My daughter will be 17 in June, type 1 for 6 yrs. She is getting in the habit of eating more sweets and junk food, and taking more insulin to make up for it, insisting its fine to do, even though I feel its not ok. Can somebody shed light on this, before I call her doc, which will really cause my kid to erupt? Thanks.
My 16 yr old
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The practice advocated by some doctors (who should know better) is - eat what you like and dose insulin to handle it. So that is probably where your daughter gets the idea.
In theory it's fine.
In practice it's impossible to avoid a pattern of blood glucose peaks and hypoglycaemic crashes - long term a disaster.
The other option is to avoid swallowing things that force you to use large insulin doses to compensate. A lot safer but more work.
The thing is that the problems of highs and lows won't cause major issues in the short term and at 16, your daughter views herself as immortal, so why all the fuss?
Your concerns are valid and I'm sorry that you may find it hard to get your daughter to accept that restricting her "fun foods" now is worth doing.
Can you verify that it is your doctor who is passing this idea down? If that is the case, you might be better served by another physician.
In theory it's fine.
In practice it's impossible to avoid a pattern of blood glucose peaks and hypoglycaemic crashes - long term a disaster.
The other option is to avoid swallowing things that force you to use large insulin doses to compensate. A lot safer but more work.
The thing is that the problems of highs and lows won't cause major issues in the short term and at 16, your daughter views herself as immortal, so why all the fuss?
Your concerns are valid and I'm sorry that you may find it hard to get your daughter to accept that restricting her "fun foods" now is worth doing.
Can you verify that it is your doctor who is passing this idea down? If that is the case, you might be better served by another physician.
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I can't add more to what John says, above. His advice is Right On!
My own experience with insulin is that it simply cannot cover everything. Injected insulin cannot match the timing of a well-functioning pancreas. This is why spikes can still develop -- or, worse -- why a roller-coaster cycle of highs and lows can occur.
16-year-olds are, of course, immortal. So are their friends. At that age, friends are important. As a mom and former 16-year-old, all I can add is that she needs the facts ... if only so she can make good decisions after she's made some mistakes.
A few mistakes will not wreck her chances for a good, long life ... as long as she is able to learn from them. (I was diagnosed at the age of 54-1/2, and I had to make my own mistakes before I could learn.)
Your daughter is extremely lucky to have you in her corner!
My own experience with insulin is that it simply cannot cover everything. Injected insulin cannot match the timing of a well-functioning pancreas. This is why spikes can still develop -- or, worse -- why a roller-coaster cycle of highs and lows can occur.
16-year-olds are, of course, immortal. So are their friends. At that age, friends are important. As a mom and former 16-year-old, all I can add is that she needs the facts ... if only so she can make good decisions after she's made some mistakes.
A few mistakes will not wreck her chances for a good, long life ... as long as she is able to learn from them. (I was diagnosed at the age of 54-1/2, and I had to make my own mistakes before I could learn.)
Your daughter is extremely lucky to have you in her corner!
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Candy is going to spike you. Regardless if you take 40 units first, she'll spike. Often people will see the spike and take more insulin even though there is still active insulin in her body causing a low. It's ok to have from time to time but probably a better idea to stay away from it. I usually get excited when I'm low because I get to eat skittles or something..save it for those times.
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Having good diabetes control, and avoiding serious complications, requires a good A1c less than 7.0 and blood sugar levels that are as stable as possible. A good A1c is great, but a lot of lows caused by eating the candy and other junk food, and then highs caused by correcting the lows, can cause serious complications even though the A1c is good. The roller coaster control with so many lows and highs is traumatic to the body and can cause the complications with the eyes, kidneys and the nervous system.
My A1c has been in the range 5.4-6.4 for more than 10 years, and my blood sugar is usually in the 70-130 range. Except for some mild nerve damage, I do not have diabetes related complications. That would not be possible if I ate the kind of food your daughter is eating on a regular basis.
John mentioned chewing those foods that cause fast spikes, but not swallowing. I will admit that I have been doing that for many years. The pleasure of eating those foods is in chewing and tasting, not in swallowing. By not swallowing I do not raise my blood sugar much at all, and I do not gain weight from overeating. I keep a box of zip lock sandwich bags handy while I watch TV for that purpose. Just zip lock, and toss the material in the trash. Okay, now I have revealed one of my secrets. I hope I will not get a lot of harsh criticism for that.
My A1c has been in the range 5.4-6.4 for more than 10 years, and my blood sugar is usually in the 70-130 range. Except for some mild nerve damage, I do not have diabetes related complications. That would not be possible if I ate the kind of food your daughter is eating on a regular basis.
