We’re having an issue that the endo/nurses/all of us can’t quite figure out and I wondered if any of you have had the same situation/what you did with it.
At morning snack my 3 year old daughter is always high. Sometimes ridiculously high. And she almost always comes back down to normal by lunchtime.
We are waiting 15-30 minutes before eating breakfast after giving her morning Novolog. I have fed her several different breakfasts with the same results. Either Cheerios with 1% milk, peanut butter toast (whole wheat) with milk, smoothie with berries, yogurt and milk are the ones she prefers. Sometimes exercise between breakfast and snack helps, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it doesn’t work between breakfast and snack but takes her low by lunch. Any ideas?
that happened to me when i ate morning snacks. at camp they use to give us morning snacks but everyone was high so they stopped. they told us it was because the insulin didn’t kick in yet so like before i went on the pump when i wanted a morning snack i would give 1 to 2 units to cover
Agree with Dave that it’s what she’s eating. Don’t know why the endo & nurses couldn’t figure this out:) It’s all carbs & very little protein.
All the items you listed, with the exception of peanut butter, are basically pure sugar once they hit her mouth. 1% milk has more lactose than whole milk. Milk sends me super high & I use unsweetened almond milk instead. I can’t even look at cereal.
Aha…ok. That makes sense to me. I’ll have to get creative with her breakfasts, then because she looooves smoothies. I’ll check next time she has pb toast what happens.
Yeah, I’m a little alarmed at the food choices, too. Each of them, other than the whole wheat and PB would spike MY blood sugars so I’m not surprised they would do the same for your daughter.
Type “diabetic friendly smoothie” in Google and you’ll get half a dozen hits. They seem to use non-fat yogurt and soy milk.
I, like everyone else it seems, noticed the milk trend right away as well. I also use milk a lot for hypos. It works really fast, so I guess it would probably be pretty hard to take insulin for it. I’m guessing it’s going to spike her sugar no matter what you do because it works so much faster than the insulin does. Unless you risk taking the insulin so far ahead of time that her sugar is low before the milk! Yikes! Don’t want to do that. Hmmm it still seems so unfair that the poor thing couldn’t ever have milk…I’ll be interested to see how this works out for you (and her)
I’d avoid soy milk. Highly allergenic & soy isn’t good for her thyroid. Many diabetics have thyroid problems.
There are other milk substitues that she wouldn’t notice in smoothies, though the fruit is going to effect BG as well especially blended. Almond milk (unsweetened) is the lowest in carbs & has the consistency of milk. Rice milk is thin & higher carb. My nephews are lactose intolerant & they love almond milk.
Thanks, Everyone! Gerri…I suspect she will have thyroid issues since all the women in my immediate family have Hashimoto’s and I suspect my autoimmunity put her at risk for the Type 1 she developed (I’m not blaming myself…it is what it is). I avoid soy most of the time myself so I hardly ever have soy anything in the house. I’ll try almond milk for her. Don’t know why I didn’t pick up on the food as the culprit. Guess I thought the dairy had enough protein. Obviously not! Yogurt is out for bed time snack, too since it’s been sending her through the roof lately, as well. Huh…gonna be interesting around here for a bit. She used to be a really good eater that ate anything I put in front of her. Has become more picky since diagnosis. Age or just the only thing she has control over any more? Poor thing… So I’ll have to figure out some ways to add more protein without having it end up being just too much food for her.
My mother & I have Hashimoto’s also. Almost all the women in my family have thyroid problems.
Hard enough to control my diet, so I can only imagine how difficult it must be feeding a three year old.
All those high carbs for breakfast are also going to make her hungry, where protein will keep her feeling more satisfied. Truly, it’s all sugar. With the exception of cheese, dairy products are quite high in sugars.
I’ll send you a very low carb granola recipe that I bet she’ll love. Very healthy with lots of nuts & crunch & no grain to send her high. Might be a good bedtime snack also with some peanut buttter added.
I make protein shakes & maybe she’ll like this in place of her smoothies. 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (2 carbs), 1 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder (3 carbs), sweetener (I use stevia with no carbs) & protein powder (2-4 carbs depending on how many scoops). Very thick, filling & yummy & low carb. For protein: unflavored, unsweetened whey isolate protein powder (isolate is the best form) or hemp protein powder. You could add vanilla extract or peanut butter, too.
You could make her crackers from grated cheese that are super low carb. Just grate her favorite hard cheese, mound into rounds & either bake on a greased cookie sheet or microwave them. They get very crisp when they cool.
I make cookies & muffins using almond flour, coconut flour & golden flaxseed meal. They’re great.
No worries…I didn’t take it the wrong way. The doc finally did ask yesterday about what she ate and did point to the food as a possibility so I can’t say I’m totally surprised at what I’m seeing here. BUT we have been dealing with this issue for MONTHS, so your point is well taken. He should have caught it sooner.
I have recently found a cereal that does not cause me to spike if I use a small amount of milk with it. Special K Protein plus has 14g of carb for 3/4 cup serving and works really well. Try this if she wants cereal. I can’t get any other kind to work, minimal post meal spikes with this one. You can also try soy milk or almond milk on her cereal. Others have suggested that the unsweetened kind does not raise their BGs too much.
Suzanne, I’m happy I came across your post about Special K Protein Plus as I use to eat Special K (regular cereal) all the time prediabetic but wasn’t aware of the protein version. I miss breakfast cereal a lot and I’m soooo tired of GoLean Instant Honey & Cinnamon by Kashi (8g protein & 5g fiber). I look forward to trying Special K Protein Plus; thanks.
I’ll give Special K Protein Plus a try because she really likes cereal for breakfast. The past couple of days I’ve tried eggs and toast and a breakfast burrito type thingy both with fruit and it seems to have helped a little. Actually, today her only normal reading so far (she’s sick) was at morning snack! I was thrilled!
I’m just having a hard time finding things she’ll eat for breakfast that add up to the 30g she’s supposed to have. I’m trying not to use milk in the morning or too much fruit to stop the spiking but breakfast is a tough meal to have to avoid those things. Would anyone mind sharing what else works for them in the morning? I’m going to search “diabetic friendly smoothie” and see if I can find one she’ll like that won’t wreak havoc on her blood sugar too. Probably should do a search on glycemic index, too…anyone have a quick link?
Thanks for all your great ideas and support everyone!
Cobi
I also eat Think Thin bars for breakfast when I am in a rush. High in protein, low on the GI scale. They are the only nutrition/protein bar that does not cause me to have a BG spike. They taste kind of like candy so she might like half of a bar to go with her cereal. They have about 26g of carb in each bar and plenty of protein.
Another option is Granola Gourmet bars. You can get a discount as a TuDiabetes member and they really taste great! They are designed with lower GI in mind so no BG spikes.
Any ideas?
Hope it is a good choice for you!