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| "Couldn't find any with five kids" |
It is bloody relentless.
I for example take 50% more Novorapid to cover any carb with my breakfast dose of insulin. That's right, 50%.
Rowan, is no different, and the most frequent calls from the school are when they do her mid morning glucose check and I get the text that reads; "Hi Trev, her readings say 25 Mmol,(Divide by 18 for US) should I ask the wizard what to do?"
This happened a lot in the beginning but we are starting to conquer the post meal spike.
Dr Berntein, in his book, The Diabetes Solution discusses this issue at length, and thus recommends eating only 6 gms of Carb for breakfast. I can do that, but tell that to a group or more accurately a pack of hungry wolf cubs ripping into a box of cereal. He further explains in detail the increased hormones(Cortisol) that cause an increase in blood glucose readings in the first two hours after waking. It is a good book, however, very rigid.
It is also recommended that taking your meal time insulin 20 min (for rapid) prior to that first bite as this lessons the 2 hours spike in glucose. This I found scary when Rowan was 18 months, and throughout her toddler years. You all know how predictable small children are with eating(sarcasm).
Okay for the most part we try to adhere to the above recommendations, the key word here is try. Now if you have children of school age(or even know these little creatures), and you somehow forget to pre-make lunches, pre-put out the clothes, and end up doing what we do 50% of the time and wing the "Launch Sequence" out the door in the morning; then you can hopefully understand how following Dr B's recommendations are tricky, and next to impossible most mornings.(I know that sentence structure sucked, never liked writing, lots to say, so little time)
However, I will say this: When we do give the insulin 20 min before a meal, and we make the eggs or some other good source of protein, I don't get any text messages from the school during the week, and we don't have any post meal blues on the week-end.
Trev
4 comments:
Eeekk, only 6 grams of carbs? I admit, I'd have a tough time with that one too. I do, however, wait a full 20 minutes (as per my little kitchen timer on a recent post) before eating breakfast and I suppose my basal and insulin/carb ratios are good because I usually don't see much of a post-breakfast spike.
Of course, easy for me to say. I can definitely see how nerve-wracking the 20 minute wait would be when feeding an unpredictable toddler who may quickly lose interest in breakfast!!
The only way I can do 6 carbs is if I'm eating an egg or a low-carb breakfast wrap! Most of the time it's 15-30 carbs. My endo told me that most people are more resistant to insulin in the morning...I usually find that I need a higher basal rate and increased bolus. Once in a while though that is NOT the case and I am left with a "wtf?" feeling. I'm sure figuring it out for children is even harder, so I can't relate to that one. Anyhoo, I agree--sounds a little too rigid, especially for the kiddos!
I'm reading Dr. Bernstein's book right now and felt the same way ... it's doable for me (Type 1 for 25 yrs and counting) but not so much for my 7 year old (diagnosed 2006). It's a great book tho, and I'm starting to implement, with some modifications, the low carb diet whenever possible. I'm very active tho and am worried about a lot of lows when exercising. Really sympathize with your predicament and definitely feel your pain ... find 2 members (me & my son) with Type 1 a lot of work, can't imagine 2 kids! My other son is in TrialNet ... every May when the test is done is a gut wrenching time for me waiting for the results.
I read that book and had to throw it out the window right now for me as a parent of a 2 year old with diabetes (along with other books like the baby whisperer and baby wise) - you know books that make it seem like rigid control over these little guys is something enjoyable and easy. Also, how fun is it to only serve eggs every day - I enjoy a plateful of pancakes, a homemade muffin, mickey mouse waffles...the list goes on and on. So for me I say pooh-pooh to that idea and bring on the insulin ;)
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