always hungry

[clare2e]

I care for a 9 yearsold boy with Type 1 diabetes.  He is always hungry.  He eats his breakfast at 7:30  a bowl of whole grain cereal and 2 pieces of toast with lite butter.  15 mintues later he is hungry again.  Mid morning he gets a snack  Usually peanut butter crackers or a low fat yogurt.  Lunch time he gets a sandwich on whole wheat bread ususally ham and cheese.  a bag of low fat torilla chips and a water and a sugar free drink.  afternoon snack is usually a banana or an kind of fruit.  For dinner he eats a large portion of meat, some kind of starch (rice or potatoes)
and ususally 2 different vegetables broccoli or green beans.  
At 8 o'clock he is starving again.  He gets a lite snack  sugar free jello or pudding and goes to bed and then he wakes up starving sometimes during the night or in the morning he acts like he never ate before.  What gives here??/

[venustiana]

Well, I'm almost always hungry. I've been told that insulin makes you hungry??? I've been told that the more carbs you eat the hungrier you get. He could be going through a grow spur or maybe he's doing a lot of exercise. My nephew is always hungry and skinny as he can be but he does a lot of exercise too.

[Zoelula]

First of all, why are you feeding him low fat foods? Low fat is not necessary to control diabetes and especially not for a child unless he is grossly overweight. Sugar free, yes, low fat no. He is eating a lot of carbs; for an adult this would drive his insulin use up, but I understand carbs aren't limited as much for children. You might want to go onto a board where there are a lot more parents and children with Type 1. Send me a private message if you want some urls. As for why he is always hungry, some of that just comes with the territory when you combine diabetes and children, but some of it might be controllable. What are his blood sugars like? Are they under control? You might also be feeding the insulin by giving him too much insulin for what he is eating. Do you do an Insulin:Carb ratio or is he on set doses for each meal?