My friend's 3 yr old was diagnosed with Type 1 DM about 6 months ago, Each spring our families plus one other go away for the weekend together, We're typically each in charge of 2-3 meals. I want to be as helpful as possible to my friend and make sure the weekend is as relaxing as possible, We've come up with a loose meal plan and some snack ideas and talked about pre-counting some of the food. We have 7 kids between us,
I'm a mostly scratch cooker and have found it hard to figure out carbs for my recipes, Is there a place I can just type in ingredients and get the carbs? How hard is it to figure out the counts for homemade granola or larabars? My son has a peanut allergy so a lot of the pre-packaged things don't work for him.
Do you have any other suggestions on how to streamline the meals to make it easier? All the kids are about the same age so if one kid gets a snack, they all will want one.
Thanks!
This might make it easy to count the carbs in something you make from scratch:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/38821-calculate-carbs-h...
Personally, I would follow the lead of the other mom, as it will be easier for you to avoid peanuts.....
Hi E.! I have two kids with DM1 and I want to tell you not to worry! The livestrong.com website that was suggested is a great help and so is the Calorie King website. I am definitely going to check out the site that Megan listed as well.
Your friend will be able to figure out carb counts, trust me. Any parent of a kid with DM1 is in carb bootcamp! :) You are so sweet to want it to be relaxing for your friend. Counting carbs, figuring insulin dosage, etc. is VERY stressful, and I say, good job! I mostly cook from scratch too, but I use my handy carb counting book as well as internet resources to find carb counts for each dish. It's really quite easy. If you have trouble, feel free to message me with a recipe and I can figure out the carb count per serving.
My husband also has DM1. Tell your friend that it's hard, but it WILL get easier to count carbs! My heart goes out to her! Many days (today, for example) are such a struggle.
As far as snacks go, always have some carb free snacks on hand. String cheese, pickles, olives, sliced meats, avocados etc. are "free foods". Avocados do have carbs, but they are rich in dietary fiber, which is subtracted from the carbs to get the actual carb count.
Hugs to your friend, and hugs to you too! Having a kiddo with a nut allergy is no walk in the park! I hope you guys have a fabulous getaway!
Check out the American Diabetes Associaton's MyFoodAdvisor! You can put in your recipes and get nutrition information back. www.diabetes.org/myfoodadvisor.
I think it's so great that you're being so thoughtful and helping out your friend. The ADA also has kid-friendly cookbooks if you're interested at www.shopdiabetes.org
Good luck!
This is the USDA calculator for various foods.
http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/
Your best bet is to measure out the ingredients using a scale and then input each one into the search field. My husband has type 1, so this is the best way I've found to calculate carbs for him. Hope it helps!
