Rosie and I are keeping food journals. Back when she was first diagnosed, we religiously logged every bite of food, every carb count, every drop of insulin given, all day every day. Rosie was only 5, so we as parents took care of the detailed log book. But since she's been on a pump, we've stopped keeping a written log book. The pump logs the carb counts, blood sugar readings, and insulin doses for us. It's easy to download her pump on the computer and have that information available when we need it.
Rosie is getting old enough now to make some of her own food choices, and her choices on the days she buys lunch at school, or when she chooses snacks, are generally pretty high-carb. After her endo appointment last week, we talked with the Dietician, who
suggested that Rosie cut her carbs and increase her protein. This was
hard for me to listen to, because the meals that I fix for her ARE high
protein and mostly low carb... I felt like I was doing something wrong.
In reality, though, The Dietician was seeing some patterns and is trying to help Rosie learn to make good choices on her own.
On the way home we talked about it, and decided that keeping a food log would be helpful for Rosie to see exactly what her choices add up to in a day. I was telling her that they have been very helpful for me in the past. We decided that we would do it together-- each day we log our foods and our carb counts into little notebooks. Rosie is starting to notice things.... like a high carb breakfast means that she can't also choose a high carb snack in the afternoon if she wants to hit her target range for the day. She's starting to plan ahead, knowing that if I'm making a favorite for supper (ie: homemade pizza), she needs to keep her carbs pretty low the rest of the day. She's looking at it like a fun game to see what she can eat and still be in her target range.
It's hit me that this is yet another transition in our life with diabetes. When she was little, we did all the meal planning and food choices for her. I have always done her carb counts. Now, at the ripe old age of 9, she's starting to take on some of that responsibility for herself. I am a little sad that she has to learn this so young, but at the same time, I am so very proud of her.
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I'm posting daily in November in honor of Diabetes Awareness Month and the WEGO Health's National Health Blog Post Month. #NHBPM
