Ok - I am type one and during each meal I have about 35-50 carbs and bolus accordingly about 2.5-3.5 units and stay between 90-120 or so. However I am scared of snacking for 10 carbs and 20 carbs. I never seem to get it right. It spikes immediately (probably because there is little protein in the snacks). For example I had a small piece of crumb cake when my sugar was 80. I bolused .5 units and I was 170 like 45 mins later. Another example, tiny piece of ice cream cake. I bolused 1 unit and was 180 30 mins later. I’m like so scared of snacking unless its egg salad or tuna salad and won’t effect my BG. Any suggestions on how other type 1s snack and bolus. And after dinner forget it, I never eat anything else, I’m too afraid to either go low or high in the middle of the night.
Mind you my control isnt stellar, but generally I think about it in terms of baking. So lets take crumb cake. When sugar is baked the structure changes so that the sugar wraps around the rest of the ingredients. This (in my mind) takes the body longer to break down the carbs in something like that. Im sure more enlightened people will elaborate. Chocolate is the same way, bad for us due to the body having to wade through the fat to get to the sugar.
Maybe test snacking on something like crackers as opposed to cakes and see how that effects you. If your on a pump you can square wave your bolus and extend your insulin to meet the amount of time it takes the body to break down the cake.
HTH.
I don’t snack so perhaps others will soon chime in with their favorite snacks, but things I’ve heard are cheese, cold cuts, nuts. You are snacking on very high carb things that are hard to bolus for. I’m also not clear if you have an I:C ratio. If so, it should tell you how much insulin to take for 10 or 20 carbs. Nontheless, some people find that I:C ratios don’t work too well for carb intensive items, especially if they are high in fat as well as carbs. Many of us try and avoid those items for that reason.
You could try taking a snack bolus earlier than you would for a meal. Meals with fat & protein are slower to digest. Things like crumb cake & ice cream cake hit fast & hard.
I rarely snack except for nuts or cheese.
The diet I am using now is the one I was using when I had gestational diabetes, with a few minor modifications (added some carbs for breakfast too).
For a mid-morning snack, I have a bit protein (like a lo-fat cheese stick) and no more than 15 grams carbs (like 2 whole wheat Wasas). For afternoon snack, I have that plus nuts (like almonds), and a small piece of fruit. Since I am also type 1, I do a bedtime snack (between dinner and my dose of Lantus before bed) of 1/2 cup of lo-fat milk or yogurt, a slice of turkey or ham, nuts and something grain based like crackers, bread, etc.-- no more than 15 grams of that.
This worked really well when I was pregnant, and it’s working really well now that I’m not. But then I’m not a foodie and I don’t vary my diet a hell of a lot, 'cause I have more important things to spend my time doing other than eating… LOL!
One thing I will say is that the diet discipline is going a lot more easily for me this time around because I had 2 “dry runs” of gestational over the last 7 years. I do remember when I got gestational with my first pregnancy, I was pissed, depressed, bewildered and complied to the diet with reluctance. You will get used to this, and you will feel better as a result of it, trust me.
DO you inject or do you have a pump? If you are pumping, especially with ice cream, dual wave bolusing can be helpful to you.
I think you’re looking for advice on snacking on what you want to eat, not advice on what snacks won’t require insulin. The general rule is to start by using the same carb/insulin ratio as you use for meals. If you are taking 2.5 units when you eat 35g carb, and taking 3.5 units when you eat 50g carb, then your carb/insulin ratio is about 14 (figure this by taking 35/2.5 =14 and 50/3.5 = 14.28).
So now you need to know how much carb is in the snack you want to eat, the same as you do for your meals. There are lots of ways to figure this out - check the package, look online, etc. But don’t minimize how hard this is to do - you may want to start by weighing foods at first to get more accurate. Once you know how many carbs are in the snack, then divide the number of carbs by your carb/insulin ratio to figure out how much insulin to bolus. So if you eat a piece of cake with 28g carb, then you would need 28/14=2.0 units of insulin.
As others have said if the snack has a lot of carb and little fat or protein you will probably want to inject earlier (not right before you eat) to minimize the BG shoot from digesting it so quickly.
There is a fair amount of testing to see what works for you - so you can try injecting different amounts of time prior to eating the snack and then testing every half hour or so to see how well that worked for that food. You’ll have to get used to trying things and see how well it works for you.
And you should definitely buy some books. In my experience Doctors never say this to their patients - presumably because they figure they will do the teaching so you won’t need to know what you’re doing. But the more you know the better - so you should definitely get the Pumping Insulin or Using Insulin book by Walsh, and/or Think Like a Pancreas by Scheiner and/or Type 1 Diabetes by Hanas which all have great advice (and all explain the carb/insulin ratio).
The Diabetes Solution by Bernstein book also has lots of useful advice on living with diabetes (how to inject etc), but he has a very strict view of diet - and would say that you should never eat a small piece of crumb cake or ice cream cake (ever) - which is probably very good advice, but isn’t what you were looking for here. On the other hand he has a theory that a T1 who starts following his very strict diet immediately after diagnosis may be able to retain a lot of their honeymoon insulin production (forever), as well as get A1c in sub-6 range to prevent future complications. If he is correct about the ability to retain honeymoon insulin production (and I say if since I have never seen a study that supports his view) then it would be worth getting a copy of his book to see if you could manage his diet. Its a good book regardless and well worth including in your diabetes library. I have all these books and would recommend all of them highly.
One other thing - this is a lot easier to figure out and make work if your snack is far enough distant from your meals that the insulin isn’t overlapping. If you take a snack injection within the 4 hours or so of your previous injection, then you will have to consider Bolus On Board, etc (again, this is all described in the books I mentioned). You can also find a lot of this info online - start at diabetesnet.com - but I still recommend getting some books.
.5 for a crumb cake seems quite small. Have a look here:
thats a hostess crumb cake 1.1 oz its 20c. So at that rate you would take .5 units for every 20 carbs?
From your example you seem to take 1 unit for every 14.3 carbs. In that case, for that 1.1 oz hostess crumb cake @ 20c. you would need 1.4 units. So there is your first issue.
Second, I would suggest doing as Jennifer suggested, if you pump dual wave, if your on shots, take the shot 10-15 min. before you snack. I would venture to say the fats mixed with the sugar and the amount of sugar can be delt with, but you may need some trial and error with it. Next time, try 1.5u and check a few times after eating to see where your BS goes.
You have already gotten good advice about adjusting the bolus. With time, you will feel more and more comfortable adjusting insulin doses based on carbohydrate counts. I just wanted to reply and let you know that I know exactly the feeling that you describe. I remember being genuinely afraid of snacking and afraid of miscalculating my insulin.
The good news: that fear will disappear.
People always ask how I can know carb counts and how to calculate my insulin doses accurately. I tell them that I practice 3+ times a day for years now. You’ll be a pro 
“People always ask how I can know carb counts and how to calculate my insulin doses accurately. I tell them that I practice 3+ times a day for years now. You’ll be a pro :)”
Thats awesome!
hehe, ya my wife is always asking me now the carbs and calories in food whenever we are out.