Mom Wants A Diabetes Cure

Monday, July 23, 2007

Snack Attack

I'm trying to get control over Brendon's need to constantly have a snack in hand (and mouth...and stomach).

He could eat a full meal, and an hour later need something to eat again. He basically wants to graze throughout the day. And then a battle ensues.

"I want a snack"

"No, you just ate."

"I'm hungry, I want a snack."

And so the argument continues until it escalates into him throwing a temper tantrum and me sending him up to his room to cool down. Soon after he comes down, he steals food.

It's like this all day long, every single day.

It's almost as though he doesn't trust that another meal will come to him. The only way to keep him from wanting to eat is to keep him occupied constantly which is not realistic.

It isn't the kind of food he eats. The problem is the frequency. I want to prevent him from gaining excess weight without hindering his growth. I also want to get a grip on his glucose numbers. They never get a break from coming down because they're always being elevated with the constant eating.

I've tried all sorts of things like giving him combinations of fat, protein, and carbs to curb his appetite.

Anyway, nothing seems to work.

I'm going to log everything he eats and at what times and test him more often. Maybe he's eating reasonably and it just seems like a lot because of how often he eats. Maybe the quantity is fine. I know the kinds of food he eats is fine, so I'm not worried about that. We don't keep junk food in the house and more often than not he snacks on fruit.

I'll just keep plugging away at this and try to come up with a compromise that works for both of us. I hate that eating has become such a tension filled issue. I have to see if maybe I'm the one who's being unreasonable.

3 Comments:

  • I dread this.

    I haven't experienced this yet myself so I don't know what to say. You've been living with this long enough to know the ropes and have probably tried everything you can to curb this. As you mentioned in an earlier post, he has hit a major growth spurt this summer and eating and eating is what they do when this happens. This leads to the OH MY GOD blood sugar control. I would assume having a pump would be easier than if you were doing MDI - but it still has it's limits.

    The only thing I can think of are low carb snacks - and lots of them. What does his endo suggest?

    By Blogger Jamie, at 7/23/2007 4:56 PM  

  • At least he asks. Olivia just eats. And eats. And eats. And it's starting to show.

    Ugh. Let us know how the logging works out.

    By Blogger Major Bedhead, at 7/23/2007 7:40 PM  

  • Jamie,

    It's like this even when he doesn't have a growth spurt. His endo told us to cut back on his carb count and we did. We can make adjustments on the pump to accomodate the carb intake, but it's also about him eating too much. It's funny you mentioned shots being harder, but when he was on them last weekend, it was easier because he didn't want to snack because he'd have to get a shot for it.

    Julia,
    I'll let you know how the logging goes. Maybe I'll see that he's not getting too much food and that it seems that way because of the frequency, you know?

    By Blogger Shannon, at 7/24/2007 1:20 AM  

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