How to manage carb-o-rama
Not long ago, I volunteered at DYF, the diabetes family camp here in northern California. I could say so many things about my experience there. I could talk about the dad I met who’s struggling with parenting diabetes through a separation; about the family who showed up with six (!) kids, all to support one newly diagnosed 9-year old sibling; about all the people I talked to who are living on the same diabetes gerbil wheel that I’m on. But what I want to talk about, actually, is the food.
On the first night, before all the campers were sent to bed, the kitchen served s’mores. You got it: the marshmallow, graham cracker, chocolate extravaganza. For breakfast the next day there were big fluffy pancakes, a vat of oatmeal and hash browns. Condiments and extras? Brown sugar, raisins, maple syrup, orange juice.
For lunch, pizza. Greasy, cheesy pizza.
See a theme? Actually, you might be more likely to see landmines in all these hard-to-dose-for carbs. Camp tends to serve the kind of food that we T1D parents very much try to strategically avoid. The serve foods that we know will drive our kids high, the kind of foods that require a lot of deeply thoughtful dosing. No keto diets here. Only carbs, carbs, carbs.
I’ve been going to camp for 14 or 15 years, but I’ve never thought about why they serve this kind of food. This year, it finally dawned on me: It’s strategic. It isn’t that camp couldn’t come up with “better,” easier-to-dose-for meals. It’s that they want us T1D parents to know that we can do it. We don’t have to avoid these tricky, carb-laden foods for our type 1 kids. It’s a philosophy that has some history at this particular camp. Mary Olney, the physician who founded the camp in 1938, would make sure to serve all her T1D campers ice cream one time during their camp experience. I imagine her lining them all up and walking down the line, giving shot after shot. She certainly was a visionary in a world when type 1 was all about restriction. She helped to forge a new standard — that our T1D kids really can be like all the other kids, including what they put into their mouths.
This is a timely understanding for me, especially as Halloween lurks around the corner. It’s a time of year when diabetes organizations publish lists of the carb counts of candy. It’s also a time when T1D parents strategize about how to limit candy intake.
It’s certainly reasonable to think about limiting candy — after all, I didn’t let my children have unlimited candy when their pancreases were functioning. But it’s also reasonable that our children should be able to have some. After all, it’s almost Halloween. We don’t want them to feel like the only kids who are left out of this important kid ritual
The real challenge, of course, is that Halloween slides into the potatoes and stuffing of Thanksgiving, which quickly morphs to the chocolate and eggnog of Christmas. It feels like the darker it gets, the more carbs we are trying to grapple with. I know that feeding T1D kids can feel really tricky, especially soon after diagnosis when we are weighing and counting everything, when it feels like it must be possible to get everything perfect, when we feel like we are assessing ourselves as well as our children based on the numbers, numbers, numbers. The exposure therapy of camp — yes, you can have pancakes! — is great for the time we’re there at camp, but often we go home to the same food restrictions and fears. With this in mind — and as we head into the holiday season with all of its tricky eating — I wanted to let you know that I’m offering my most popular workshop Let Them Eat Cake? on October 25th at 9a pst/12p est. Meet me there to hear how we T1D parents can strike a balance with food, and — most importantly — how you can create a positive relationship with food in your home. It’s an opportunity to try to untangle some of the challenging thoughts we all have as we balance blood sugars and carbs. Hope I’ll see you then!