Losing weight should be the first priority when giving thought to the diabetic child’s diet. This is because most diabetics are obese, not always, but usually.
Make no mistake, there is no cure for diabetes, but this disease has a high risk of causing some pretty nasty health problem later in life, if certain areas are ignored. A failure to lose wieght, monitor blood glucose and take regular medication if required are very important.
A low fat, low sugar diet is what is needed for a diabetic. If they are surounded at home by sweet, sticky foods full of empty carbihydrates, they are going to find life tough. It may be that a change of diet would benefit the whole familly, as well as making life considerably easier for the diabetic child.
As a starting point, the child should be taught which foods contain empty calories so they can understand and make choices based on what is healthy for them.
These days, parents are encouraged to “incentivise” their children by offering rewards for good behaviour. These rewards often take the form of candy. This is not a good idea for diabetic children! It will also ruin their teeth!
Not buying inappropriate foods in the first place avoids the huge temptation of eating them in the home. This may be a difficult one for the family as a whole, but in reality everybody benefits from not eating sugar or fat laden foods.
Not having the temptation of such foods in the home is doubly important, because as well as being healthy for all family members, children are under huge pressure at school from their friends to eat inappropriate food, and if they do, it makes succumbing to the temptation of eating these foods at home all the more easy.
There are strategies that the child can use at school to appear “normal” to other children without compromising too much on their diet.
It is just doing the simple things like trimming of excess fat from meat, avoiding chips for example. It’s common today for children to carry a packed lunch into school, and this may be the best option.
Blood sugar is lowered during exercise (most of the time). A diabetic child should be encouraged to take up a sport.
A good school support network can be instituted if there are other diabetics in the school. Ideas and strategies can be shared.
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