November 28, 2000
Meal Planning, Food and Diet
Question from Oxford, Michigan, USA:
My two year old daughter was diagnosed five months ago with type 1 diabetes. We are doing reasonably well. She is doing much better than we are! Do you have any tips on surviving the holidays? Short of avoiding family get-togethers and parties, I am not sure what to do to avoid difficult situations for our little one. She isn’t quite old enough to understand why all of the other kids are eating goodies and she can’t.
Answer:
I’m a bit concerned that you have been told that your daughter can’t eat sweets. With carbohydrate counting, there is no such thing as a forbidden food. Once you know how many carbohydrates are in the foods your daughter wishes to eat, she can be at parties and eat the foods that she would have before she was diagnosed with diabetes. I strongly encourage you to meet with a dietitian as soon as possible to review this issue.
JWB
