Day 171...

I know after your kids are diagnosed for maybe a month, or a few months or even a year, everyone looks at you and thinks "hey they have it all figured out by now" or "Im sure its so much easier now that they know what to do"

Well that isnt the case.. I wanted to share with you all what our family has to do before every single meal..

This is something that we have to do for EVERY meal.. Yep, every meal.. I have to say when the kids were first diagnosed, this was a very hectic time of day.. everyone was hungry, but blood sugars had to be checked, food measured, carbs added, calculations made, then dosings given.. It is a lot of work!! Now we say our prayer, and the 2 type 1ers add their stuff up and do dose while the other kids can start eating.

So first, while I am cooking, I have to keep all of the wrappers or packaging so we know the carb amounts and measurements.  Sometimes this is annoying and yes, we have pulled them from the garbage from time to time because its just instinct to throw them away..  it happens....
but anyway, we have to read all labels and see how many carbs are in how much of a serving.. For EVERYTHING I use..

 Tonight we had spagetti, breadsticks, and salad.. but that consists of sauce, pasta, vegitables, breadsticks, cheese, butter, crutons and drinks...

 Our handy dandy measuring cup..we have a lot actually, but this one is 1/4 of a cup, which equals 8 carbs of spaghetti sauce.

Salad..is FREE..no carbs in this salad..

 

So each breadstick is 25 carbs.. Parmesan cheese is 0 carbs..

 

 

 So now that everything is cooked and ready and we have out lables, we have to measure and serve each type 1 kids plate..This consists of measuring cups and a food scale.

 Lets see, Craig measured :
1 breadstick=25 carbs
4 oz of pasta=84 carbs
1/2 cup of sauce=16 carbs
Salad=free

So after we measure and serve his food, we have to add all of the carbs.
Total carbs=125 carbs.
So now we have part of one of the calculations he has to do with every meal. 
He has to divide is total carbs by 15 and that will give him a number... so 108/15=8.33

SO now he has to check his glucose (he usually does this right before we even sit at the table)
So his glucose was 149, great. now he has to take that number and subtract 150 from it and divide by 70. Which in this case his glucose was spot on, so it end up 0.

After that, he adds the 1 numbers together 0+8.3=8.3 and thats how many units of insulin he needs.

Ya, its a lot to do!!

Then we have to do the same for Madi...
Her blood sugar was 298, so we calculate with her special calculations which are 298-150/150=1
Then add up what she wants to eat:
2 oz pasta=42 carbs
1 bread stick=25 carbs
butter and Parmesan on her pasta=0 carbs
6 crutons on top of her pasta (I know, its weird)=6 carbs
Total carbs=73
She takes 73/30=2.4
Add those numbers together:
1+2.4=3.4 units of insulin (rounded to 3 units)

So then the get their shots and have a nice dinner....

This is a meal with type 1 diabetes..and thats not even going out to dinner and having to guess the carbs..or going to someones house and trying to measure and guess whats in the food...

If I make something like enchiladas I have to add everything I put into them, then divide by the amount of enchiladas I made so get the amount of carbs in each enchilada..Then the kids know how many carbs to account for if they have a half or a whole..... Guess its a good thing I like Math!!