So lately my kiddos has been having high blood sugars. I switched her to the gerber graduates line and her sugars went down. So i figured the low fat content and low cars helps out alot… so im wonder who makes their kids low carb meals?
Shes allowed 30 carbs for main meals and 15 for snacks. Any idea lemme know… I am just having problems figuring out that whole making meals and calculating the nutrtion facts.
We always make low carb meals for our Ella. Once in a while she treats on pancakes, cakes and the like at parties. Her favorite for out to dinner is mac n cheese.
She loves broccoli , good thing, and she loves chicken. Even the breaded chicken (frozen Tyson types) are pretty low in carbs.
Once dx we don’t use toddler meals at all. She eats what we eat. Hope that helps.
I dont really cook :-(. But i want too… I wanna make everything so healthy for her and my husband and myself.
I just cant figure out the match for making portions.
Are you on MDI? Humalog/Lantus or a NPH/Regular regimen? If you are on Humalog/Lantus - you might want to talk to your endo about tweaking your i:c ratio. In the beginning we tried to stay at about 45 carbs for meals with 15 carb snacks - but once we got her i:c ratio set - we let her eat whatever and whenever. Now when she was still on shots she sometimes had to have more than just the 4 shots a day - but she did not mind bc she was able to eat whenever she wanted. This helped us alot and NO we have never put her on a low carb diet. I actually do not think that is healthy for growing children. She is really low on the weight scale (47# - at 8yrs) So I allow her to almost eat whatever she wants. Within reason - I do make her have protein at least once a day - she is a VERY picky eater and will eat only carb if allowed. And I increase her fiber intake in the morning.
Some things to remember - fat has a delayed spike so you may see high readings at 2 hrs post meal, but back in range by 4 hrs post meal due to the fats in meals. We have to pre-bolus Willow when she has cereal, and any fatty foods.
Also we found that Willow needs differnt i:c at different times of the day. For instance - in the morning she is 1:40 but by lunch she is 1:70 and at dinner she is 1:60.
The calorie King book has really helped me and also the book called Using Insulin by John Walsh - I lvoe this book. I also have Pumping Insulin by him too!
HTH
Vicki
oh no i dont tea it at all… i do the full 30 every day and the full 15.
shes on lantus humalin humalog.
I am trying to make her more full. Cause the little meals are 13 carbs and then 4 oz of milk and a low carb cookie i make fills her up but its getting expensive with buying the entrees at 2$ two a day every day. This is where im lost.
If a medium carrot is 7 carbs, how do i do the math for a 1/3 of a carrot? cause she likes greenbeans peas and all the veggies. and since my husband is never home and finding a sitter who isnt scared of her is hard i took her to the meeting with endo. And i missed alot of the math stuff for the doing portions.
No, no low carb meals here unless she is high. Then I will give meat and veggies, wait a bit, then carbs. Children need carbohydrates to grow. It would be unhealthy to cut them out. Once you are an adult, I believe low carb can often be a good thing, but never for a growing child. However, we do restrict carbs somewhat. The nutritionist gave us the carb amounts for meals and we still follow it, usually. There are exceptions and sometimes I will give more carbs than advised. She is 12, gets 180 to 220 carbs a day and that works out really well. I know a lot of adults may lower carbs substantially for better control and I don’t believe there is anything wrong with that. But I know you can maintain good control on a diet with carbohydrates, as long as you don’t overdo the carbs in one sitting. P.S. She has always been, and still is, in the 20th to 30th percentile, so she is underweight.
We don’t follow a low carb. diet either for Rory. The dietician gave us a general guide of how many carbs he should have in a day, around 160. But she said try to let his appetite guide us and just fix healthy meals for him. I am not much of a cook either, but I have found some simple meals that are favorites and provide well balanced choices for him and just work out to not be too high in carbs. For example a typical day may be:
Breakfast:
one Nutra Grain waffle toasted, plain
1/2 cup milk
12-15g. of fruit of some kind
(if he still acts hungry we sometimes just make him a scrambled egg for no carbs)
Lunch:
peanut butter sand. with 2 slices of low carb. bread, and 2 tsps peanut butter.
