November 14, 2005
Meal Planning, Food and Diet
Question from Wethersfield, Connecticut, USA:
My daughter is nine and was diagnosed early last year. She’s currently taking Lantus/NovoLog and will move to the pump next year due to an 8.2 A1c that won’t come down. Our concern is her diet. She tends to eat the same foods each day without much variety. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of “healthy” foods that she likes. She tends to ask for a lot of processed foods, such as crackers or things of that nature, drinks a lot of milk, and would eat natural peanut butter and sugar free jelly for lunch and dinner, if we’d let her. I’ve looked all over the Internet to see if there are suggested nutrition plans for kids with type 1 diabetes that contain actual food suggestions and can’t seem to find anything. I would appreciate any help you could provide or sites you could direct us to.
Answer:
I would suggest you contact a registered dietitian who specializes in diabetes meal planning. He/she can develop an individualized meal plan for your daughter that will incorporate healthy food choices. Some of the foods that you listed can actually be worked into a meal plan without compromising blood sugar control. Ask your physician if you need a referral to a registered dietitian. A good web site I would recommend in the meantime is Mypyramid.gov. This web site has some good meal planning and activity based tools to assist with meal planning.
JMS
