HELPFUL HINTS

A place for the little hints and tricks we've learned. Please feel free to add to our knowledge base by commenting below!

Varied Carbs: Eating a proper carb load and teaching a diabetic to have a healthy relationship with food can seem to be working at cross purposes. We want our son to have as much control over his eating as possible, while still maintaining a precise carb count. One trick we use is to have cookies and crackers of various carb counts – some that are 3 grams a piece, 5, 7, 9 and 11. After Alexander tests his blood sugar, we can say, “Would you like some crackers?” and then we’ll give him the appropriate snack for his score. A high-end blood sugar will get him the lower carb cracker and vice-versa. He feels good because he gets to have a snack, and we feel good knowing his sugar will stay in control.

Matching Carbs: Choice is very important to children. We frequently stock different food of matching carb counts so that at snack time we can ask our son, “Do you want a granola bar or an apple sauce cup?” when both are the same carb count. Being required to eat at certain times is difficult enough, but he feels better if he gets some say in what he eats.

Medic-Alert: Our son hated wearing his Medic-Alert bracelet the first week after being diagnosed. We went to a jeweler and had a medic-alert disk engraved with DIABETIC and put on a chain around his neck. In 6 years, he has never taken it off, and it’s not as awkward for him as the bracelet. We did meet a teenage diabetic who had the word tattooed on his wrist. He didn’t have to worry about losing it, and he got a tattoo.

Lifesavers: Our son always carries several lifesavers in his pocket as a source of fast-acting sugar. Always easy to find, and they come individually wrapped.

Exercise: Exercise affects the blood sugar in many ways. Our muscles store sugar in case we need a burst of quick activity. If we suddenly start running, our muscle sugar provides the start, and then stored sugar from the liver and in the blood take over to sustain the activity. About an hour after the exercise, our muscles pull sugar from the blood to replace their stored sugar – which means that blood sugar levels can drop dramatically an hour or two AFTER exercising. Be prepared with extra sugar after the cool down period.

A short burst of exercise can spike blood sugar levels as sugar is released into the blood on its way to the muscles. Generally speaking, one will get a much more accurate blood sugar reading if your child has rested for 10 minutes before testing. Stopping a child during activity to test may give you an artificially high blood sugar reading.