( I do use the low carb bread so he can have a bigger sandwich, one kind that my parents found that has a really good texture and flavor is Arnold’s multi-grain low carb bread)
1/2 cup to 1 cup of milk (or yogurt)
10-15grams of fruit
and sometimes baby carrots, that I don’t count since he only eats a small handful sometimes
Dinner:
(I think it is Tyson) chicken tenders, 5 of them are 15 grams of carb., they are all natural and not to high in fat either, so this is a simple source of protein also. (if I have something thaws out I can just season some plain chicken breasts and bake in the oven, he like this also for no carbs.)
1/2 cup milk
A vegetable of some kind, he likes peas, 1/3 cup only 6grams carbs.
sometimes he eats green beans which are even lower 1/3 cup 3 grams
corn, a little higher at 10grams per 1/3 cup
I sometimes try to offer broccoli but that usually gets tossed on the floor 
sometimes I can sneak it in with his spaghetti sauce if we are having spaghetti or even mix it in with his scrambled eggs at breakfast. I don’t usually count this since it is very low in carbs and he doesn’t really eat it anyway.
unsweetened applesauce is another favorite with a sprinkle of cinnamon, 1/3 cup is 10grams
Snacks may be Goldfish crackers count out 28 for 10grams, graham crackers one whole cracker is 12grams, 1/2 cup of icecream 15 grams, yogurt, cheese is always a favorite for no carbs, and baby carrots and celery, popcorn (popped on stove) 2 cups for 10grams
Those are just some examples and all pretty easy to fix. I think the key is to invest in measuring cups and a small scale and just follow the labels as far as the serving size and how many carbs to count. And have a book to refer to for things that may not have labels like some produce. I make sure we always have the measuring cups and scale in the bag when we go out so it is easier to count his carbs.
And even though I vowed to never give him McDonalds food, it does happen on occasion when we are traveling. But we try to make it better for him by getting him a plain hamburger, no bun and 1/2 cup white milk, apple slices (the whole package is only 8grams of carbs., no caramel though), and I weigh out 1oz of french fries and count as 15grams. He is very happy with that.
So like I said, just get in the habit of measuring and weighing out the portions and refer to a book that lists protion sizes and carbs for veggies and fruits and then it will be easier to figure out the amount in part of a carrot and other things. You will find that you can get a fairly generous portion of the healthy stuff for relatively low carbs and feel fuller.
I hope you are able to find something that works for you and your family and is more cost effective.
I’ll second Jan on that approach. Carbohydrates are brain food, so it’s never good to cut them out entirely–your daughter’s brain needs the carbs for energy–but if try to focus on complex carbs (veggies, whole wheat, etc) rather than simple carbs (sugar, white flour) she’ll have a lot fewer highs. DO NOT try to go low-fat in her diet–fats are necessary for healthy development too, we need cholesterol as well to make things like cortisol and other hormones, just try to stick with healthy fats (olive oil, for instance) rather than things like margarine/trans fats. A little bit of milk fat isn’t going to hurt her, so full-fat yogurt can be a good thing. Also, make sure that all meals include some protein–it digests slower and makes the energy release of the carbs last a little longer (also means that when the cells call for proteins to help build muscle and bone, the proteins are there!) I have a similar problem to yours in that Eric is fussy about his food, and I am pretty grateful that he likes things like yogurt and chicken nuggets.
There is the Calorie King book which gives you the ounces of the fruit or veggie and the carbs, plus the fiber. You subtract for fiber. I would buy a Salter scale or other good scale, cut up the carrots and weigh them. Or I would figure 4 oz. is half a measuring cup, and see if that works. A scale would be more accurate. Since she is still so small that might matter. If she is still hungry, I would tell the endo, I want to give her more food sometimes and would he help me adjust the insulin for that (if you aren’t already adjusting insulin on your own). I think she should eat when she is hungry, the carb amounts given by the nutritionist are a guide to be followed but not strictly adhered to all the time.
just recently strted using the calorie king! i love it! its so easy to use it to plan my shopping. i started making phot copies of the things she eats with serving size and stuff its nice. I have my own picture shopping list even so hbby cant even mess it up.
were not cutting them out were trying to do low carb food so she can have more of a variety and we can do more to get up to the carb allowance. like we do the diabetic friendly yogarts 3 carbs, apple 15 carbs and then a waffle 10carbs with 4 oz of milk 7.5 carbs
That’s smart, you are getting more bang for your buck, but if she wants to eat more she should be able to. Ask endo to adjust so she can eat as much as she wants to.