# Carb counting



## gewatts (Feb 8, 2010)

Hi.  My 6 yr old daughter has been diagnosed for nearly 4 yrs. Up until now she's been on 2 injections a day but her levels have never really been stable. Next week we are moving to 3 injections a day and carb counting at tea time. We are really nervous about this as it sounds very complicated. Has anyone got any tips?

Thought I'd do a practice run and count the carbs in tonight's tea. Cooking chicken soup with pasta in it. The only way I could see to do it was to weigh out how much pasta I think she'll eat and cook that in a separate saucepan. Am I doing this right or am I making it too complicated??  HELP!!

Thanks


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## Adrienne (Feb 8, 2010)

Hi

When you say 3 injections a day, why only three.   Please tell me they are not keeping you on a mixed in the morning?    If they are then it is purely because they think it is 'easier for the school'.    I hope you are going to come back to me and say this is not the case.

The best way if you are moving to 3 is to move straight to 4.   One of Lantus or Levemir and then three of novorapid, one injection per meal.  Then you need to carb count each meal and give novorapid according to the amount of carbs.

Carb counting is always the most daunting thing to think about and start but once you get the hang of it, it is a piece of cake.    There are some books you can get and if you start off with basic food but do not include pizza, Chinese, pasta or rice.   Just go for meat and two veg for a while or even stuff that has it written on the packet until you get the hang of it.   I'll write more help later but have to go and do tea for Jessica.   There is a website that is good as well but can't find that at the moment.

Good luck and you will be fine.


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## gewatts (Feb 8, 2010)

Thanks - yes that is the reason but am ok with it as would be a nightmare if she had to have injection at school as she doesn't inject herself yet. I have just ordered some Salter scales - hopefully they will make it a bit easier!


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## Adrienne (Feb 8, 2010)

Let me know if you need any help with it, lots of people on here carb count so we can all help.


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## grahams mum (Feb 8, 2010)

hi i agree is a night mare for the school but maybe she wont be ready to do her own injection for a long time   so what are you going to do when you have to change and she wont be able to inject   all this for the school "Idont think so" at least in my case they have got the child the all day they have to take responsability of the injection  as well is part of the child unfortunatly


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## MCH (Feb 8, 2010)

I think this may be the link to the course Adrienne was talking about. 

http://www.bdec-e-learning.com

If not, I found it good anyway and it might be worth a look when I first tried counting. Like you, I started trying to count the carbohydrate before I fiddled with my insulin so that I didn't have to start too many things all at once. 

Goods luck.

One other possibility for tha pasta problem might be to weigh everyones so you know how much you have cooked and then work out what fraction of it your daughter eats - I find this a good way, but there are only 2 of us in the house so it does make it relatively straightforward.


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## gewatts (Feb 8, 2010)

Thanks - I thought about cooking it all together and then working out what fraction she'd had but there are 4 of us so not too easy! Hopefully when my new salter scales come it will all be easier. Fingers crossed.


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## Kei (Feb 9, 2010)

gewatts said:


> Thanks - I thought about cooking it all together and then working out what fraction she'd had but there are 4 of us so not too easy! Hopefully when my new salter scales come it will all be easier. Fingers crossed.



I do roughly that.  There are 5 of us and we don't have equal portions, so it can be hard, but it usually seems to work out fairly well.


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