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5 years of infertility

9 months of a high risk pregnancy

2 perfect boys (at the same time)

1 heart failure

1 type 1 diabetes diagnosis

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I am a stay at home mom who is raising twins. One of my guys has type 1 diabetes and one does not. I am writing this blog to unite type 1 parents or twin parents. Comment on my posts or in the "what's your high?" and "what's your low?" to join the community of parents just trying to do the best we can!

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4/17/12

Healthy Snacks List

Let's face it. Cooking is annoying! Coming up with delicious, nutritious meals that everyone likes is daunting! The only thing worse than cooking meals is concocting great snacks!

Creating a yummy snack for a kid like Rocco who has diabetes is mind bending.  Of course, as I’ve said before, Type 1 diabetics CAN eat everything. They just need to give themselves enough insulin to offset their intake of carbohydrates.  But, in reality, SHOULD they eat everything? No.

A cupcake with frosting is not as healthy for Rocco as carrots sticks. True. But this is also true for all children (and all people).  The difference is, when you feed a child with diabetes a high-carb food, you see the effects of it in an increase in blood sugar within an hour or two, creating a significant health issue. You can physically see the impact.  However, if you give a child without diabetes the same cupcake, the only visible impact is the obnoxious sugar-high behavior that follows! You see this too but just in a different way. Either way, the cupcake is not a good idea! So, we try and avoid it.

I try, and try being the operative word here, to avoid almost all sugary sweet treats. I usually do my best to just not buy them or have them in the house. Sometimes, tempting treats just call my name in the grocery store. Even if i hide them in the back of the cupboard for Michael and I, the two bloodhounds sometimes sniff them out. 

So, it makes it weird because you have two little faces staring at you asking you for the treat. One of which I would give without even blinking but the other I have to protect.  His body just works harder to process it. It gets "sticky". 

Most days Zeke just goes with what is put in front of him but some days he just wants ice cream! Of course, once he asks, Rocco starts in too. So then I see two little faces in front of me and I cave.



 Not supposed to cave but I do. I give the correct amount of insulin and then I wait. While I wait to see how this surge of sugar will affect my kids, I usually pray. Asking for any divine intervention I can get!  Then while I wait for the prayer to be heard, I yell at them to go play outside and burn some of it off! Your mom probably didn't know the entire reason she was sending you out to play after a sugary treat but exercise does help bring down the blood sugar faster than watching SpongeBob. Another reason to be in aww of your mom! 

This daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly back and forth game I play in my mind is daunting. There are times while I am mentally on this diabetes "diet" that I burn out. I get sick of creating healthy snacks. I forget all of the foods that have less than 10 carbs and I default to some processed snack hat is easier to just cut open and receive two smiles back.  Cheese (any)
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Sugar-free jello
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Johsonville turkey sticks
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Sausages
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Cheese sticks
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Turkey bacon
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Deli meat wrapped around a cheese stick and microwaved
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Bacon bit, hard boiled egg and cucumber salad
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Pickles
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Kroger Carb-Master yogurt (4 carbs)
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Snow cones made with sugar free syrup
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Popsicles (sugar free)
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Pepperoni
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Beef jerky
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Tuna salad
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Chicken salad
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SalamiSausage nibbles
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Cauliflower cooked then puréed with butter cream and salt. Mmmm! Tastes like mashed potatoes
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Any veggies cooked or raw
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Popcorn
Cinnamon or Cocoa roasted almonds
Diet juice
Any meat cooked not rawVienna sausages
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Pork rinds
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Fresh mozzarella
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Cottage cheese
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Pickled green beans
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Red, orange and yellow bell peppers
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Ham-wrapped pickles
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Olives
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Almonds
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Most nuts
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Frozen cool whip
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Fish
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Celery with cream cheese
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Scrambled eggs with cheese
(disclaimer: make sure you look at all of the serving sizes and carb counts on the packages. If it says 3 carbs per one serving, make sure you only serve one.)

So, I hope this helps! If we have missed anything, please include your ideas in the comments section below the post.

On a side note, I found another great product for breakfast cinnamon butter. Nutrigrain eggo waffles and Thomas's English Muffins work well for Rocco in the mornings. But, unfortunately, most things that go on these (syrups, jellies, etc.) spike his blood sugar.  The cinnamon butter only has 4 carbs for 1tablespoon and usually I smear on maybe ½ tablespoon. So I am not even sure it gets up to two carbs. Also, cinnamon helps maintain even blood sugar - bonus! Hope you like it as much as Rocco and I do!



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Hot dogs

However, even though I burn out, I can not stay in that space. For the immediate and long term consequences of the health of both my guys, I have to pull myself out of the burn out. I have to stand up, go to the grocery store, come home and cut up the fruit. Cut up the vegatables and have the lunch meat ready to go. 

This week, I decided that making list to post in my cupboard would be a great way to remind myself of all of the healthy foods I should be serving. I also printed it off to put in my purse to use at the grocery store. 

I came up with a list of 23 things but then I decided to reach out to my friends. I belong to a couple of Facebook groups for parents of children with diabetes. I asked them what is your child's favorite "free food"? In the diabetic community, a free food is a low carb food. It usually contains no more than 5 carbs. Usually kids can have this many carbs and it will have only minimal effects on their blood sugar. A cupcake usually has about 35 of all the wrong kind of carbs! So we try to include as many of these free-food snacks as we can.

I wanted a make a list that you could post in your cupboard, to reference before going to the grocery store or anytime your kid is starving with a blood sugar in the 300’s. Even if your child does not have diabetes, feel free to use this list for them too! Or for yourself- what the heck! 

As always, my Facebook friends came through with an overwhelming response! Thanks everyone for helping the masses! Here is the list of their favorite "free foods" -

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1 comment:

Shelley said...

Ihop makes a GREAT sugar-free syrup that can be found in the local grocery store. It's only 5 carbs per 1/4 cup (plenty for 2 waffles). All the other sugar-free syrups we tried were just runny and tasted like water splenda, this actually tastes so much like regular syrup that neither of my daughter's could tell a difference.