When my daughter was on MDI our endo gave us a plan for our first couple days and that was very helpful. You might give them a call. My daughter is now on a pump and honestly I am still not thrilled with holiday feasts.
My daughter was dx type 1 the first week of November when she was 7. Our endo told us to let her eat what she wanted at Thanksgiving and just to track and give injections as the day went along. She went crazy high a few times (she LOVES mashed potatoes), but it was worth not having her feel stigmatized at her first family outing. That plus her grandmother made a couple of fabulous sugar-free jello concoctions that have become a part of our annual dinner tradition.
good luck!
Let her eat whatever she wants and bolus right after. The greater damage is, in my humble opinion, reinforcing the negative message that holidays are a time for worry. Holidays are a time for family and eating and fun! Happy Thanksgiving!
i totally agree with tracy, that is what we do, if it is a high fat meal ? desssert we would wait 1/2 to give a shot, i wouldn't hide the diabetes issue but keep it on the back burner watch what he eats count those carbs in your head and bolus after, good luck and enjoy the day! amy
Another vote for just letting it be a holiday like you always have. As I have learned over our time with T1D, it is a marathon, not a sprint. If you have a day of wacky numbers for the sake of some amount of normalcy, then so be it. If your son ever moves to pumping, it is easier to bolus more often, if you need to. Having said that, when my son was on MDI, we would really only bolus him at meal times on holidays...we did do an extra bolus for dessert.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Thank you so much for all everyone's wisdom.
One thing i didn't mention is our diabetes team believes his honeymoon period might be over and we will probably be switching from diluted insulin to regular insulin and possibly increasing his levemir dose to 2x a day. We have been on a 2-week roller-coaster of high blood sugars (one in the 500s). Currently it doesn't seem to matter how much insulin I give him - we still have postprandials in the 200s. And his dose of insulin in now twice that of what it was 2 weeks ago.
So many things contributing to my anxiety about the upcoming holiday. Its very hard to go into the holiday with "cheer" and not sadness.
-Kj
I hear you. My son was 20 months at dx and I will also caution you with something very important that I learned. It is VERY difficult to keep you 4 year old with even numbers all the time. MUCH harder than when he gets older. Tremendous growth, combined with an inability to totally articulate or even understand every nuance of how he feels plus so many other factors make trying to manage BG for our very young children extremely hard. My son had many 500s during that age for one reason or another. In the do as I say and not as i do category...do not beat yourself up! It took me a very long time to learn this. Young children's numbers are just much more volatile on average than older children's or adults. I used to watch discussions and wonder what I was doing wrong, why I couldn't get my son's numbers as 'perfect' as others were getting. After many discussions with our Endo and many other parents, I realized this just would not happen until he got older. the last thing you want to do is try to manage so tightly that he has many lows. This can harm his normal brain development.
So, all this to say, do you best, don't beat yourself up and remember that your 4 year old will likely have numbers all over the place on a regular basis. Hang in there!
Hope your holidays went well!
One thing that my son does, especially when he has friends over, is that we have pre-measured the cups and small plastic bowls that normally would be used for milk, snacks and things that teenage bowls like to eat. That allows him to just fill everyone the same bowl of chips, goldfish,etc or pour everyone a cup (actually 2 measuring cups) of milk for breakfast and not have to weight and measure to count the carbs. I really don't think his friends are even aware that that is why he is using that certain bowl and giving everyone the same amount instead of everyone just eating out of the bag.
We got the idea from Weight Watchers that used to sell a set of big spoons or ladels that were 1/2 cup and 1 cup so that when you served the food to your plate, you knew you were getting the right portion without having to put it in a measuring cup and then pour it on your plate.
Mine is older, she's 14, but it was hard because she wanted to taste a bit of every thing. I just compromised with her and subbstituded alot of the food with low carbs,protein and fiber foods. Play with the food.