by Ashley Harris
You are sitting in a hospital.
You’ve just received, quite possibly, the most devastating news of your life thus far. You are being told that your child, the person who possesses your entire heart, has a chronic and life-threatening disease. Their tiny body no longer produces a hormone necessary to live.
Shock. Grief. Unbearable grief.
The life that you envisioned for your child and your family has been taken from you.
Attempts to comfort you are made by the doctors and nurses. "A cure is near." "Managing this disease will become your new normal." "She can still eat everything that every other kid eats...you don't need to change a thing." There it is! That last sentence right there is the single most impactful sentence that newly diagnosed parents hear from their medical team. You are scared and reeling from this sudden change in the trajectory of your family's life and just when you feel your entire world is crashing down around you...you are thrown a lifeline. These precious words. "Nothing has to change." You breathe and take them in. You cling to this promise with everything that you have. You want so badly for it to be true that you put on blinders to the absurdity of the statement. The amount of damage that these words of "comfort" do is devastating.
You bring your child home. You embrace the idea that nothing has to change. You make meals, you carb count, you use the ratios you were told to use, and you watch, powerlessly, as your kid's blood sugar skyrockets, or crashes, or some combination of the two after every meal. You realize that your "new normal" consists of living in a constant state of fear and anxiety. You are, essentially, spending 24 hours a day managing disaster. "In range" blood sugar is something that happens briefly during the ascent/descent towards a major hyperglycemic or hypoglycemic event.
Sometime during these first few weeks home, it hits you. The blinders come off and you get real. Common sense begins to claw its way back to the surface of your reasoning and you begin to question whether or not "changing nothing" is realistic.
Is changing nothing really the best way to care for your child with type 1 diabetes? You suffer through the next few weeks, surviving on less sleep than you ever thought humanly possible and finally it's time for that first visit with the endocrinologist. You have been counting down the days. You are desperate for more information. Obviously, you are doing things wrong because you were told this would become your "new normal" and NOTHING about the life you are living feels normal.
Some of you, at this point, are wondering if there are some dietary changes you could make to mitigate the extreme highs and lows.
Inquiries concerning this possibility are met with a resounding,
"No!" "Changing what your child eats will only exacerbate the emotional toll that this disease will take on your child and your family."
"Highs and lows are just a part of living with type 1 diabetes and there is no way to avoid them."
"Children need carbs to grow and for their brains to develop and function normally."
"Lowering the number of carbohydrates your child eats will be detrimental to their physical, mental, and emotional well-being!"
Still trapped in a place of fear and emotional instability, you leave the appointment feeling even more hopeless than when you walked in. They are the experts, you are just the parent...they have spent years studying and treating this disease. You accept the fact that they know what is best for your child...or maybe, you don't.
At some point, you let go of the fear and you begin to trust yourself again.
Ashley and her daughter early in their transition to low carb
You begin to question the information you have been given and you decide that accepting the status quo is not an option when it comes to the life of your child.
If you are reading this right now...you are here! You are done believing the lie that your child's health will suffer if you choose to remove processed food-like products from your child's diet and replace them with real, nutrient-dense foods. You are done believing the lie that feeding your child high-quality protein foods, a variety of vegetables and low sugar fruits, along with plenty of healthy fats like those found in nuts and seeds is somehow dangerous.
When did feeding our kids real food become DANGEROUS?
If these words are resonating with you, then your next question is most likely: where do I start? I would recommend starting with breakfast. When the first meal of the day goes smoothly, it sets you up for success for the rest of the day. Also, you can use the hours overnight with no food factoring into things to get blood sugar to a healthy and steady number. I also feel like breakfast is the easiest meal to substitute low carb alternatives for kids' typical favorites. We have found amazing low carb waffle and pancake recipes that your child will not even bat an eye at when you make the swap. (Don't make a big deal about it being a new recipe. Simply make it, serve it, and watch in awe as your kid enjoys a meal that, for once, will not take their blood sugar to 300.) Fair warning: flat Dexcom lines can be quite addicting. A couple of days of cruising along with blood sugar below 100 after breakfast and you will be eager to add a low carb lunch, low carb snacks, and a low carb dinner to your child's day.
Choosing to eat low carb foods not only eases the burden of the day to day management of this disease, but it also provides a sense of peace in knowing that your child is not going to fall victim to the terrifying complications of uncontrolled type 1 diabetes.
Low carb is empowering for type 1 diabetics.
Yes, it will require that you make some changes, but your family's life was already changed forever the day your child was diagnosed. Changing the foods your family chooses to eat puts you back in control.
Low carb allows your "new normal" to be a life that actually resembles something normal.
If you need help making the transition to low carb, or are already low carb but not achieving the results you desire, you’re in the right place.
Click here to learn more and schedule a no-obligation consult with Allison Herschede, RN CDCES and lead diabetes educator at diaVerge.
Offering 1:1 coaching, and a variety of courses & programs for individuals with diabetes and their families, we’re here to help you reach your goals.
What are the two key elements of optimal diabetes management, and how can we ensure 'luck' is on our side? The answer is simple, but not easy.