My son is hungry from the time he gets up until he goes to bed. He says he is hungry literally every 5-15 minutes sometimes. I am at a loss because there is only so much meat and cheese and free foods I am willing to 'give in' to. We have our first clinic appointment on 1/5/09 and I am going to ask about it, but maybe someone here has some other suggestions?
Hi there! Connor was diagnosed the day before Christmas eve and we have just tried to feed him all he can have during his breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our endo perscribed three eating periods (bfast, lunch and dinner) and three snack periods (pre-lunch, pre-dinner and after dinner) We are allowed to give Connor 15 carbs during those snack times. Sometimes it is a banana, some nilla-wafers and a small touch of milk, or those tiny cheeseit packs that are 15 carbs. These seem to keep him so that he is eating every two-three hours a day.
Occasionally he is hungry outside of his three snack-times and we give him cheese sticks, sugar-free (and carb free) jello, and sugar-free gum. He also gets plenty of water and sugar-free kool-ade/crystal light.
I totally understand the frustration. It is a terrible thing to have to tell your son NO to food when he is hungry. I have just tried to get him primed and pumped up for the next meal..
We have also made sure he was a part of cooking/preparing the food so he understands what food he can eat, and that we always measure it. Well, so much for my two weeks of experience with this stuff!!!
Hello! So I try to do the same with Colby, "feed him up" during his meals and then try to say no in between. Colby will say, "because of my dwiabeetees" and I say yes. Anyways, see I guess we got a differing of opinions with dieticians because Colby is allowed 30-45 carbs breakfast, 45 carb lunch, 15 carb snack, and a 45 carb dinner then a 15 carb bedtime snack if he is below 130. So Colby only gets one snack as opposed to your guys three snack periods. I am definitely going to ask for Colby to be allowed that because I think it will help a lot. I am just so scared to have him too high like what landed him in the hospital in the first place. And cheese and meat is all good, but he needs to poop too, ya know?
I do give him other "free" snacks like one animal cracker or counting out 10 fishy crackers. He loves blueberries, so a 1/4 cup of those is considered free. He usually seems pretty happy to get his 'treats' but complains of hunger so much. I give him all the water and sugar-free drinks he wants too. Will try sugar-free jello for sure. Anyways thank you and take care.
Hello there!!!!! If Connor was just diagnosed I really fell for you.
My son Daniel was diagnosed last year on July 17 and it was very very difficult for me, kids adjust wonderful but I remember not eating or sleeping for at least two month wondering why this has happened. Of course we had our ups and downs and finally after hundreds of shots we have decided to get Daniel on the pump and give him all the freedom he deserves just like any other normal child. We rcvd our pump last week and waiting to go to the pump class in the end of the month to learn all we need to lead a normal life with our son, so you might want to think of that later on. Daniel as well was always hungry and it was difficult for me as well to say, no, not now" so yes we did have some difficulties.
Wishing Connor all the best.
Yeah, Colby was diagnosed one week before Christmas day...so it has only been a few weeks for us.
Maybe the doc has to increase insulin dose and therefore increase the amount of food and of course carbs that your son eats. He sounds like he is not satisfied with the amount of food that he is getting. Your son may have a fast metabolism and need a few more calories..just my hunch thats all--but its up to your doc
My 12 year old son was a huge eater and was always hungry. But now that we have to change his eating habits this is what has helped..... These are a couple of things we do just for breakfast....
1st of all don't miss that hunger can be mistaken for thirst. Make sure they are drinking plenty of water.
Make sure that the foods you feed them are full of substance. Some foods will make you hungrier, as they wear off quickly. Even though you can take insulin, eating a donut and chocolate milk will wear off within a half hour of eating. Same thing for most cereals or pop tarts (bad stuff I tell you).
Good Breakfast.... Get their fuel tank filled first....
Whole Grain/ Whole Wheat toast with peanut butter, banana and a glass of milk (If your kid will not eat Wheat, Sara Lee makes a great Whole Grain white bread)
Bowl of Honey nut cheerios and toast with peanut butter.
Whole grain ego’s/ fruit (he usually wants applesauce)
Oatmeal and toast
Whole Grain English muffin, with Egg and Cheese.
I can give a ton more Ideas but start finding the foods High in fiber and whole grain, fill them up on that, it will stick to their ribs longer.
I know all kids are differnt and like differnt things. If your kids like pop tarts then look for ones with less sugar or whole grain. There are pop tarts with Fiber in them now. Fiber one makes them.
