Never a Normal Breakfast For My Daughter Who Has Type 1 Diabetes

This morning Madison asked me if she could have a Nutrigrain bar for breakfast. Her baby sister wanted one, why not her? I took a deep breath, dreading having to have this conversation and said, "That's a lot of carbs (24 to be exact) that most likely won't fill your belly." She frowned and then said, "Yea, your right." I've found Nutrigrain bars to be a great snack, but not to be very filling for a kid for breakfast, unless you eat two to three of them.

Every day Madison wakes up acting and being a normal kid. But as soon as she walks down the stairs for breakfast everything changes. See, she can't walk down the stairs without her blood glucose meter in hand and also her CGM (continuous glucose monitor). If she does, she can't eat until she gets it.

Before every meal and, every snack, Madison needs to check her blood glucose level. And if it's less than 225, she can have a kid-friendly 75 carb breakfast like pancakes and waffles and cereal. We've found that if she eats more than 75 carbs at a meal, she ends up getting a really bad headache, and even sometimes a stomach ache. If it's between 225 and 250, she can only have 50 carbs. And if it's over 250, she gets about 10 carbs and the rest has to be carb free.

My goal is to help Madison be as healthy as she can be and to live a long and healthy life. When her blood glucose is over 250 and she eats more than 10 carbs, her blood glucose shoots over 300. This to me is very unhealthy.

I'm very open to Madison on why she can't eat certain foods at certain times. She gets it. But not without a depressed face, which breaks my heart.

So this morning, with a blood glucose of 192, instead of a Nutrigrain bar, she had a bowl of cereal with milk and some blueberries added (55 carbs) and a side of strawberries and blueberries (15 carbs) = 70 carb breakfast.

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How To Manage Your Child's Type 1 Diabetes During A Basketball Tournament

We won! My nine year old daughter's U10 Girls Basketball Team won their tournament! They are the Charlotte Mecklenburg champions! And my daughter made two amazing baskets, which looked easy during the game, but truthfully hadn't been easy during the season because of her type 1 diabetes.

 

 

Figuring out her best blood sugar level for each of my daughter's sports hasn't been easy. For softball her blood sugar level seemed to work well in the low 200's. Soccer the same. And, I actually thought it was also a perfect number for basketball. But yesterday's basketball championship game proved me wrong.

Every game this basketball season, Madison's blood sugar has stayed steady in the low 200's. Usually around 211 - 226. And we worked hard to get it to that level by making sure she didn't eat certain foods such as pizza, meatball sub, pasta, rice, or a bagel before a game. Those foods keep her blood sugar high for a longer period of time, where she has a harder time focusing and concentrating.

During the game's, Madison appeared fine, blocking shots and trying to make shots. Every so often she would have a delayed response or a puzzled look on her face. I wondered if it was due to her blood sugar (type 1 diabetes) or her not understanding the play. But after yesterday's game, where her blood sugar was 126 at the start of the game, I'm starting to think her puzzled looks and inability to think quick on the basketball court had to do with her blood sugar being too high for this sport.

Madison was like a totally new basketball player on the court yesterday. She was leaping out of no where for the ball. She took shots and even got two in. I was so proud of her, yet so disappointed in myself that she played the entire basketball season with a blood sugar that was too high for her to really perform at her best. My husband and I have kept it higher, fearing it would drop fast and then she'd crash. I hate seeing her shake and her face turn pale when her blood sugar is low. It's scary for her and me. So keeping it higher is a much more comfortable zone for us. At least, I thought. But now I know differently.

Fastpitch U10 softball tryouts are this weekend. And I'm coaching, which gives me the opportunity to be hands on with her type 1 diabetes and do some trial and error. I'm going to try to keep her blood sugar around 130 - 150 for all games. I know that won't be possible all the time; especially because she always seems to go through growth spurts during the spring season and the heat causes her blood sugar to increase, forcing me to make lots of changes to her insulin levels. But I'm not giving up! And I hope every parent who has a child with type 1 diabetes doesn't give up too!

We as parents of children living with type 1 diabetes have a responsibility to teach your child how to eat properly and manage their disease so they can perform at their best academically, intellectually, and athletically now and continue into their adult age.

What I learned:

• Don't feed the disease.
• High carb foods like pizza, fried rice, pasta, and a bagel keep my daughters blood sugar high too long, causing her to not be able to perform at her best in school and sports.
• A blood sugar of 126 worked amazing for my daughter during her basketball tournament. Of course, I was nervous the entire time, wondering if her blood sugar was dipping below 100. It didn't!
• After a sports game, parents need to keep a close eye on their child's blood sugar because it takes hours for it to become stable again. In fact, last night, after my daughters basketball game (4:30 pm), we checked her blood sugar and it was 90, so we fed her dinner. At 8:15 pm it was 227.  I knew it was going to drop a little more, so I didn't treat it. At 11:00 pm, my husband checked her blood sugar and it was 60. He had to wake her up and give her a juice and a few peanut butter crackers.