Type 1 Diabetes...need more snack ideas

Choosing snacks for Alyssa is an ever evolving task. Being a child with type 1 diabetes, high energy, high metabolism, and one who could previously eat anything she wanted....means mom had to become very creative. Her snacks need to be around 15g of carbohydrates to keep her blood sugars level.  I always keep sugar free jello, sugar free popsicles and cheese sticks on hand, as they are low carb alternatives when Alyssa’s hungry between snacks or meals. She loves vanilla flavored yogurt and a serving of the light is 14g of carbs. All the little 100 calorie snack packs have somewhere between 14-17g of carbohydrates and there are tons of varieties and great when you're on the go. It also gives her a chance to have chocolate chip cookies in mini size :). Sugar free jello pudding, ritz bits peanut butter snack packs, gold fish snack packs and 4 to a pack of peanut butter or cheese crackers are all 15g of carbs or less too. If she experiences a low blood sugar, I usually give her a 4oz. juice box followed by a protein/carb snack of cheese and crackers or cheese and a few grapes or apple slices. She has 3 snacks a day and who would want the same thing over and over? Therefore, I am always on the lookout for new snack ideas.




(An updated version of a early post).

Counting Carbs

Counting carbohydrates can be quite difficult when your type 1 child eats something that doesn't have a label.  This week, Alyssa has been going to vacation bible school and the first thing they do is eat dinner.  The first day was pizza, applesauce, Oreos, and a Capri Sun (I brought a Capri Sun Roarin' Water because it only has 8g of carbs compared to the 22 in regular Capri Sun).  I knew a regular applesauce cup has about 22g of carbs, at least the brand I buy does.  I knew a regular slice of pizza has about 45g of carbs.  The Oreos were 25 g of carbs for a 3 cookie serving, but she only ate 1 of them.  Adding it all up in my head....this was a total of about 83 grams of carbs which would normally mean a basal rate of 4.15 units of insulin.  However, I knew she was going to be running around like crazy for the next few hours and burn up a lot of those carbs, so I decided to give her 3 units of Novolog.

At the end of VBS, blood glucose check read 212 (honestly, I thought it would be lower, but not too bad).

Summer Schedule

I remember when I was a kid, the thing I looked forward to most during summer vacation was staying up late and not having to get up early in the morning. But when you have diabetes, its important to stay on a schedule. I have to admit, over the past several weeks we have slept a little later each morning so that now we get up between 7:30-8 as apposed to the 6:00 am alarm when school was in. And Alyssa is going to bed around 10:30-11 pm, when her school year bed time is 8:30-9... well she usually falls asleep somewhere around that time and we put her in her bed :)

I knew last night Alyssa had stayed up later than usual watching a movie. I woke up at 7:40 this morning, pricked her finger (she slept through it) blood glucose level was 147. I made her breakfast (3 little pancakes, sugar free syrup & a cup of milk is exactly 60 grams of carbohydrates), walked her sleepily into the kitchen and she started eating as I made her injections. I gave her her Lantus and Novolog and then proceeded with making coffee and cleaning up the kitchen. When I turned around, I noticed that Alyssa wasn't at the breakfast bar, so I went looking for her and this is where I found her.......