Tuesday, August 30, 2011



We're in the process of testing out a quite rigid routine of eating with Reubs (and the other kids) in hopes of lowering his hba1c.  I guess what it boils down to is if the tools we have arent working out, and weve done our best, then its off to the pump.    Its hard because the child has so many hypos, you'd think his overall measures would be lower.   This truly is the best course of action, for Reuben, my fears and reservations aside, he learns better and behaviourly a treasure -  when hes in range.

Hubby discussed with the endo actually getting fast tracked through another hospital, and being slightly out of pocket, we could be pumping within 4 weeks if we say the word.   SO- Im working on a plan of 12 weeks of this strict living (probably easy and normal for alot of you, but a learning curve for me and my crew!).

Thanks for your comments on my last post, its the push I needed to get moving.    So tell me what you think of this idea.   Reubs is 15kg (33lbs for you in pound-land), so he needs roughly 500cals a day(?) well, thats what Im working with anyway.

That equates to (another rough) estimate of 60grams of carbohydrates spread out over a day.  Im thinking to make it easy to start just give the main meals 15g each, 1 serve, and see how he goes actually digesting this food.   I think this part will be challenging.  He loves to play with food stuffs so it could be disastrous.   But hey, I gotta try.

Then Ive (on paper) allocated 7gram snacks to morning tea, arvo tea, and supper I imagine these ones to be easily done as its part of his grazing habit now.   So thats a grand total of 45 grams at mains and 21 grams at snacks equalling 66grams for the day.

Im testing out an I:C ratio of 1u NR: 2serves of carbs.    Our correction factor seems right on for now, so im leaving that as 1/2 u NR reduces blood glucose by 4mmol/l.   Sick of the sliding scale system!  

6 comments:

  1. You CAN do this... Cut out the potatos and bread, eat lots of meat. We had meatloaf last night(Justin doesn't eat potatos) so he had zero carbs for dinner. Eggs and bacon for breakfast. Pepperoni with melted motzerella cheese on top for snack. Get your carbs from your veggies and splurge once a week so you don't go crazy. You've got his girl!!!

    How low do they want it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. When Joe was young...his dinner carbs was his glass of milk. I would serve meats and veggies with it...it definitely helped the crazy numbers become less crazy.

    Keep at it. You are doing great Jules.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We've been cutting carbs here too. Though still need my carbs to some extent. We're getting more and more creative with recipes and snacks. Hope all works out well for you guys!!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hoping this all goes well for you guys Jules! You can do this! You are a fantastic Momma and it sounds like you have a great plan going on!

    ReplyDelete
  5. so, I don't believe you should limit carbs, but I do limit difficult carbs...what I mean by this is figure out which foods are more straight forward to bolus for and which cause trouble. For us foods with high fat and dairy are more trouble than foods that are just high in carbs. For example if Isaac only has meat, cheese and pickles his BG will still spike, but it's a more difficult spike to get down, almost like the fat in the foods take a while to digest and then BAMMO...so for us we try to really balance everything and that works better, so if he has meat and cheese he also needs to have something that is a faster acting carb or he'll go low first then really high later. When we do it this way we can give a bit more insulin and not worry about that low that we were seeing so often. For us it seems that there is this roller coaster that happens with too little carbs.
    We don't go haywire with carbs, but I try not to think "oh, he can't have this because it has carbs,"(not saying this is what you're planning on doing) instead I try to think about how his body will react to the food and if it is too difficult at that time of day to cover with insulin or if it'll be okay. Does that make sense? For example macaroni and cheese is only allowed at lunchtime, the fat spike cause by it is diminished by his afternoon activity. I:C ratios are hugely different at breakfast than dinner for this reason, too...his digestion at breakfast seems to be slower so he gets almost double the insulin at that time of day than night.
    I have no idea how to do this on syringes, just what is currently working for us. I think the best part Jules is knowing that together your family can make a difference because you want to do it together. ((Hugs)) and I am still glad you're not a chicken!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hope your changes work out for you!
    Do you want me to post those recipes here or do you have an email address that I could send them to? There is a strawberry jam/ pear jam/ and apple butter that sounds like it would work for your fundraiser..and use up what you have on hand...the strawberry jam will even use some of your lemon for juice :)

    ReplyDelete