Hello, my 3 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with Diabetes. The Dietician recommended giving her Crystal Light versus Juice - but I am worried about the Aspartame content. Any advice or thoughts?
Thanks
I'm very sorry to hear of your daughter's diagnosis, and hope that your family is adjusting.
In general we try to avoid artificial sweeteners, including aspertame, but that's just our personal choice. I think you can also get Crystal Light with splenda instead of aspartame if you prefer splenda. I get Hansen's Natural Fruit Stix for our son. I has 1 g carb per serving, and uses stevia as a sweetener. I don't let him drink it all the time, but do when I feel like he doesn't need any more carbs at the time (he's a big milk drinker). If you don't want to give your daughter any of these options, I woud recommend finding a juice with the lowest carbs per serving, and "cutting" her juice with water to further reduce the carbs. I think either the Apple and Eve organic juices or the Kirkland brand juice bags have the lowest carb counts I have found (I don't have any handy, so can't check).
Good luck.
Mo
Thank You Very Much for you reply Monique! I have never heard of Hansen's Fruit Stix - but I will look into getting them. :-)
Hey Brandi,
As soon as we came home with our daughter Cassie's T1D diagnosis, we nearly bought out the grocery store's whole supply of diet drinks, lite ice creams and sugar free treats. Several tummy aches later, we realized we'd gone overboard. The culprit? Aspartame and artificial sweeteners. We fell into the common misconception that people with diabetes can't eat regular food or drink sugary like juice (mainly because the hospital staff communicated that message to us since they deal with type 2 diabetes more than type 1). The most important thing to count are carbs, and you can adjust for sugary intake by: either giving insulin for it and/or not overindulging on the sweet stuff.
The funny thing is, Cassie drinks more juice AFTER the diabetes diagnosis than before. We find that it's a quick and convenient way to get her blood sugar levels up when she's low. It's really all in the timing.
So now we buy mostly regular ice cream and juice, etc*. but we also have a good amount of sugar free choices when her blood sugars are high. It's all about a balance and not going too far one way or the other. Good luck!
~ Red Maxwell
* but not soda! regular sodas are really hard to regulate if consumed when you're child's not low.
My son used aspartame drinks for years and then he began having stomach aches and head aches regularly. My doctor suggested to take him off the sweetener and his headaches were soon gone and his stomach got a little better. We now use splenda and I am teaching him to get used to flavoring water with a squeeze of fresh juice. For my son, drinking regular juice or sugary drinks and trying to dose for them doesn't work. The sugar is too fast for his body so his blood sugar wouldn't go high but later he would be dangerously low. He was diagnosed at 2yrs and is now 15yrs old. Over time the movement of the stomach slows down in a diabetic and this is true for him and has explained his stomach aches, his doctor feels this could be the reason for his sensitivity toward aspartame. Now reminding him to eat slower and staying away from aspartame he hasn't complained of a stomach ache in years. I hope this is helpful.
Hi, my son was diagnosed this past July. I think one of the best items they have come out with is the G2 Gatorade. My son loves the orange, and it is only 5g of carbs per 8 oz. (It has sucralose (splenda) in it). We stay away from most artificial sweeteners, other than an occasional diet soda. Other than that, he gets to have anything he wants...including sugary treats....in moderation of course.
Our family has always avoided many processed foods especially those with artificial sweeteners such as aspertame. We had no clue that Type 1 was genetic, so you can imagine our surprise when our son was diagnosed with Type 1. He takes insulin for the carbs in any juice he drinks except when bringing Bg up.