I follow a blog on Facebook about a kid named River, who also has Type 1 Diabetes. He's an 8 year old boy, lives in Sioux Falls, sees the same Doctor as we do and has been a diabetic since age 5. His mom writes a raw story about their struggles and I admire her for not sugar coating it. It's important to know she doesn't do it for attention, she does it to raise awareness because if you do not have to deal with diabetes 24/7 - you don't know the struggles. A couple weeks ago his mom said she was tired of the roller coaster of high/low blood sugar levels and decided to cut his carb intake. I was intrigued! I, too, had cut Trey's carb intake a few weeks prior, so I wanted to see what she meant and how she cut back. What I found baffled me. I cut Trey's carbs to 20 per meal (except breakfast was lower). That 20 seemed to do really well for Trey, keeping his sugar where it should be. When we told his doctor and Jenny about this, they jumped all over me. NOT OK I was told. Kids need carbs to develop and be healthy! They wanted me to allow him to eat anything he wanted.
So as I read about River's good luck with this low carb, what I discovered was he ate 6 carbs for breakfast, 12 for lunch and 12 for supper. My eyes squinted and my brain really started to spin. 12 carbs is NOT much. I knew this wasn't the right option for Trey (at least not YET) although River's mom had a lot of support. A low carb/high fat diet was a great idea many people had said. I struggled with it and even though it wasn't my child, I lost sleep.
When I think about it, we have cut out so many carbs already. Bread slices (15 carbs) and buns (30 carbs) are few and far between; cereal (around 20 carbs for 3/4c) is not consumed for two quick examples. Baked goods, candy, even milk!
Trey used to eat fruit snacks like no one's business. It was nothing for him to sit down and have 3 bags for a snack (at 20g each!). I would even buy the "all fruit" ones thinking they were healthy. WRONG. We had glazed donuts every weekend for breakfast/snacks. Not anymore. He wanted cookies? Sure ... Here is 6 Oreo's and a glass of milk to dunk them in.
We've changed our habits.
When I take my child to the store to pick out his snacks, he now chooses beef sticks, cheese sticks, almonds, PowerAde Zero, occasiaional Cheeze-it's, cheese balls and fresh fruit along with broccoli.
The most amazing part for me is that he doesn't even TRY to sneak something in the cart. He doesn't beg or cry or plead with me to get Oreo's instead of Cheese-It's. He's learning to check the label of foods to see how many carbs there is. He knows it has to be under 20. I allow him to have bites of things he really wants, such as a candy bar. He got a York bar over 2 weeks ago and he's had one bite of it. It was enough to satisfy him, but not enough to raise his sugar drastically. Yesterday his great grandma gave him a large chocolate covered rice crispy bar and he knew he had to ask before he could open it or eat it. After taking his sugar, I allowed him to have 1/2 of the bar, for 15 carbs. He ate it like he was eating a little piece of Heaven. He never asked for the rest of it, never cried when I told him he could have half ... He ate what he could and was happy with that.
I don't know about you, but I personally find that remarkable for a five year old. It's hard to not feel sorry for him. I try not to let it show, but I shed tears over my little guy all the time. When I think of him going to school in a few weeks and the kids all having their snack together ... But my little guy whips out a piece of string cheese instead of a sugary yummy treat. Doesn't seem fair. When his class wins a popcorn and juice party. He can have a little popcorn and no juice. When his friend has a birthday party with Hawaiian Punch and Birthday Cake, he can probably have a little piece of cake (no frosting) and again, no juice.
Carbs are part of our every day discussion now ..... How many carbs is too many carbs?
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