Counting Carbs At Our House

The first meal I cooked for Matthew after he was diagnosed with diabetes left me shaking in my Texas boots!

It was his favorite: tortellini.  (I know---clearly I had lost my mind!)  Our CDE suggested we stick with easy meals at first and I should have listened.

By the time I cooked the pasta, calculated the carbs, measured it out, checked his BG and gave the shot of insulin, I was a nervous wreck!  It was the most stressful meal I had ever made in my life!!

We're 2 years into Type 1 now and while we're definitely in a groove, I want to know how other families handle meals.  


Here's a sneak peak into what dinner looks like around here.  

Our 4-Step Process

1. About 15 minutes before dinner, I'll call Matthew to check his sugar. 
2. We'll discuss the menu.
3. He'll decide how much he wants to eat (we write that down) and he'll count the carbs.
4. He'll bolus the full amount. Sometimes he'll stay and help me dish everything up. He might measure out peas or fruit.  Sometimes I do all of it..

A Couple Notes

• After eating dinner, occasionally he'll want more food.  He just boluses again at that point, but most of the time it's done up front.
• If his sugar is high, I'll try to delay dinner.  
• If he's low, he might wait and bolus right as we sit down to eat.
• I'm a big believer in pre-bolusing, so we do that as much as possible. (This leads to my question below...)

At a Buffet Restaurant or Party

In these situations, I love for him to pre-bolus about 50 carbs.  Then he'll fix his plate and keep track as he eats more.  He'll keep bolusing as necessary.

Sometimes he'll just dish up his food, count the carbs and bolus per plate. (This is my big question: Do you handle all meals like this, instead of bolusing up front?)

One Last Note

When eating at home, we try to be as exact as possible with the carb count.  We weigh or measure every single bite that Matthew eats.

I find this gives us more freedom when we eat out.  We just SWAG and feel more relaxed about it.

Please share what dinner looks like at your house.  I'd love to see other perspectives and get some tips!  And if you decide to write your own post, let me know and I'll link to you.

A Cupcake: What would you have done?

Last Wednesday, Matthew had been running high all day.  Mid 200's at every check. Pretty rare for him, but I wasn't too concerned.

That night we went to church and at the end, they passed out cupcakes.  Matthew said he wanted to eat his in the car on the way home.

We checked his BG and he was 362.

Not ideal for a cupcake.

But thankfully, Matthew stepped right up and said he didn't mind waiting until the next day.  He really wasn't hungry and that was okay.

(((This was where I started thanking the Lord!  Matthew's attitude was a huge blessing!)))

What mother wants to deny her kid a cupcake?  But should you sometimes?  Probably....

So...would you have let him eat the cupcake?

How do you handle those situations where you don't want your child to feel different?  Isn't his emotional health as important as his physical health?

A couple months ago, we did tell Matthew to let us know if something is really important to him.  On those occasions, we've agreed that if at all possible, we'll let him have "whatever" as long as he doesn't abuse that privilege.

But if this had been one of those times, oh it would have been really hard to let him eat a cupcake with a BG that high!

How Matthew Handles Diabetes Questions

Sometimes Matthew doesn't like it when people ask about his pod, so he decided to make a video and explain how he handles it.

Sidenote:  He was inspired by Mike Lawson and his fantastic videos.  Keep it up, Mike!  Your GrEaT attitude about diabetes is inspiring to everyone.  Even my 11-year-old son.  Thank you!

Enjoy!  (And please disregard the mess in the kitchen.  I was in the middle of wrapping Christmas presents when Matthew's inspiration hit!  : )

PLEASE Give Me Your Tips

How in the world do you keep up with social media without spending your life on the computer?

Seriously, I need help.

I want help!

With all my heart, I want to keep up with everyone's blogs, but sometimes life gets in the way.  Still....this is important to me so I want to figure it out.

I know some of you have this down to a science.

You know who you are...you mascara wearing, princess-loving, candy-heart, Lawton owning, stiletto heel-loving d-moms....just off the top of my head.

I beg you!  Share your secrets!

I don't want to spend my life on the computer!

Pizza and Ice Cream Question

So we went to a birthday party Friday night.  First they served pizza.  Not a big problem for us---I've got that down pat!  : )
I did our usual extended. (70/30 3 hours)  Matthew enjoyed the pizza.

Then....they served ice cream.  Ummm...still working on that, but it involves another extended. (25/75 4 hours)

The pod can only do ONE extended at a time.  Not sure about other pumps.

I had NO IDEA what to do.  Can't tell you how long I just stared at that PDM...totally perplexed.

Here's what I finally went with:  I looked to see what was left to be delivered from the pizza extended.  Hmmm.....55 I think.

Then I cancelled that extended.  Started a new one for the ice cream and added half a unit to that.

He did go low (60s) a bit later, but he caught it and recovered nicely.  Rest of the night went great.

Is there a better way to handle this?  (Thanks in advance!)