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Diabetes - Juvenile Community
This patient support community is for questions related to juvenile diabetes including celiac disease, depression, diabetic complications, hyperglycemia / diabetic keto-acidosis, hypoglycemia, islet cell transplantation, nutritional issues, parenting a diabetic child, pregnancy, pump therapy, school issues, and teens with diabetes.
Benging on food when sugar is low
by krushing, Oct 11, 2006 12:00AM
I'm not really sure this can be answered, I guess I just want to throw it out there and see what others do in the same situation. My husband is a Type 1 for 20 years now. In the middle of the night when his sugar drops he gets up and gets to kitchen and starts scarfing sweets and orange juice down. Then he goes to bed and he wakes and it's extremely high. Me, not having diabetes and not knowing what it feels like, tells him all the time not to eat so much. And his response is it's low and you are in a panic to get it up. It's a seesaw effect...its low at night, then it's high in the morning when he wakes and he spends the rest of the morning trying to get it down to normal. I've even gotten up with him trying to monitor his sweets and it doesn't help. He's going to eat and drink whatever he can get his hands on until he feels it's back to the safe mode. Are there others that do this? Are thre any suggestions? Thanks!
Doctor's Answer
by JDRF-Team-CDB, Oct 13, 2006 12:00AM
Hi krushing,
Yes, I have indeed seen this. When my teenage diabetic daughter gets low, she gets shaky and panicky... and sometimes starving.
One suggestion is for him to first treat the low blood sugar in the appropriate way, with a small amount of juice or some sweets. If he still feels "starving" (to quote my daughter), he can have some protein: some cold chicken, perhaps. That will fill him up more but not cause his sugar to spike up. That's what my daughter does if her low causes her to feel empty and hungry.
He will crave sweets, but if he just tries eating some protein first, he should get that satiety his body wants.
Good luck.
Yes, I have indeed seen this. When my teenage diabetic daughter gets low, she gets shaky and panicky... and sometimes starving.
One suggestion is for him to first treat the low blood sugar in the appropriate way, with a small amount of juice or some sweets. If he still feels "starving" (to quote my daughter), he can have some protein: some cold chicken, perhaps. That will fill him up more but not cause his sugar to spike up. That's what my daughter does if her low causes her to feel empty and hungry.
He will crave sweets, but if he just tries eating some protein first, he should get that satiety his body wants.
Good luck.
Post Comment
What your husband describes to you is absolutely the truth and I doubt it's unusual--at least it is how I feel and respond. You either have to control the intake of carbs or compensate with some extra insulin in order to break out of this situation. The latter may be easier if he's really having difficulty controlling the panic/eat response. Good luck!!
btw, I don't have as many nighttime lows since switching to a pump from injections...
Janetzone: He has a pump, but it's an older one and it doesn't work well with him. But, we just info on a new pump that is just now being offered, so we may look into that. His low bg isn't all the time, but I like to be prepared when it is.
Thanks again for the suggestions!
Have you tried to figure out what gave the LOW? Thats what I did and come to find out there is only a couple of things that could do it. 1. did not eat enough or forget to eat snack 2. took too much insulin 3. mis-calculated carbs in food intake 4. exercise not accounted for with carbs.
I would try cutting down on that evening shot, or in his case try to reduce the pump insulin flow at night. Or do what I did. Stopped taking that night time shot that only made me eat a BIG snack before I went to bed. YES, I stopped taking my night time shot. and after checking my BS in the mornings, found out that I was taking that evening shot just so that I would have to eat almost a meal before I went to bed to keep from going LOW.
Why not try to look at what made you go LOW and fix that problem, rather than fix the LOW (eating a bunch of carbs in the middle of the night). Beleive me I hate the LOWs and will try to keep them from comming especially at night.
Bob