Turkey bacon, is it ok to consume daily since it's carb free and good protein?

My daughter is 5 yrs. old with type 1 and is constantly complaining about eating in between meals. She's a picky eater so she doesn't like to eat the few free foods availible. But she does like turkey bacon. Is it ok for her to consume 4-6 slices a few days out the week? Or more if she choose to?

She was dianosed Jan/09 and has been on an Animus pump for 1 year.

I ahve no idea if it’s really safe, but we sure eat a lot of bacon, turkey bacon, and sausage around here.

Have no idea since my niece won’t touch bacon, but she does occasionally eat hot dogs and pepperoni, which are not the greatest. If giving a high fat item, I reduce fat in some of her other meals the same day. Generally speaking, if she is high, can’t eat carbs, and hungry, I would let her eat any free food. Just as long as her diet is healthy in general. If she is not high, I would prefer to give her heathier food with carbs in them and cover the food with insulin. I think your daughter will grow to like other free foods and snacks and turkey bacon is a temporary fixation.

We eat lots of sausage and cheese. They may be high in fat, but my girls are so active that i don’t worry too much, they actually need the extra calories. what ever free food that you can find that they like i think is ok, it is good for them to have some freedom and independace. All i can really suggest is that you double check with your endo. As we all know, what is okay can really vary from person to person.

All your replies has been great! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!

Seriously, I have yet to meet a pediatric endo who advocates low carb eating and I would run, not walk, if an endo put my niece, diagnosed at 8 years, on a very low carb diet. We do use free foods if her blood sugar is high, she is hungry and wants to eat. I do like to collect low carb desserts for special occasions so she can eat and have a decent size dessert. So low carb has its uses, but a low carb diet for a growing child… who would advocate that?

I have eaten a slice of turkey bacon every morning for the last few years - including during my pregnancy. I see nothing wrong with it. Bacon is awesome!

It’s funny how you and Jan are mentioning the low carb diet…lol Because that’s exactley what the head nurse wants me to do for Syeda at school. Well Syeda has had some high numbers at school (3 solid hours after breakfast) around her 300-500’s. No keytones though. except for the first week of school which I’'lget to in a sec…

You see Syeda’s endocrinologist just up and left her practice (took a job in another state) which through us for a loop! She left right before school started as well. Which led to Syeda missing school for a good 2 months due to an unsigned health care plan. The insurance carrier we were with at the time did not have a alternative pediactric endo we could switch to. So I switched to a carrier that was accepted by the other endo’s. The switch took a month to be effective, during that time frame 1 out of the 2 endo’s stop accepting our new insurance due to the extra amount of patients coming from her previous endo. So we had no choice but to go with the second endo which has a waiting list extending to the middle of January may be even longer.

Well I was able to finally get her into school not long ago but she was in her 500’s before lunch (3 hours after breakfast) and her keytones were gradually building. So I took her the ER which led to a mandatory follow up visit with the same endo who stop taking our insurance. They made adjustments but there still off obviously. I can’t follow up with them because they still won’t accept our insurance. So we’re still in wait to see an endo to really make all the necessary adjustments she needs.

Which brings me to the school nurse, she wants me to take away all sweets, donuts, cookies etc., pizza, chips, pancakes, crackers that doesn’t have peanut butter on them and so on. She feels these foods are the reason to her school highs. She also says that Syeda should be eating less carbs. I have informed the nurse that Syeda has these foods occasionally and her diet is well rounded. Consuming whole grains, proteins, vitamins and so on. Syeda’s highs arn’t due to her eating pizza and donuts for breakfast as the nurse is trying to assume! Friday she calls her self eliminting the cuulprint by taking one of Syeda’s items from her lunch which caused a low of 40 while she was on the school bus on her way home. Thank goodness her older sister checked her and was able to bring it up! I’m really having a bummer school year. This entire ordeal is rather depressing!

Since someone asked who advocates low carb for a child - I do, for my child at least. (I’ll let all you other parents advocate for your own children : ) Clara eats between 60 and 100 carbs a day and only 10 for breakfast. All her snacks are free. She rarely eats rice and never eats pasta. She has double fiber bread (Orowheat) or low carb bread (Sara Lee or Pepperidge Farms). She rarely eats crackers or cereal, no chips or similar, very little fruit, and has low carb milk.

What does she eat? Meat, cheese, vegetables - a huge assortment, nuts, and 3 slices of bread (1 at breakfast and 2 at lunch for a sandwhich) make up most of her diet. Her almost daily indulgence is a 1/2 C of ice cream after dinner for 17 carbs.

60 - 100 carbs is a lot compared to what some low carb adults eat, but she’s healthy, in tight control, and hasn’t had an A1c higher than 6.5 in the past 8 months.

BEWARE SCHOOL NURSES! they aren’t all bad, but they know a little about a lot of things, we do a lot of head nodding with our school nurse, and then the whole staff just does what we the parents recommend, and what the girls endo recommends, and ignore the nurse.
I should also clarify, we use free snacks so the girls have options that they don’t have to run by me first. We have a drawer that they can pull food from to snack on when they are hungry and they don’t have to ask first. They are old enough now to know that some things are only free if they only have 1 serving (this was after a wacky BG night when one D girl ate like 100 baby carrots, and thought they were all still free!)

