We know (or can imagine) how shocking it is to come home from the hospital with a new diagnosis and all the rituals that come with it. In addition to the new pokes and prods for your child, there is also a new understanding of how different foods affect your child’s blood sugar. It’s not enough to get the ratios right, you have to consider the food’s glycemic index, the activity of the day, the fat content, possibly subtracting for fiber… it can be daunting. But when you travel and are staying with friends or family, the burden is shared. For those that are hosting a diabetic for the first time, it can be overwhelming for them too if they are unsure of what to expect or if they are unsure of how to prepare for your family’s new set of needs.
As much as I want to be flexible during our visit, diabetes is still pretty new, and we are very new to the pump. Knowing our families very much want to have the necessities on hand and prepare similar meals to what has been proven effective at home, we decided to write out a detailed letter of our expectations and desires. They were very grateful to know how to grocery shop and menu plan before our arrival. Below is my letter; if you are travelling with a type 1 diabetic and need to communicate your needs to family, feel free to use it as a starting point to personalize for yourself.
Hi moms,
Wanted to give you guys a little advance notice of what is necessary and/or helpful to have on hand during our visit and what type of foods make life a little easier.
We obviously will be bringing all of Ada’s medical supplies. We’re on pump and dexcom, and occasional finger sticks. If a pump were to fail or Ada was to get sick, we would need to switch to injections again and need access to a sharp’s container… milk jug, mason jar, or the plastic jugs for liquid laundry detergent all work so think of what you can save for that purpose.
The most important thing that we need is fast acting carbs for lows. Juice is the easiest. Juice boxes/pouches with around 15 carbs are optimal; Ada’s favorite is capri suns. For stubborn lows or when we’re entering a night on the low side we like to have fairlife chocolate milk on hand. It has an equal number carbs and proteins so it’s really good at maintaining blood sugar. Most grocery stores have it so I doubt you’ll have trouble finding it, but there are other high protein milk brands out there if so.
Ada tends to eat a lower carb breakfast: Avocado toast with egg and bacon on it, eggs, bacon & toast, sometimes a breakfast sandwich, things like that. She can do things like waffles and such as a special treat, but we still try to pair it with a protein. Often times she doesn’t have more than 15 carbs for breakfast, rarely over 25. The younger two eat cereal a lot of mornings still, and it doesn’t make Ada jealous in the least.
For lunch and dinner, her target is 35-45 carbs, sometimes she goes up to 70 or so, but we try to not go much over that for a meal because it gets a lot harder to dose accurately. Sara Lee Delightful bread is a little lower carb/higher fiber, so we keep that on hand, but we’re branching out with breads and having success so it’s certainly not necessary.
I would not consider us a low carb family, but we certainly are a carb conscious family. Not all carbs are created equal so I’ll speak a little to “culprit” foods that cause huge spikes. Rice, potatoes, and pasta are foods that we still eat, but we know will often cause huge spikes, so we try to eat smaller amounts and not very often. Barilla veggie pasta is a better pasta option for Ada it seems. High fat foods cause insulin resistance, so we try to plan ahead and save those foods for high activity days; examples would be pizza, enchiladas, fried foods and cream-based dishes. The one food that I would ask just not be offered at all is donuts. There is never carb information so it’s a total stab in the dark as to how to dose. She ends up going super high or super low, and it never seems worth it.
In general, we have to carb count breads and other starches, fruit, sweets, sauces, and dairy. Meat, vegetables, and cheese/fats are “free.” A meat, vegetable, and rolls is always a safe option for dinner. Soups, wraps, turkey burgers fajitas, and tacos are staples around here as well.
Christmas wouldn’t be the same without the cookies and baked goods. We want her to still be a kid of course, and we’ll just dose accordingly. We have a food scale to measure foods when we don’t know the exact carb count (ex. neighbor brings cookies,) but if you make something, just save the recipe for me and the total servings made, and I can do the math to figure out the carbs fairly precisely. For store bought breads, and baked goods, we try to get foods with nutrition information for the convenience of it, but when it’s not available, we just rely on the food scale.
We pre-bolus 10-15 minutes before every meal so that takes a little bit of getting used to. The other two know that if Ada has to wait, they have to wait. The rules don’t change for Christmas.
I know I just dumped a lot of information on you, but we figured you’d find the information useful. We’re going to get better at dosing all different types of foods so we’ll have fewer restrictions for future visits. We SO look forward to seeing you! Let me know if I missed anything or if you have questions.
Love,
Jill
I hope you found this letter helpful if you are needing to write your own. When writing to family about preparing for an upcoming visit, make sure to include the following information: low snacks to have on hand, any medical supplies you’d like them to have, carb free snacks your child likes (especially if the child is MDI,) and any dietary needs or requests for the various meals and snacks.
We are so grateful for our families’ support and are so eager to visit in just a few short days!