So a week from today my daughter and I are going on her 6th grade camping trip to Sly Park. I was already prepared for watching her like a hawk because of the hiking and different activities, but now I've heard that altitude can affect bloodsugars. I read through some previous posts, and it seems rather split as to whether the altitude makes blood sugars higher or lower. Any suggestions on how to handle? I will (obviously) be toting a backpack full of snackfoods, applejuice, lots of water, etc. But if she's likely to be low, maybe I should adjust her basal down just a bit the day of? I'll be asking her nurse about this tomorrow as well, but thought someone here might have had this experience.
My other worry is the food. School food, in my experience, is the opposite of nutritious. The last time we let Sarah eat a school lunch - and she bolused according to the nutritional menu provided by the school district - she was 350 about two hours after lunch. I called the camp (it's a year round school camp) kitchen today and the kitchen manager is emailing me a menu, but even she said I shouldn't take the carbs on the menu as reality and should figure it out myself. So really? I'm like supposed to look up each individual item and take it off her plate and weigh it or something? Sheesh... If the school district's carb count is so off that I can't rely on it, what the heck is the point of providing it in the first place?!?
Okay, done ranting. Would love some advice. I want her to have a perfectly wonderful time and not end up sick...
Carry lots of snacks for your daughter like granola bars, chips, cookies, etc. i know its not the best nutrition for your daughter but when my mom went with me on trips like that, not only am i picky about foods that they served but my bgs kept dropping and it got cold, and the kitchen was closed sometimes, so i suggest carrying lots of snacks and all.
I've heard high altitudes can make BG's go up if you're not used to it, but maybe all the hiking would cancel that out? All you can really do in these cases is test A LOT b/c you just don't know what will happen, but it sounds like you're well prepared!
Carry lots of snacks for your daughter like granola bars, chips, cookies, etc. i know its not the best nutrition for your daughter but when my mom went with me on trips like that, not only am i picky about foods that they served but my bgs kept dropping and it got cold, and the kitchen was closed sometimes, so i suggest carrying lots of snacks and all.
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Yep, planning on this! I'm actually driving instead of taking the bus with the kids so I'll be able to tote a lot of food, water, supplies for her.
I've heard high altitudes can make BG's go up if you're not used to it, but maybe all the hiking would cancel that out? All you can really do in these cases is test A LOT b/c you just don't know what will happen, but it sounds like you're well prepared!
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I've heard that too, but when she went to the diabetic Kaiser camp last year (which is at a similar elevation), they gave her practically no insulin for the two days she was there. Of course, I'm sure the food was a lot more nutritious than what she'll get from the school district. You know that one day a week the menu includes a main dish of Nachos (just chips with cheese) and the kids can choose goldfish crackers as a side? Isn't that insane?
I suppose I'll just be prepared to do a lot of adjusting while we're there.
Holy Moly... I just got the menu from Sly Park and it's insane. Sarah usually has about 40-60 carbs per meal. There are SO many carbs in this menu! Not only that, but they don't give you the serving size, so it's going to be really hard to figure out what her actual carbs are, because I know there are items in nearly every meal she won't eat. Wednesday's dinner tops out at 159 carbs! Yikes!
I so know what you mean! We battled for two weeks with my Daughters middle school to get the carb counts and when we finally go them the top of the sheet said "These are estimated Carb Counts" so as I reviewed the counts I noticed they had a side salad on the menu with 52 carbs and a Cesare salad with 1.9. Well needless to say I called the company to speak with the person in charge of the counts and that was 2 weeks ago and no one from the company ever called me back. The food served in schools scare me. One reason her sugars could be high is the high levels of fat in the food. The fat can slow down the digestion of the sugars for several hours. Maybe talk your health care team and see if they can give you some advice as to extending her bolus if she is on a pump or breaking up the dose if she is on shots. We found this to help with high fatty food.
Holy Moly... I just got the menu from Sly Park and it's insane. Sarah usually has about 40-60 carbs per meal. There are SO many carbs in this menu! Not only that, but they don't give you the serving size, so it's going to be really hard to figure out what her actual carbs are, because I know there are items in nearly every meal she won't eat. Wednesday's dinner tops out at 159 carbs! Yikes!
Now I'm really freaking out.
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Would she be totally angry and embarrassed if you sent low-carb supplemental food. Like, she'd eat half of their meal and the rest what you gave her... That, or she'll just have to keep up with the hiking!
My dietitian told me I should have 163 grams of carbs a day. One meal?? That's crazy!
Would she be totally angry and embarrassed if you sent low-carb supplemental food. Like, she'd eat half of their meal and the rest what you gave her... That, or she'll just have to keep up with the hiking!
My dietitian told me I should have 163 grams of carbs a day. One meal?? That's crazy!
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Fortunately no. She's such a great kid. After a couple of bad experiences with school food she was completely fine with going back to home-made lunches. I usually let her choose snacks, and she's always made good food choices. I plan to bring lots of supplemental snacks and fruit and such. Fortunately I am going with her, so I can manage her food. A lot of the items on the menu I know she won't want to eat anyway, so I'll probably bring a bunch of tuna packets. She absolutely loves those, so we reserve them for "special occasions"...
Well, we made it back to civilization with no catastrophies! Hooray! Actually, things went better than I expected. Sarah had SO much fun! We did a lot of hiking.
On the second day we took a two mile hike; pretty much a mile straight down and a mile straight up. I wasn't sure I was gonna make it. That was the first time we had a minor issue. We got down to the creek (a mile down), and I asked Sarah to test before we began the climb back up. Before we left, I turned her basal off for four hours and I'd reduced her breakfast insulin as well. Anyway, she reaches into her bag, and her test kit isn't there. She left it back on the breakfast table!!! So I just had her eat 15 grams (cheezits) and we walked back up. She tested at the end at 90. Whew...
On the third night I let her eat an apple during some carnival games and I didn't have my carb book with me so I underestimaed a little. She was slightly high at 8:30 (snack time), so I gave her a snack and a correction, but reduced the correction a bit. Anyway, tested her at 9:30 and she was 99 - which is a little low to let her go to bed. But she'd just eaten, so I figured it would be on the way up. So I turned her basal down again. I went in and tested her again at 10:00, and she was 68! Yikes! So I made her eat another batch of crackers (she really didn't want juice and I relented). I tested her again about 20 minutes later and she was 44! Double Yikes! This time I made her drink the juice and she finally started coming back up. I had her sleep with me the rest of the night just to be safe. The biggest issue with her nighttime low was that she said she didn't feel it at all.
Her 7 day average is lower, 107 (it was 122 last week), but that still seems pretty good. She went below 80 a few times, but usually was in the high 70's and we corrected quickly. Overall, considering how new we are at this and that we've never had experience with these types of activities over an extended period, I'm pretty darn pleased with how things turned out!