• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • Screening for type 1 diabetes: We now have a new forum section which is for parents who, after having their child screened for type 1, have received a positive result that at some stage their child will be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Where possible, please do offer your support and experiences of having a child diagnosed. https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/forums/screening-for-type-1-community-chat.59/
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

T1 and sport

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
B

BucksMum

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
Hi everyone!
My daughter was diagnosed as T1 in March and is nearly nine. She is coping very well with everything and is keen not to let diabetes rule her life. She is very sporty, enjoying cricket, hockey, football, rugby, tennis etc etc etc....! I was wondering if anyone can give me some tips/advice on managing her blood glucose levels when she is doing sport.
Last weekend she played in a hockey tournament one afternoon. We have her pasta for lunch as I thought that a low GI carb would be good given that she would be running around for 2 hours! However, we tested her BG after the warm-up (around 2 hrs after she had had lunch) and she was 3.8! We managed to get it back up to 6 before her game and tested again at half time and it was fine.
She's playing again this weekend, only her game will be from 12:15-1:30, ie lunchtime! I don't know whether to leave lunch till after she's played, or give her an early, small lunch at 11:30.....
Any ideas??
Thanks!
 
Most people with type 1 diabetes need to reduce their insulin dose before exercise. Lots of useful information at www.runsweet.com - all sports, physiology etc.
 
Hi Bucksmam, tell your Daughter well done & keep at it. Everyone is a little different & there is not a perfect answer. I dont know how my perents put up with me in my early 20s, Windsurfing, Catamaran & jetski. 6 mile out in the North sea. Have Jetskid around the Bass Rock off Edinburgh on a stand up ski & done over 100mile on one in a day. LIFE is for living. Keep us informed how she & you are getting on 🙂
 
Hi Bucksmum-Are you still on fixed amounts?/ been taught carb counting yet?
For us sport has been the hardest to get our heads around...H does mainly footie/ running- the running seems straightforward the footy nearly there.Ok what we do is reduce the mealtime before by 25%-30% depending on how strenuous it is-test before activity/ top up if needed .Drink lucozade sport during match /run. think its 2/3 of a bottle maybe a nibble on a ceareal bar{12/15g bar] after and then bread with a bit of cheese/nuts before bed...
OK - This works for us.. but Im not sure if you are on fixed amounts how it all works so I would ask your team/ dietician for advice it is a case of trial/error
Good luck with the match at the weekend
 
Last edited:
Thanks everyone!
My daughter is on novorapid & glargine & we are carb counting. I have had a look at the website suggested above & it looks full of info so I need to have a good read of that. I also had a chat with our paed diabetes nurse today and she talked me through setting the exercise function on the BGM so we will have a go at that. I think it will be a bit of trial and error but hopefully we will get a better understanding of what we need to do to keep her sugars up while she's running around.
Will keep you posted!
 
You might find the Diabetic Athlete's Handbook useful in explaining a lot of the science behind what happens when you exercise. I was diagnosed the week before I was due to run a marathon, having been a recreational runner for many years, and it helped me a lot when I was trying to get back into it post-diagnosis 🙂
 
Hi BucksMum,

Have your team mentioned pumps at all?🙂 My son uses a pump and we found this the best way of dealing with exercise as we can reduce his basal insulin to avoid the lows much better than when he was on injections.🙂Bev
 
I agree with bev, after 40 odd yrs of mdi a pump is a great tool in the battle with the big "D".
 
Hi Bucksmum - we're new too - my ds11 was diagnosed in September. still on MDI, carb counting and hoping to get a pump ASAP. I did the same thing with pasta - it always gives him a hypo a couple of hours after eating then hyper later! Have been told it's slow absorbing so need to inject after eating (but we're not that confident yet!). So now, I always give him garlic bread with the pasta and that keeps the hypos at bay.
He is also learning about exercise and diabetes and swims competitively. He always tests before and after, and has snacks, lucozade, glucose tabs to hand and uses as and when. Sport over lunchtime - now that's tricky and I'll be interested to see how you get on. Good luck - they do us proud with their determination and resilience!
 
Hi again,
We haven't thought about a pump yet; it's still early days for us. I have a feeling that in our area the diabetes team tend to wait till kids are a little older and then ask them if they want to try a pump (ie so that it's their decision, not the parents').
Anyway it went OK on Sunday - we set her meter to reduce the insulin dose slightly (only by 10%) and she had a small lunch at 11:30 that included something sugary to keep her BG up; we tested her before the first game and she was 4.8 so she had a couple of glucose tablets, and then a couple of bites of a cereal bar 20 mins later. Had another snack when everything had finished but then had a hypo just before dinner (well she was jumping around on a pogo stick for quite a while)! It's another learning process, I suppose; I think we need to reduce the insulin a bit more but we'll see how things go.
Thanks again for your suggestions! 🙂
 
It sounds like you are doing things well in my book Bucksmam. Well done & keep at it. The big "d" isnt an easy thing to sort at times & can be different day by day. Some times you think you have nailed it & "wham". Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the woods 😱 Good luck 🙂
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top