My 10 year old son was diagnosed with Type 1 two weeks ago. Very overwhelmed and stressed, but things are getting better everyday.
Our main problem right now is figuring carbs for my recipes. I have been looking for a software program that will tell me the carb amounts for a specific serving size like 1 cup, not 1/6 of a recipe, but I don't seem to be having any luck. Any have any ideas?
If you're preparing the food the best way to track carbs is to total the carbs in the recipe and then figure out what a portion would be. Kind of a pain in the butt and it's not a perfect science, but over time you'll learn about how many units a particular meal contains. Frankly, I've been carb counting 20 years and still don't do it perfectly. But I'm close maybe 80% of the time. If it's food I eat a lot it's easy.
The best carb source I've found is a little book you can get at WalMart or any bookstore called "The Calorie King Guide to Calories, Fat and Carbohydrates." The are smartphone apps that are helpful too, like the Track 3 diabetes tracker ($6) or LoseIt! (free).
I'm sorry your son is having to go through this, but know that diabetes won't keep him from having a good life. Over time your son will figure out how to make diabetes fit into his life.
Also, next year try to find a diabetes summer camp in your area. Camp is a great chance to meet other kids with D and it will give you a break from managing his diabetes, which is important too.
Take care. -Jenna
We find this scale really helpful. It has the carbs for hundreds of foods. You could even weigh each ingredient and total up the carbs.
Some cookbooks have how many carbs are in a serving of a recipe, I know my mom's Betty Crocker one does. Also, if it says that there are X number of carbs in 1/6 of a recipe, you can multiply by 6 to get how many are in the whole dish, and then divide by the number of total cups. So if it was a quart casserole dish, there would be 4 cups, so divide the total amount of carbs by 4. For lasagna or pizza or something like that cut all even size pieces (it doesn't have to be perfect) and divide the total carbs for the dish by the number of pieces. It works pretty well. I also used a scale when I was starting out, and I probably still should. Mine didn't have a carb database, it just weighed the food, and I used the calorie king book, or the nutrition label to tell how many carbs/oz. With the favorite family meals, eventually you just figure out about how many units you need to cover it. It becomes second nature after awhile, and he'll pick up on it pretty quick too. Good Luck with everything, feel free to shoot me a message.
Rebecca
Hi MandyJo, My 13-year-old son was just diagnosed on 10/3 and today is our first day out of the hospital so I can definitely relate to the stress, and we are just beginning to figure out the carbs in family standards and looking for new things to help give a variety. I don't know about you but we went from devastated to, ok we have to learn this, to today when I'm personally feeling overwhelmed about the future, and I know I need to focus on 1 day at a time, just having a moment, lol. If you'd ever like to chat, just message. If I find any helpful resources other than what's been said, I'll pass it along too. Take care.