Question from California, USA:

Ever since my daughter was diagnosed about a year ago with type 1 diabetes, I’ve been told differently from hospital to clinic on her diet. At the hospital they said she was forbidden to eat all sodium, MSG, syrups had to be sugar free, no cakes, etc. Then at the clinic I was told she can have things like cakes and ice cream occasionally and to stick with what the hospital says and no fruit juice unless she had low blood sugars. If she was to have ice cream and juice, it was to be about once a month. Then months later I was told to use Splenda and make her own replacement cake for parties we would attend.

Now we went to a clinic at a different location (keep in mind this is all the same HMO-the referral was made by her doctor), so we’re back to the people we first saw. Now that the diet came up, they said she can eat anything a normal six-year-old can eat, and even have juice and everything containing sugar and corn syrup. So now we are thrown for a loop. We don’t want to do the wrong thing and give her sweets even occasionally that will eventually give her long term side effects. With all the conflicting advice we don’t know what to believe.