So, update...first clinic appointment yesterday and explained what was happening and they increased his carbs at breakfast, lunch, and dinner and also added a morning 0-10 carb snack. We have never been a donut and pop tart family really, so yes I do try high-fiber stuff, always offer milk instead of sugar juice even....he was just so darned hungry still. He also drinks like a little fishy and always has, so I do not think it is that. Anyways, thanks to all! Hopefully with him getting to eat a bit more he will be more satisfied :) Growing, active, hungry toddler!
Glad to hear your visit to the Endo went well.
I was reprimanded at our first meeting after being released and they accused me of being an engineer. I told them I was Information Technology and they said same thing... The nurse said that people that like A + B to = C have the hardest time dealing with Diabetes because it is not going to be that perfect.. ever. The human body is a very fickle thing and some days you will never get the blood glucose to be where you want it to be. VERY frustrating for me. But hey, I'll get over it.
Connor's first calorie intake was estimated at 1300 per day. By the time they released him from the hospital and measured what he ate they raised it to 1900 calories! This of course changed the amount of carbs at each meal and the amount of carbs at each snack. I am with ya though.. I will now give Connor anything he wants at meals and then cover the carbs right after. No more worrying about the carbs and getting high sugars since the insulin dosages seem to be hitting the mark. 90-130. That seems to be a good range for him right now to be operating in. Of course being the obsessive compulsive that I am I would love to hit 100, 100 percent of the time.
Good luck and happy eating for Colby!
Colbymama,
We had the same problem with E. We ended up on a plan that allows Ethan to as much as he wanted. They gave us an insulin to carb ratio. Say Ethan was going to eat 50 carbs. his insulin to carb ratio was 1 unit of insulin to 10 carbs so he would get five units for that meal. They also have correction factors for highs. It made it way easier and Ethan was much happier. The insulin carb ratio was just an example his was more like 1 to 15. Also made the adjustment to the pump easier. Ask about it at the next endo appt or giv them a call if things do not work out.
Also being you are so new I thought I would share with you something I learned along the way and was upset I did not know about it before. You may already know but there is a natural sweetner called stevia. Ethan often would not feel good after diet and artificial sweetened stuff, so I googled it and know we have no diet stuff in our house, But check it out for yourself. Coke and pepsi are suppose to be using soon too. (We are trying a no pop thing to) We get flavered stevia and add it to his water instead of the artifical ones. It is better for them. Also artifical sweetners make you crave carbs. This may help.
Thanks, yeah he seems to a bit better since they increased his carbs. I hope to be on the carb ratio soon since his numbers seem to be getting pretty level and in a good range now. I even think I need to back his NPH down a little that he takes with breakfast but that is an un-educated guess. Pumping is something I am definitely going to push for in about six months once he turns four.
So Stevia, I just bought a used low-carb baking and dessert cookbook on Friday and flipped through a noticed Stevia and thought, "What the heck is that?" So that helps a lot. And I did not know it came flavored, that is probably even better than sugar free Koolaid or Crystal Light all the time since he seems to not want water so much now.
Glad I was not the only one though with the initial hunger thing. I just thought, "My gosh, I am starving my kid!"
I know how you feel. My daughter is 8 and bless her heart she stays hungry all the time. She eats really good at meal times..but an hour later she is starving. It's really tough because you don't want to tell a growing child she is limited to food. She is starting on the pump this month..so I hope this will make it better for her.
Bonnie: What carb amounts is your daughter allowed?
It started out at like 60 at meals and 10-15 for snacks..that was us calculating and shots before she ate. Now we check her BG before she eats of course, but we wait to give her a shot after her meal. This way she can eat until she is full...which has helped alot!
After the meal...I have asked about that, but the endo said that will come later. If we are not on a pump by then :)
Good that there is some flexibility with this though because having them be so hungry all the time is not fun.
Hi. Any other suggestions for breakfast? My 3 year old daughter Sarah was diagnosed 3 months ago... and breakfast has been very diffiuclt to adjust because of the sugar overload on the body. She loves cereal and milk which I think it is too much for her body to handle in the a.m. The bs is very resistant in the a.m. to the insuline, so it takes her all morning to try and bring it down.
I know breakfast time can be difficult. Ashlyn for the most part eats pretty good, but there are some mornings that she will fight me on everything, and not want to eat. Which drives me up the wall because I don't wont my kids going to school without food. She loves Eggo waffles and we use sugar free syrup and cereal with cinnamin seems to help (like cinnamin toast crunch). She was diagnosed on 4/30/07 and we still try different foods to see what works best. I wish I could help more.
What kind of cereal is she eating and do you measure it out? Have you tried giving her insulin 15 minutes before she eats? so its already working before ? And i s she on a pump because if so you can do a dual wave bolus it works wonders!
Usually 1 cup. We try to find cereals with less sugar..No we haven't tried that but that is a good idea! Thanks
For me Cheerios is a killer...