John mentioned chewing those foods that cause fast spikes, but not swallowing. I will admit that I have been doing that for many years. The pleasure of eating those foods is in chewing and tasting, not in swallowing. By not swallowing I do not raise my blood sugar much at all, and I do not gain weight from overeating. I keep a box of zip lock sandwich bags handy while I watch TV for that purpose. Just zip lock, and toss the material in the trash. Okay, now I have revealed one of my secrets. I hope I will not get a lot of harsh criticism for that.
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Funny enough Richard, my choice of the word "swallowing" wasn't intended to imply chewing something and then discarding it - that hadn't occurred to as a strategy. I live, and once in a while - I learn!
I agree that it's healthier to eat better, but at the same time, you really don't know what it feels like to have diabetes. It's oppressing. Every day of your life, you have to think about how you are going to go exercise that day, even if you are sick and can barely make it out of bed. You have to figure out how you are going to eat low carb, even if your friends are eating high carb in front of you or you are on a restricted diet because you just had surgery. When normal people get sick, they get to eat crackers and soup. Diabetics don't. It's way too high carb and our diabetes is already completely out of control because our blood sugar gets higher whenever we are sick.
You don't ever just have a normal day.
Think of the strictest diet you have ever been on in your life. You eventually went off of that diet, right? You didn't die when you went off it, did you?
Being a diabetic means that you not only have to be on that diet forever but that every moment you stray even slightly off of it, you are killing yourself. Not only that but all your friends and family are going to remind you of this fact.
You can't ever eat a sandwich without guilt because you're always thinking about how you could have used one bread slice instead of two. And even when you use that one, you are thinking about how even one bread slice means you have to take medicine for it, so it would have been even better if you used zero.
You can't go on holidays without feeling miserable because people are timing the meals wrong and you have to eat exactly at certain times or your blood sugar might suffer and you can't eat what everyone else is eating.
If you want your daughter to eat better, then you go on a diabetic diet, too, and exercise every day. Not only will it take that bad food out of the house, so that she can't eat it, but it will also show you how it feels to be diabetic. Because there's always a ton of people to lecture, but not a ton of people who are actually doing anything.
Sorry if this sounds a little bitter. I am feeling a little bitter today.
You don't ever just have a normal day.
Think of the strictest diet you have ever been on in your life. You eventually went off of that diet, right? You didn't die when you went off it, did you?
Being a diabetic means that you not only have to be on that diet forever but that every moment you stray even slightly off of it, you are killing yourself. Not only that but all your friends and family are going to remind you of this fact.
You can't ever eat a sandwich without guilt because you're always thinking about how you could have used one bread slice instead of two. And even when you use that one, you are thinking about how even one bread slice means you have to take medicine for it, so it would have been even better if you used zero.
You can't go on holidays without feeling miserable because people are timing the meals wrong and you have to eat exactly at certain times or your blood sugar might suffer and you can't eat what everyone else is eating.
If you want your daughter to eat better, then you go on a diabetic diet, too, and exercise every day. Not only will it take that bad food out of the house, so that she can't eat it, but it will also show you how it feels to be diabetic. Because there's always a ton of people to lecture, but not a ton of people who are actually doing anything.
Sorry if this sounds a little bitter. I am feeling a little bitter today.
I'm 28. I've accepted that I have diabetes for the past six months.
It's complicated to explain how long I have had diabetes. Because I'm a very ill person who has other diseases as well and although doctors were kind of trying to tell me that I had diabetes for many years, I couldn't deal with it because I was in and out of the hospital all the time. Although they never officially diagnosed me. I did the official diagnosis six months ago.
I think I was pre-diabetic though as young as 18 years old because although I never checked my blood sugar back then, I used to get the low blood sugar shakes back then because they'd make me skip eating lunch at my work and I'd get extremely ill from it. Not normal hungry, but the type of hungry where I'd lose complete control of my temper (which got me in trouble with my work at the time), get dizzy and almost pass out, and tremble all over.
It's complicated to explain how long I have had diabetes. Because I'm a very ill person who has other diseases as well and although doctors were kind of trying to tell me that I had diabetes for many years, I couldn't deal with it because I was in and out of the hospital all the time. Although they never officially diagnosed me. I did the official diagnosis six months ago.
I think I was pre-diabetic though as young as 18 years old because although I never checked my blood sugar back then, I used to get the low blood sugar shakes back then because they'd make me skip eating lunch at my work and I'd get extremely ill from it. Not normal hungry, but the type of hungry where I'd lose complete control of my temper (which got me in trouble with my work at the time), get dizzy and almost pass out, and tremble all over.
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