Still going with Diabetes Blog Week. Today's topic - food!
Last week at Carowinds, I used my phone to look up the number of carbs in a corn dog. That tells you a lot about the way my family eats (and also about why I love my new phone). The fact that I let my son have a corn dog and that I had to look up the carbs. It's not as though that's an every day food for us! But I bet you would never know by our diet that Benny has diabetes.
(56 carbs, by the way - although I didn't believe that. That's no low-fat Hebrew National beef frank in there. I went with 70 carbs and a one-hour combo bolus. Perfect. This time.)
Early on we learned that a low-carb plan doesn't work very well for a little kid with diabetes.I wrote about our attempt to put a two year old on the Atkins diet here. Upshot: bad idea. In an attempt to keep his carbs and insulin injections down, we started eating all sorts of high fat meat and cheeses that we'd never eaten before. Yuck.
We do like to try to have the whole family eating the same kinds of food, the same meals and snacks. Right now, Benny's favorites include any fruit - especially watermelon and strawberries. He loves broccoli and carrots, roast chicken, turkey meatballs, hard boiled eggs and grilled cheese. Because we live in the real world, he also loves hot dogs, tater tots, cookies, brownies, frosted flakes, milkshakes and ring pops. And don't forget banana splits!
So, yes there are treats and of course there are limits. I have an either or policy for cake and juice boxes at birthday parties, for example. My friend are always pleasantly surprised when they ask if they should provide a sugar free alternative for Benny, and I can so no (although it would be nice if someone served water or even flavored water once in a while)
We also own an Italian restaurant and my husband is a great cook. We love pizza and it's fun to have the kids try calamari and eggplant parm! (Yes, that's us, Rotelli Pizza & Pasta, corner of Carmel Rd & 51 in Charlotte.)
Overall, I still can't believe the flexibility of eating for type 1 diabetes. It's not at all what I expected and I am so grateful for all the research that's come before to lead to insulin pumps, etc.
We do have a new food adventure for us coming this fall: school lunches!