What You can Do with Your Diabetic Child?

Each child’s has different needs for their nutrition requirements. Diabetic children require eating the same nutritious food that other family members are having. They do not need to go on ‘diet’, diabetic child can eat everything but in moderation, which includes foods with sugar and special diabetic and dietetic foods are not required. However, parents need to watch the time their kids eat such as their meal or snacks. Moreover, parents also need to watch how much their kids eat, for example, the portion size should be the same everyday, and also watch the balance of what their kids eat for each meal which is not too much on one type of food only in their diets.

When parents preparing their children’s meal, they probably will need to work with the dietitian to plan the meals and snacks initially. According to some experts, most of the recommended plan is called ‘carbohydrate counting’ which is keeping track of the sugars and starchy foods where they will affect the most on blood sugar. Parents also have to equal the amount of the carbohydrate in their child’s diet to the amount of insulin of the child takes. Parents should also train their child to have balanced food intake with their insulin levels, get enough calories for their normal growth and also make their meals or diet satisfying and enjoyable.

The meals and snacks recommended shall base on the principles of the diabetes food pyramid which they need about 50% of calories come from complex carbohydrates such as breads, rice, starchy vegetables like potatoes, corn and beans. Parents should provide more fresh vegetables and fruits for their kids in their diets. On the other hand, protein can be obtain from lean meats like chicken, fish and eggs, dairy foods should be nonfat or low-fat and also minimized added fats and sugars. Below is the diabetes food pyramid. Parents should follow this food pyramid when preparing their diabetic child’s diets and snacks.