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Compare sugarfree and regular

People with Type 1 diabetes, especially children, do not need sugar free candy for Easter (or whenever). Sugar free usually has carbs and ANY carbs need insulin. The real deal is better tasting anyway.

Compare the following nutritional information for two of the same candies, one sugar free and one that is not.

Russell Stover SUGARFREE Toffee Squares

Nutrition Facts Calories 210(878 kJ)  % DV 1 Total Fat 16g 25% Sat. Fat 9g 45% Trans Fat 0g   Cholesterol 25mg 8% Sodium 140mg 6% Total Carbs. 24g 8% Dietary Fiber 1g 4% Sugars 0g   Protein 2g   Calcium 0mg

Russell Stover NOT sugar free REGULAR toffee squares

Nutrition Facts Calories 250(1045 kJ)  % DV 1 Total Fat 16g 25% Sat. Fat 10g 50% Trans Fat 0g   Cholesterol 20mg 7% Sodium 190mg 8% Total Carbs. 24g 8% Dietary Fiber 1g 4% Sugars 23g   Protein 2g   Calcium 40mg

As you can plainly see, the carb count is EXACTLY THE SAME  for both candies. Let me take a minute and explain why this is important. People with Type 1 diabetes count carbs to determine how much insulin they are required to take. We do not count sugars. We count carbs. Carbs are just one set of numbers that are constanly running through our minds.

Let me use my son as example to explain how his intake of carbs dictates the amount of insulin he receives. For breakfast my son gets 1 unit of insulin for every 21 carbs that he eats. So if he eats a bowl of Frosted Flakes, 28 carbs, and a mug of hot cocoa, 10 carbs, he will have eaten 38 carbs, so he will get just a little under 2 units of insulin for that meal.

Now lets look at the candy’s nutritional information above. My son gets 1 unit of insulin for 25 carbs for his afternoon snack. Let’s say today he asks for a piece of candy. Normally I don’t give any candy as a snack but for this fake example I am happy to give him candy. If my son eats one piece of SUGARFREE candy from above he would have eaten 24 carbs and would get .95 units of insulin. If my son eats one piece of NON sugarfree REGULAR candy from above he would have eaten 24 carbs and would still get .95 units of insulin.

See what I mean? A carb is a carb is a carb is what we say in this house. We have to cover carbs with insulin. Read the labels you will be surprised.

So this Easter, or Halloween, or Christmas, or Arbor Day, or whatever day, PLEASE do not give any child with Type 1 diabetes sugar free candy. Now you know it is not any better, it is not a free candy, it still needs to be covered with insulin. And if you are truthful, you know in your heart, the real deal takes much much better.

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Family disease

While there may be one or two people in your family with a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis, it affects every single person in that family. It becomes a family disease.

Ever since my son was diagnosed, I talk about his Type 1 diabetes in terms of we. When I mention checking his blood sugar in conversation I always say, ‘we check our sugar…” Of course, I am not physically checking my sugar every time he checks his, but in my own miniscule way, by saying we instead of he, I feel I am taking some of the weight of this disease off of my son’s shoulders. In a perfect world, I would take this disease from him and carry the burden all myself, but as I can’t do that, I share whatever part of this disease that I can.

It doesn’t stop with blood sugar checks either. I use the word we when talking about anything with diabetes. If my son’s insulin pump site needs to be changed rather quickly at school, I will grab my young daughter and tell her, “Hurry we need to go to school we need a site change.” Now my three year old (soon to be four) knows full well that she does not have Type 1 diabetes, yet she never questions why she should be included in this family site change. She knows we own this disease, it has become part of our family. We are a family with Type 1 diabetes.

This really hit home today when my daughter who does not have Type 1 diabetes read her brother’s meter. She asked what number was on the meter. I told her 123. She said in the sweetest three year old, soon to be four year old voice, “Oh, that’s a good number,” with a huge smile on her face. I didn’t know whether I would explode with pride over how bright and concerned she is regarding Type 1 diabetes, or whether I would fall to my knees gathering up the pieces of my broken heart realizing how smart and concerned she is regarding Type 1 diabetes.

I don’t check my sugar 12 times a day like my son.
I don’t give myself insulin every single time I eat a carb.
I don’t get shaky when my number drops too low.
I don’t get cranky when my number is too high.

None of these things happen to me because I don’t have Type 1 diabetes. All of these happen to my son, he’s the hero living with and defeating Type 1 diabetes everyday. He’s the one, yet since that fateful day in July of 2007, the day Type 1 diabetes bombarded our home, it became part of all of us. No one else in our home has Type 1 diabetes, but in reality we all have it. It is our family disease.

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Ala Dirty Dancing.

Care of type 1 diabetes cannot be put on the back burner regardless of illness, stress or excitement.

Did you ever have such a bad cold that you just wanted to drink NyQuil and go straight to bed for 8 hours?
Have you ever had such a great time at the beach that you forgot to eat lunch?
Has something so important been on your mind that you just walk for hours to clear your head?

This sense of abandonment, where you can just forget about your life for a while, cannot happen when you are the caregiver of a child living with Type 1 diabetes, or an adult living with Type 1. Sure, you can forget, or pretend to forget, about diabetes for chunks of hours at a time. You can go from breakfast to lunch, on a good day, without worrying about a low or high, but that’s about it. You can’t go much longer without remembering that you are resposible for taking care of someone with diabetes. Never can you go eight hours at the beach just running on pure fun and energy. The fun and energy are certainly still there, but so is diabetes and defintely blood glucose checks…they will not be put in the corner.

Today we went to an Easter Egg hunt at the beach. It was fantastic. Great weather. Tons of excitement. Millions, or what felt like millions, of kids. Even more parents. Buckets. Sand. Eggs. Shovels. Blood Glucose meters. Candy for lows. Wait. What? You mean you didn’t bring your glucose meter to your egg hunt. Well, we did. We bring it everywhere. Type 1 diabetes doesn’t care that we are at an egg hunt with millions of kids having a blast digging in the sand for eggs. Type 1 diabetes doesn’t care that egg hunting is a 1,000 year old tradition from back when they didn’t even know what Type 1 diabetes was.

Type 1 diabetes doesn’t care, but I do. That’s why I no longer fret that even with the cold of the Century, I will still not get to down that NyQuil and savor the uninterrupted sleep of younger days, I will be up every 4 hours to check my boy’s sugar while he gets the rest he needs.

That is why at the beach, while my boy runs around with sand in his hair and a smile on his face, I will be cleaning a finger every few hours to check his sugar to make sure eveything is ok on the inside too.

That is why no matter how much I want to grab a few books and find a small coffee shop where I could read for hours and hours drinking myself into a caffeine haze, I don’t, type 1 diabetes is why I won’t.

Type 1 diabetes doesn’t care, but I do.