Everybody's Different

I'm still thinking a bit about Diabetes Blog Week and some of the themes which ran through it.  One of them, which was intentionally brought out by the 'keep it to yourself' topic but came out somewhere almost every day, had to do with things we're reluctant to share about our lives with diabetes.

We outed ourselves for things like being angry about diabetes, or being happy about something it's brought into our lives.  We were reluctant to share that we do not use every available piece of technology, or that a particular dietary choice is helping our control. We didn't want people to know that we test overnight or that we choose to eat cupcakes or cheeseburgers.  People said they were afraid to disclose who they choose to tell they have diabetes, or the language they use to do so.

I'll start by saying I'm guilty myself.  Sometimes I get past it, but sometimes I don't.  There are things I'm reluctant to share here because I care what other people think of me.

When I posted what my daughter ate on blog week's Friday I thought twice about it.  I imagined all kinds of potential judgments out there.  Some would be appalled that my kid eats what many would consider 'old people cereal' every day for breakfast.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, people would be alarmed that she was eating cake for dessert, or at least one made from a box mix.

There were days not long ago when reading through blogs, I could legitimately assume we were the only people out there not using a CGM.  And that we might be the only people whose kid wasn't attending diabetes camp or Friends For Life.  I felt a weird sense of --- if not guilt --- then at least uncomfortable different-ness.

But here's the thing: I'm almost certain I'm not the only person whose kid eats old lady cereal, enjoys birthday cake whenever possible, chooses (adamantly) not to attend diabetes camp, and took several years to decide to try a CGM which she still requests time off from now and then.

And here's the more important thing: all of that is o.k.  Really o.k.

And the most important thing?  It's also really o.k. if your kid eats fruity pebbles for breakfast, or has never had a bite of cake, or spends the whole summer at diabetes camp or chooses to use multiple daily injections or has never told anybody but the school nurse and his grandmother that he has diabetes, or wears an "I have diabetes" t-shirt to school every day.  Whatever works.  It's o.k.

As my daughter progresses through the middle school years she's becoming increasingly aware of the range of people there are out there and of the range of decisions they make. I find myself searching for words to help her understand and accept that there are all kinds of people who make all kinds of choices which may or may not be the same choices she'd make in their shoes. I find myself repeating the same sentence, which applies here as well:

Everybody's different.

And that's o.k.

Cereal Lows???

Here's a sentence you won't read often:

Twice in a the span of a week, my daughter has ended up in the nurse's office with a low blood sugar and I think it's because of her breakfast cereal.

You see, breakfast cereals are notorious for causing high blood sugars, not low.  Also, blood sugar tends to spike in the morning, making any breakfast carbs harder to cover with enough insulin.  So I'd say these may be the first 2 times in 7+ years of school my daughter has ended up in the nurse's office low before 10 a.m.

Our tactic for combating  post-breakfast highs has worked well of late.  A few years ago, a registered dietitian at our clinic suggested trying cereals with 5 or more grams of fiber per serving, which would slow the digestion of the cereal and thereby even out the spike.  Occasional experiments with old favorites like Cheerios and Kix prove that the extra fiber in the new choices really does help.

In her quest to reduce breakfast boredom, my daughter spotted a new cereal in what might be referred to as the 'healthy' aisle of our grocery store.  We enjoy other cereals of the same brand, so we picked up a box.

This cereal has 6 grams of fiber per serving, the same as several others my daughter eats.  The serving size, and the number of carbs per serving are comparable. The same almond milk is added.  The first time she ate it she needed 2 juices to get her back to class.

Several days of her usual breakfast foods and standard post-breakfast blood sugar results went by, and then she tried again.

Despite mediocre reviews the first time around of both flavor and chew-a-bility with braces, she had a bowl of the new many-grained flakes this morning.  Already suspicious of last week's low, we subtracted a handful of carbs from the total per serving, and she ate 3 slices of my peach which we never covered.  Again she ended up with the nurse and a blood sugar of 58.

I guess if she really loved this cereal, I'd put on my scientist cap and try to figure out what was going on here. Instead, I'll finish the box (which will require lots of peach slices for flavor) and we'll move on.