According to the American Diabetes Association, in the United States alone, 186,300 children have diabetes. As many as two million between the ages of 12 and 19 have pre-diabetes. If your child is diabetic, you may be concerned about how to cook for them. Cooking for a diabetic child is not as difficult as it may seem, as long as you follow a few simple guidelines.
Step 1
One of the most important factors to keep in mind when cooking for a diabetic child is calorie restriction. Although obese children are at most risk for diabetes and diabetic complication, children still need calories to fuel their growth and development. Each child is different, so speak to your doctor about how many caloriet your child needs to both keep their weight and diabetes under control, while still providing their body with enough calories to develop properly.
Step 2
Have your child eat at regular intervals. Fixing your child more than three meals a day, and at the same times each day, can help manage childhood diabetes. Giving your child multiple smaller meals, with as little as three hours between each meal or snack, is an easy way to insure their body has enough sugar in the blood to regulate their glucose levels throughout the day.
Step 3
Use cooking ingredients that help regulate diabetes. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains should be included in your child's meals as they provide the necessary carbohydrates for growth and development, but also provide healthy levels of fiber, which can help regulate blood glucose levels longer after meal time. Processed foods that are high in sugars (such as high fructose corn syrup) can cause your child's blood sugar to spike, possibly leading to a diabetic emergency. It is important to moderate and regulate how many carbohydrates your child consumes.
Step 4
Count carbohydrates when choosing snacks and foods to cook. Carbohydrate counting is the practice of looking at the nutrition label of foods, and then using the information to calculate how many carbohydrates the food has per gram. To make this easier, many good books and guidelines have been published that list the average carbohydrates in different foods such as, The American Diabetes Association's Exchange Lists for Meal Planning, and CalorieKing Calorie, Fat and Carbohydrate Counter by Allan Borushek.
Step 5
Remain consistent. Eating the same levels of carbohydrates each day for each meal is also an important tool for regulating diabetes in children. For example, if your child had a granola bar (about 15 grams of carbohydrates) for snack time at 2:00 pm on Monday, then you should keep their snack at 2:00 pm for the rest of the week at 15 grams (such as a half a cup of goldfish crackers). You can switch the snacks or meals each day, as long as the carbohydrate levels remain similar. This gives consistency to your child's glucose levels. A list of carbohydrate exchangeable foods is available in the additional resources section of this article.
Step 6
Make eating healthy fun. Just because your child's diet needs to be monitored, doesn't mean that your child's meals have to be boring. Simple things such as making happy faces on a peanut butter and banana sandwich, or introducing fun finger foods, can make your child feel less stigma about their diabetes.
Tips and Warnings
- Factor in insulin when deciding when to have snacks and meals if your child needs insulin therapy to help control blood sugar levels.