I think we all realize that everyones needs are different. We actually had to up our girls carb intake because they both are very competitive swimmers, and do dance etc. They average 1.5 hours vigorous excercise a night. we started on a lower carb, but then the nutritionist and endo said that they really needed more, and up’ed it. Every kiddo is different, and we all try to do what is best for them… I have 2 that have D and there are differences between them in what works and what doesn’t.

I think that as long as she is healthy, then it is fine. My daughter absolutely loves hot dogs straight from the fridge (I know gross). I do however try to provide turkey dogs for her, since her CDE said that quite a few D children tend to have high cholesterol due to the unlimited cheese and meats that they eat. I feel that as long as my child has good cholesterol levels then she can eat whatever free food she wants.

Hot dogs straight from the fridge. Sounds gross to me now, but I used to love 'em that way.

Judith, I think we are on the same page. But there is a typo in which you say you hope the endo is not one who “condemns” a low carb diet. I see you meant to use the word “condone.” In other words, children are growing and should not be put on a low carb diet. I can see, though, that the diet given is really more a lower fat, modified carb diet; we were given carb limitations per meal and I am sure she eats a lot less carbs than nondiabetic children. All in all, I think her diet is one any child could benefit from.

This nurse is incorrect. I don’t think your daughter’s highs are due to the food she eats but the need for a good pediatric endo to oversee her insulin regime. And the first month or so, my niece was very high because they had her on NPH and regular instead of Lantus and Novolog which worked better for her. I am sure once you get her in with a good pedi endo, you will get the advice you need. That said, even now, if he blood sugar is too high before a meal, we will not feed her carbs which will cause her blood sugar to go even higher. I will feed at 150, even though that is still too high before a meal. I will not feed if 200. Will give chicken and salad, cheese and pepperoni or hotdog (no bun) and salad, veggies, and lots of water. Correct with insulin and feed her when the blood sugar is lower. If at school and it is lunch I will feed at 200, but not 250. I then call 1.5 hours after and recheck blood sugar to see if she is starting to come down (we use
Apidra). I also have higher blood sugar targets, she gets less insulin for lunch, and higher correction factor while at school as there is a lot of walking around and the exercise brings down her blood sugar. Don’t worry, you will get this sorted out. But you need more help.

Great A1c; we have the same with higher carb. There are definitely days when she is not hungry (many of them) and she will eat about 100 grams per day. We have noticed her control is much better on 100 grams with little postprandial spike. I don’t believe in forcing a child to eat more if they don’t want to, nor denying them food. But we were told not to feed her a low-carb diet. Obviously it is working for you.

All your replies are great…! I confirmed today with Syeda’s NEW (YEAHHHHHH) diatician that it is totally fine for Syeda to snack on turkey bacon, along with hot dogs, cheese sticks, cottage cheese (yuck) and a few others. What a releif!! I also brought up my concen with Syeda’s school nure about the whole take away carb/diet deal… She agreed with me as a few of you also did, that she wouldn’t reccomend Syeda on a low carb diet due to carbs being “BRAIN FOOD”. At her age, she’s very active and growing everyday. So her body as well as brain needs those carbs. To take away what her school nurse wants to would be taking away valuable energy and brain food that she so desperately needs.

But I’m not knocking any parent whose has their children on a certain amount of carbs per day. I would assume the parent as well as their physcian knows best! My concerns were based on what Syeda’s nurse wanted to do with MY child.

Any more ideas on free foods as well as low carb foods would be great!. Again Thanks to all who replied!

Also… to “aliceclones” I would love to know what your free food drawer contains. :slight_smile:

Ha ha! Well… there is the usual assortment of cheese, pre-cooked sausage, bacon, but there is also sugar free jello, snack packs of baby carrots (not actually “free”, but low enough in carbs that they don’t have to dose for it if they only have one package), sweet baby peppers, hard boiled eggs, sometimes celery, sometimes jicama and little hummus packs. We also have a shelf that has nuts (not cashews, they are loaded!), and beef jerky. And then we have individual packets of crystal light if they want something sweet to drink, and occasionally powerade zero. We are always on the hunt for new ideas, and we try to switch up what we have so the girls don’t get bored. I hope this helps!

Free foods: Sunflower seeds have so much fiber they are almost free. Frozen cool whip in one of those 4 gram mini wafter cones. You can also freeze Reddi whip (like this better). These are very low carb icecream substitutes (though high in fat). Half cup sliced strawberries with whipped cream (about 6 grams). cheeseburger on lettuce leaves; One fave: Taco salad. You make the taco meat with Ortega blue taco seasoning. Make a bed of shredded lettuce, onion, a little tomato, green pepper. Toss lightly with lemon or home made vinagrette (use a lot less vinagrette because the taco flavorings will take over). Slide a thin layer of taco meat, covered with shredded cheese into the microwave to melt the cheese. Slide all this over the salad bed, adding a layer of salsa and dollop of sour cream. This is filling on its own and maybe 5 to 10 grams depending. There are low carb tortillas you can make into chips or just take 5 regular tortilla chips and crumple over the top (this may add a few grams). A small enough portion of this, minus the chips is free. I sometimes put hot dog on half of a hotdog bun, sliced again in half lengthwise (5 grams because it is a quarter of a hotdog bun just cut longer). Kids that like chili, stews, chicken marsala, you can modify those dishes to be almost carb free by omitting potatos and using veggies in the stew. These, along with chicken veggie soup can be made in advance and kept in fridge). Kids that like seafood, that opens a host of options (unfortunately, cannot advise you as ours does not)