[SammyP]

Hi there,

My 2 year old son is such a picky eater! He was diagnosed with Type 1 on April 2nd so this is so new to me. I normally give him insulin after his meals. His dosage is on the sliding scale right and I don't feel like I know enough to be able to adjust his dosage to the amount of carbs that he eats.

For other parents with picky eaters, how do you deal with this? What do you feed you're kids? I am doing my absolute best to give him healthy foods, but a lot of the time he just won't eat them. So I end up having to give him simple sugars when he goes low, like juice, jelly beans, etc.

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks!

[Cinnabon]

For right now, treating his Low blood sugars are very important. You can always keep the 15/15 rule handy. When he is low, give him 15gm carbs and wait 15 min. Then u test again. If its normal then you have treated it correctly. If its still low after the 15, give him another 15 and re test in another 15. Its a bit hard, but you will not over do a low and face his blood sugar high afterwards. Its a lot of info right now, but this will help you.
Preckages snack and having handy glucose tables (many flavors) all around the house is very helpful.
Have you been informed of reading nutrition labels in back of all foods?

[Funnygrl]

By and large the best thing you can be doing is adjusting for what he eats. Talk to your peds endo about a carb ratio. Once you have that worked out, it's easy to adjust for what he eats. My impression is that most kids with insurance move to pump now, and that's what you will be doing if he gets a pump anyways. Learning how to do this will benefit you a lot. Good luck.

[samsmom]

my son was dx at 15 mo old, he is now 4 1/2, i found that when he was 2 yrs old he responded better to about 6-7 carbs to treat a low, he is just now up to 15 carbs to treat a low, but as always with diabetes you have to adjust that to YOUR child....if your son is on lantus,, it is easier to let them be picky but with nph they HAVE to have a certain amount of carbs so that can be tricky. he is also so new into this that maybe being a picky eater is the only thing that he can control, just offer a variety of foods at meal time and snack time. i found that putting a 'tray" of healthy foods together really helped my son, he had his choice of foods, with so many to choose from...it will get better, just remember that 2 yr old are famous for being picky eaters, diabetes or not. good luck
shannon

[aussie mum]

my son was 14 months old when he was diagnosed and is now 6. Two was probably the toughest year. We found that Tom really liked Spaghetti so he ate this just about every main meal with different sauces. I also found that he was better of if he grazed through the day rather than eating at set times. If I tried to get him to eat at set times and started doing party tricks to get him eating, he wouldn't eat. Mum was to entertaining for that. Leaving around healthy food for him to pick up and eat was the best way I found back then. I also found that he wouldn't be interested in an apple if I gave it to him whole but if I peeled it and cut it up into small pieces he would eat it. The same with oranges and other fruit. I would cut sandwiches into three and call them little soldiers and he liked to eat them like that.

HTH.

Therese

[Lynne1]

My son isn't diabetic, but he's a picky eater. He does like some foods...rice, cous cous, mac and cheese, grilled cheese & anything with teriyaki sauce. Perhaps you coulld try some of those and see if he likes them.

[HollyB]

Hi,

As you say, it's still early days and there is so much to learn it's overwhelming at first. You can't possibly get it all at once.

It also takes a while to get a "base line" of what a child normally eats so your team can calculate a starting insulin to carb ratio for that -- and I imagine it takes longer for a toddler with erratic eating habits (which they pretty much all have). If you record what (and how much) your son eats along with his blood sugars, that will help them get a sense of how well the sliding scale is working and how many carbs he usually eats in a day.

THEN they can give you an insulin to carb ratio and you can adjust your son's insulin to what he is actually eating, and you'll find that easier and less scary once you get the hang of it.

Meantime, you can start checking labels to start learning how many carbs are in various common foods -- a slice of bread, a cracker, a digestive cookie. When you're ready to start counting carbs for real, your dietitian will probably have a poster giving average carb counts for things like an apple or 1/2 cup of pasta. It seems like a lot at first but it's so much better than measuring out an amount of food and then trying to make your kid eat it!

Good luck -- this must be really tough with such a young child.

[kattt]

Honey sticks are good for lows, along with a cinnamon graham cracker. Honey is sweet, but it also has B vitamins in it. Will he eat grapes? Or peanut butter with honey. I had a picky two year old. He is now a not so picky five year old. I had to learn just like you. I was down that road. I remember crying my eyes outbecause he was 44 and refusing to eat anything. You need to try different things when he is not low. And you must become more strong willed then him or her. My son would not eat very well at that age. But now I tell him eat what is in front of you. I have changed his diet alot. He would not eat fruit or anything before. Now he eats grapes and apples, and fruit smoothies( i hide good stuff in the fruit smoothies). Yogurt might be a good thing to try. I also leaned to hide veggies in his tomato sauce.
about the carb counting, sometimes you have to estimate the carbs if they do not eat the serving size on the box. Counting carbs take a little time to get use too, but it gets easier as you go. I am a whole lot better at showing someone something rather then telling them.
We have had to deal with alot of lows. If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know. I would be glad to help.

[Tim_Roy]

What they suggest with kids is that you control what they eat and let them decide HOW MUCH they'll eat. One reason American kids are getting so pudgy is that we mess up their body's natural food consumption controls by saying "Eat everything on your plate or no TV!" and the old saw about starving kids in China.

With a diabetic kid that's a bit trickier of course. Less so if he's on a pump.

[claysmum]

First of all I wanted to say that I am sorry to hear about your little guy getting diagnosed. It always breaks my heart to hear of another child getting diagnosed. Brings me back to the day my son was diagnosed except he was 4

Having a picky eater is the worst...picky eater and diabetes dont go good together as you have already figured out.
I found my son went into some sort of mode after he got diagnosed...he used to eat anything and everything..but when put on a eating schedule..it really just killed his appetite. Unfortuneatly you are at his mercy. ( Sorry to say)
If he is on some form of long acting...he has to eat at certain times..and if he does not feel like eating.. well this is where we are..SOL.
What we did was talked to dietition...and dropped off on his carbs ( scary I know because you want them to have proper nutrition ).. but it did not take long for my son to figure out that he was hungry again. We are now at a reasonable point..but will be going on pump in fall to give freedom back in this dept.
Blah Blah Blahing along.. I know how you feel. It is a really tough spot to be in as a parent...but for a little while he may just rule in the food dept for a little while

[Will]

When I was a kid my carb ratio was like 20:1.

To keep this kid healthy you need to get him on a pump. I went on one when I was 10 and its the greatest thing my mother ever did for me. It changed my grades, my entire life.

[Tim_Roy]

Suggestion: Until you get a handle on what he will or won't eat, wait until after he's done eating to take the insulin.

Of course, that'd work much better with MDI (as in a super short-acting insulin like Humalog/Novolog) or a pump.

With Regular (and other short acting insulins) you're supposed to take them about twenty minutes prior to the meal.

And with anything you read here, talk about it with the doctor before trying on your kid.

[Will]

Originally Posted by Tim_Roy

Suggestion: Until you get a handle on what he will or won't eat, wait until after he's done eating to take the insulin.

Of course, that'd work much better with MDI (as in a super short-acting insulin like Humalog/Novolog) or a pump.

With Regular (and other short acting insulins) you're supposed to take them about twenty minutes prior to the meal.

And with anything you read here, talk about it with the doctor before trying on your kid.

The problem is, most doctors are so ignorant they can do more harm than good. Having a good pediatric endo is key.

Humalog takes about 15 minutes to start working. Regular takes about 45 minutes.

[Tim_Roy]

That doesn't mean you'd take Regular 45 minutes before a meal.

The meal doesn't go straight into your bloodstream...