Re: 3 year old pre-diabetic???

[Guest guest]

oh, i hate to tell you this, but i'd cut out the fruit juice immediately.

also all wheat and gluten grains. as heidi will explain, diabetes is tied

with gluten intolerance. if i were you, i'd do it right now, while she's

still young enough. it'll be painful, but you might still be able to avoid

the diabetes!!!!! and, we're here to support you

you might be able to negotiate the juice thing - well, i wouldn't

negotiate. but mitigate, at least - with letting her breast feed again

sometimes...

-katja

At 06:43 PM 6/26/2004, you wrote:

>I'm desperately seeking nutritional and practical advice regarding my

>3 1/2 yeaar old daughter. She was weaned about 6 months ago and her 2

>1/4 year old brother is still nursing regularly. Within the last few

>months she has developed a huge juice habit (4 - 5 cups/day of pure

>grape or apple juice). She doesn't substitute with water or milk when

>her intake is restricted. She's extremely healthy (75th % hieght and

>weight, gymnastics and swimming 5 x/week and farm living) but appears

>to crash in blood sugar (based on severe crankiness not lethargy).

>She also has a strong preference for starchy foods (wheat mac and

>cheese, chips if allowed, popcorn...) but eats lots of great protein

>every day (2 eggs and our own meat and broth...)and adequate fruit

>and veggie selection. I insist on matching her starch with protein

>and fat. Lately she wants juice in a bottle so obviously it's weaning

>related. She has never had any insecurities or addicitiooons...no

>blankie, thumb-sucking...like a good breat-fed baby. I don't know

>enough about glucose metabolism in a transitional weanling to feel

>confident resticting her if she's starving for energy. Her brother

>surely gets regular lactose infusions from breast milk. She sometimes

>grows 1 inch per month. My concern is based on her father's sister

>having juvenille onset diabetes and premature death.

>

>Looking forward to your collective and individual wisdom.

>

>Meg

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

>oh, i hate to tell you this, but i'd cut out the fruit juice immediately.

>also all wheat and gluten grains. as heidi will explain, diabetes is tied

>with gluten intolerance. if i were you, i'd do it right now, while she's

>still young enough. it'll be painful, but you might still be able to avoid

>the diabetes!!!!! and, we're here to support you

>

>you might be able to negotiate the juice thing - well, i wouldn't

>negotiate. but mitigate, at least - with letting her breast feed again

>sometimes...

>

>-katja

Well, I'd cut the wheat and gluten grains absolutely, but diabetes is also

tied to casein and maybe other IgA reactions (a lot of T1 diabetics react

to gluten, but a lot don't ... I don't know what those others are reacting

to, but in rat pups gluten and casein are the biggies).

With my daughter, she scarfed down starches for a long time ...

she had pop tarts for breakfast, waffles for lunch, and bread for

dinner. That's all she would eat. Then she went thru milk .. gallons and

gallons of it (pastuerized). Then I " got religion " so to speak and swapped

non-gluten bread and waffles, and suddenly she wanted steak, steak, and

sausage, and hated the taste of milk. Now she eats bread (GF) one meal

and steak the next, but her weight has stabilized and she never seems

excessively hungry, so I don't worry about it.

The " juice thing " went away too. She used to crave juices, esp. those

horrid ones in a box. Then she decided she didn't like them ... now she

drinks root beer sometimes, but craves plums, fresh ones, and she

eats one or two in a sitting. Or a slice of watermelon. But the juices

sit, for the most part, unopened. Lately she loves kefir-beer, so I give

her some of that, and she's had cravings for coconut-milk egg-nog (which

she's learned to make on her own).

Anyway ... I guess you can say from this that mostly I just watch and let

her appetite figure out what she wants. Except for gluten, and maybe some

forms of casein, which I think for our family are pretty nasty. Once we took

the junkier stuff out of the picture, she really does seem to gravitate

towards what she needs, so I'm not in the position of being the " food police! " .

If you are worried about diabetes though, I'd get a glucose meter. They

don't cost much, and you can learn a LOT from them. The pin prick isn't

really bad at all, they don't take much blood, and then you don't have to

guess what is going on.

-- Heidi Jean