[nissen99]

My son was diagnosed with type I diabetes 11/13/06. He has started football season with practice starting yesterday. Anyone have any tips for him as far as keeping his blood sugars in a good range for practice and not going hypoglycemic? But not going too high either?

[volleyball]

What position is he playing? How big is he? That will affect his training. I'd say have some protein, fat and whole grains at least an hour before practice and test often.

[nissen99]

He plays running back (which is pretty demanding) and linebacker right now. He's about 5'11" and weighs about 170 lbs. How soon before he practices should he eat? What should he reasonable expect his sugars to stay at during practice? Yesterday, they were in the 300's. He was proud that he at least kept them steady during practice sipping on Gatorade but I think they should be more in the 150's. He did go to 115 by bedtime with no food in between so I am sure he is going to dip and we'll need to adjust his nightly lantus dose.

[Scratch]

He's just going to need to do a lot of testing, so he can get a profile of what will happen to him.

He should definitely try to bring the numbers down from being up around 300 though -- that's going to put a lot of extra stress on his kidneys in a stressful situation and worries about dehydration. Running numbers up that high will probably also make him prone to cramping up, something he definitely doesn't want to have happening.

When I exercise, I try to have my blood sugar above 100 and below 180, although I've got some advantage over him in that I set the pace of my exercise and I'm not following the orders of a coach or coaching staff, so I'm always free to stop as needed.

But if he can find a rate of Gatorade sipping that allows him to be between 120 and 180, I think he'd be doing well.

[rzrbks]

2nd generation American FB coach chiming in here.<although my daily disguise is a Mild Mannered (lmao)English teacher> (coached Jr. High to small college O,D line and LBs when not Head Coach)

Those #s are WAY Too high. Those #s will make his organs work harder and make him much more likely to get seriously hurt.

Those high #s will also make recovery time of muscle groups slower so that he will be less effective over the course of days--weeks.


It's one of the nasty truths of Diabetes that finding what works is Trial and Error. That's why you see such a HUGE Deal made about athletes who are successful who have Diabetes.

A great deal of the hard work is finding a regimen that works and being able to keep adjusting it as his body's needs change with level of activity, general health, weather, stress, and all the other myriad things that effect B/G.

The main thing is Test, Test, Test.

Small but important side note----Vision is KEY to what a LB/RB must do--high B/G numbers not only effect vision but just as important they effect muscle reaction time which effects how effective a RB/LB he is going to be/Wants to be.

[nissen99]

Yeah, I know they are way too high. He is so new at all of this so we are trying to be patient (he's 16 so that's hard some times!) He went to camp this summer and would be really high and drop low so quickly that I think it scared him so I don't think he didn't take enough Humalog with lunch and was high going into the practice. We are still working the his doctor for adjustments on his lantus and ratios weekly too so I am sure it will take us a while to get all of this down. Practice runs from 4-7:30. Do you suggest he eat something right before practice and what types of foods do you suggest? Then what about after practice, should he eat something right away after that too?

[rzrbks]

Players I've had in the past made sure to eat 30-45 minutes before practice (balance of carbs and protein is "interesting" to figure out) and then work out with coaches and trainers specific times to test: example, every 30-45 minutes (or more often if he feels the need) and it was trainer's responsibilty to have insulin/carbs on hand so that they could treat as B/G readings required.

I'd make sure that coaches understand what a huge effort and sacrifice your son is making to be part of the team.

I'd also make sure they know the symptoms and consequences of hypos and hypers.

I wish you and your son great luck and anything I can do to help I'll do.

[volleyball]

Gatorade may be the culprit. There is over grams of sugar per quart. Linebackers don't need that. And most likely after practice, his BS will be higher than normal.

[nissen99]

Thanks so much for all your advice. We will definitely try it. He did much better at practice tonight; his lowest was 101 and most of the time he said it stayed right around 150. That makes me feel much better!

[iDream]

You typically stay lower during practice, and go up during games because of the stress...my experience with basketball...

[rzrbks]

nissen99

Thanks so much for all your advice. We will definitely try it. He did much better at practice tonight; his lowest was 101 and most of the time he said it stayed right around 150. That makes me feel much better!

Tell him "Good Job" from all of us here