My almost 13 year old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 11, and we still have not been able to get his readings leveled. He ranges from 4.0-19.0 mmol/L [72-342 mg/dl], and sometimes even higher. Instead of constantly increasing his insulin dosages, why can’t we just reduce his carbs?

There is no reason you cannot have the option of cutting back on carbs or increasing his insulin to compensate for values that are too high. You should discuss this with your diabetes treatment team to get their advice and more specific guidance. We teach people to do this all the time and have written about this system in Diabetes Spectrum in 1997 or so.

SB

[Editor’s comment: Just be sure that you don’t need to do this too often and that your son is receiving adequate intake to maintain normal growth and development. The only other issue I see is that withholding food if your son is hungry could potentially lead to sneaking food and/or an eating disorder. I would be careful if you choose to use this approach.

SS]