the time. We are hoping to move onto the carb counting insulin program soon, which will give us much more freedom and choice for her meal times and snacks.

 

[trophywench]

I saw a thing on TV the other day where they'd gone to an 'after school' club with kids basically from a deprived area, so part of the deal was they fed them. I recall now, it was part of the Hugh Fearnley Whitt thing about food waste, one of the supermarkets was supplying them with stuff that had reached it's best before date, free, daily so they cooked whatever they got.

He had a big pan of veg and Hugh asked him why he was liquidising it? It was to disguise the veg whish tuned into a lovely looking (and smelling apparently) sauce, served atop pasta. Kids really loved it because as they said, they weren't making them eat veg - which were horrid! LOL LOL LOL. What a good idea, I thought! I expect a liquidised carrot would look rather nice! Add a bit of mince or diced bacon and you have a balanced meal. Not very fibrous it's true but that particular trick doesn't need to be every day.

Not sure what you could do with green stuff though, sorry!

If chips are OK, what about the odd wedge? and if that worked maybe you could specially colour some of the wedges, just for her - the odd orange or yellow one might make an appearance? Not all that far then to a jacket spud? Baby new potatoes, that Tescos make specially for little girls? For some reason Pete's eldest daughter when she was a tot, loved her Grandma's next door neighbour - because he always had time to talk to her, show her his rabbit and things. He happened to say one day he'd grown something in his garden specially for her - teeny weeny little cabbages! Henceforth she loved to eat sprouts - but only at Grandmas. Do you know that bloke managed to grow em year round for her - which nearly 40 years ago couldn't have been easy (but of course, we all strongly suspect Captain Birds Eye might have had something to do with it!) ROFLMAO.

 

[Adrasteia]

Hello,

Trophywench has pretty much described what we do with veg when the kids are fussy - soup and my 'rainbow pasta' recipe which is just whatever roast veg we have blitzed with tomato! Stovies is another good veg hiding dish. We gradually introduced bigger lumps of the things they weren't sure of and now they'll have most things.

Have you tried different cooking methods and veg? Roasted squash and sweet potato in their skins with some cheese is a winner at home. Also, weirdly, asparagus! Mostly because you can dip it in things i think.

Bear in mind, an adult has only a third of the tastebuds of a child and they are primed to prefer sweet and umami over salt, sour and bitter - which they can taste much more readily than us - so any prep you can do to enhance natural sweet and savoury flavours will help.

I play a game with my son and two year old niece who is a pickier eater telling them all about their bodies and which colours of the food rainbow help which bit - green grows muscles, orange helps your eyes, white for your skeleton etc. It helps them to see why they should try something, and i think that's half the battle!

Finally, low carb muffins for the days where i can't fill his belly and he can't face another injection. Some good recipes around if you google, and you can smuggle all kinds of good stuff in them!

 

[HOBIE]

Welcome to the forum. Life ! I was also diagnosed when 3 in 1966. I now have my own two "big" kids & would not like to think they were T1. You will learn every day what suits what & good luck. Pls ask away.