Peggy I agree. Your son sounds exactly like mine. He will be 13 in April and is an eating machine. 5' 2 1/2", 102 pounds. If limiting meant control of BG, then by all means we would do it. But things like pizza don't cause his blood sugar to go crazy. We don't eat pizza daily, but he is a teenager, they love pizza.....as long as he can eat it without it harming him, then I am fine with that.
I have said it is the lessor of two evils. If a child is diagnosed at a very young age, then the things that they cant have, they cant miss if they never had it. But then I cant imagine having to give a toddler shots when they cant totally understand why this is all happening.
Even when your child is diagnosed at a young age (mine was 20 months), they still do not want to be different. We encourage a healthy lifestyle which, for us, means everything in moderation. We all eat the same meals. He has pizza when we do or at a party, but that is maybe once a month or less. Treats are fine, again, in moderation. We try to choose treats that will keep him more even, in our case chocolate and ice cream are good choices - lucky for us, he likes them best anyway.
When they are diagnosed younger they do have a pretty easy time with the mechanics and day to day T1D management because they don't remember life without that. There is no adjusting to the fact that they must test, bolus, etc. But I think they way they eat and what they eat is very individual to them and their families and not really based on when T1D came into their lives.
My niece was dx'd at 8 and her diet didn't really change, with the exception that prior to diagnosis we had to chase her around the house to get her to eat anything. Once she gets insulin for food, she immediately becomes hungry and will eat. No food is off limits; but if offering dessert, we tended to offer things insulin could easily cover in her case, small bag of cheese-its, small ice cream bar, 100 calorie cookie pack (if not chocolate chip, will spike). Then we started not offering the snacks unless she specifically asked for them, even with her lunch. By not offering her these foods, we found she did not often ask for them, and her sweet tooth over the years has diminished. But she can snack if she chooses. There would definitely be rebellion on her part if we played the role of the food police. She still eats moderate to high amount of carbs per day, and I do not see that changing. If, as an adult, she wants to go low carb, it will be her choice. Since she does not want to eat much meat, does not eat too much cheese, avoids high fat foods I don't see that happening.
My daughter Amy is 3 and was diagnosed in October. It has been much the same with her diet. It really has not changed much since she was diagnosed. She eats all the same foods, with the exception of changing to sugar-free ice cream, pudding, and popsicles so that they can be more accessible to her. She does not mind any of these changes, and all my kids eat pretty much all the same sugar free food that she does. The one thing I'm wondering about, though, is that all the other people writing in to answer this topic are saying that they just allow their child to eat as they want and they adjust their insulin to cover it. When we left the hospital, the only instructions we had were that she is allowed 35-40 carbs at each meal and 15-20 carbs for each snack. We were not taught how to adjust insulin. The nutritionist did say that if she is still hungry after 40 carbs, we could call them and they would increase her carb limits and insulin to keep her satisfied. We really do not limit her that much. I often have to think about what to add to meet her carb demands. When we do go to a party or event where there are sweets, I let her eat a reasonable amount of them in order to feel normal and then give her some insulin at the next meal if she is high. I really, really, really want to learn how to dose her insulin before she eats a higher carb meal so that she can enjoy pizza or other food that really don't fit into her carb limit right now. I'm going to talk to her doctor about this, but I think this is info that we will be getting when we go to the Take Charge Class at Children's in Dallas in March. I don't want her to grow up feeling restricted, but I want her to be responsible about her choices. My dad had diabetes and he made really irresponsible decisions about what he ate and it really took a toll on his health. I want her to grow up learning how to eat in such a way as to keep herself healthy when she is on her own, but that it is ok to occasionally splurge on special occasions. I just don't want her to think that she can eat whatever she wants and then just cover it with insulin. I'm just having trouble finding the balance. Do you have any advice for me?
Thanks so much for taking time to offer me some advice. I really like your idea about ice cream and I know that you are right. We ate some ice cream at someones house last weekend that was about 15 carbs per 1/2 cup and it was the off-brand at Walmart I think. We give her insulin before she eats. This is what her doctor prefers we do, as this is how the insulin works best (according to timing of when the food is digested and the insulin peaks.) If she doesn't want to eat what we put on her plate, then we have to find something else to complete the 35-40 carbs. A couple of times I've had to resort to real coke or juice to do the job. She really is a good eater, and we can usually replace something she doesn't like with a piece of bread or something like that. The question about how much insulin she takes for every 35-40 carbs is a little confusing. I don't remember if I told you, but she takes Humalog and NPH. When she came home from the hospital, she was taking 2.5 H, 5 N at breakfast; 1.5 H at dinner; and 2N at bedtime. However, she is very much in the honeymoon phase and is currently taking only 3 N at breakfast and no Humaglog throughout the day unless her sugar is high. Does she have to be out of the honeymoon phase before we can figure out what you were talking about? Otherwise, what you said made since to me.
