Oranges are great for hypoglycemia

We’ve tried lots of different foods when our son suffers from low blood glucose levels (hypoglycemia).  Depending on how low he is and what activities he’s about to undertake we’ve gotten comfortable with a good variety of different choices.

The obvious goal when treating hypoglycemia is to get some food into the body that will quickly turn into glucose and raise those levels.  If you’re really low (typically below a reading of 60) you want to act quickly and so you’ll go for something with a faster-acting sugar.

If you’re just a little low and you know you’re going to be exercising soon (and so likely to go lower) you may choose to eat a more complex carbohydrate that will digest and turn into glucose over a longer period.  Managing diabetes and sports is complex and this will help sustain you through your exercise.

Old school diabetes treatment was to pop some kind of candy into your mouth and chew.  Obviously, our son loves this.  Post Halloween we caught our son out running on our treadmill (which he’s not allowed to do).  When asked “why?”, his response was that he wanted to get low so he could enjoy one of his candybars.  Pretty saavy for an eight year-old, but we obviously gave him a bit of a scolding and explained to him why that was a bad idea.

We do try to monitor his intake of sugars (including high fructose foods) and so tend to stay away from using the traditional candy and fruit juices to combat lows.  Here are a few of our favorite foods to use:

• Natural Orange Juice – 4-8 oz.  Great for when he is really low and we need to raise his levels quickly.
• Apple – Also good for a relatively quick rise.
• Tangerine – Natural sugars work great.
• Dried Apricots – Good natural sugars.
• Dex 4 Glucose Tablets – 2-3 tablets.  These act quickly and perfect though for a kid they’re not as ‘fun’.
• Whole Wheat Toast – 1/2 slice.  Better for a bit of a longer digestive cycle.  We’ll use this when he’s not too low and is still active in the day.
• Milk – 8 oz.  This is good when he’s not too low but also hungry.  Helps to fill the stomach and is a bit slower acting.

We’re always trying new foods though as we’re eager to have our son enjoy the variety of what the world has to offer.

Tell us about the foods you use…

The one thing to remember about sports and diabetes is that strenuous activity can, at times, bring your blood glucose levels down and cause hypoglycemia. As such, it’s important to test blood glucose levels before you start and if your child is low, make sure they eat something or drink a little juice.

We also try to test our son at halftime to help determine whether or not he should have a snack with the rest of his team mates. Typically he hasn’t fallen too low during a game and so he’s had to refrain from those great orange slices.  But it is important to always have some quick-acting carbohydrates on hand just in case your child does go low during their activities.  Juice or fruit is perfect.

The slightly dangerous part combining sports and diabetes is that you actually have to keep an eye on blood glucose levels for a couple of hours after playing. It’s not just during that game that you should look out. Because of this, we do tend test one extra time a few hours after our son’s game if needed and sometimes give our son a little low-carb snack just after his game.

Mixing sports and diabetes is not only possible, but it’s highly recommended. Staying physically fit helps in managing against complications and as with all children helps to teach them about team work and burn a little extra energy.

We have a good friend who ran track in college and tells of his roommate who also ran with him and had diabetes. He was one of the stars of the team and the only difficulty he had was that before every practice he had to eat to ensure his glucose levels didn’t drop too low. As a result, anytime there was a strenuous practice he ended up against the fence throwing up a bit.  He now looks back on it and laughs…”just part of the routine”.

Hypoglycemia occurs when the body does not have enough glucose to produce energy.  In people with diabetes, it is typically a result of having too much insulin relative to the amount of carbohydrates you have eaten.  As insulin helps glucose be absorbed by your body’s cells, having too much causes your body to seek out sugars when nothing is there.  People with diabetes typically experience this excess insulin either by not eating enough or calculating the wrong dosage for their injections or pump. The opposite of this, having too much glucose in the body is termed hyperglycemia.

You can also experience hypoglycemia after strenuous exercise.  With exercise, your body is seeking out more energy than normal and so it requires greater levels of glucose.  Often times, with exercise, it is not during the exercise that people first experience hypoglycemia.  Instead it can be minutes or even hours after the exercise has stopped and your body is recovering.

It is not uncommon for people with diabetes to experience mild hypoglycemia.  It is very difficult to accurately measure carbohydrate intake.  Also, sometimes the duration of your last insulin injection is shorter than anticipated or you don’t have a chance to eat right in time, or you’re taking part in a busy lifestyle.  However, the consequences can be severe and so always having some form of quick acting glucose (sugar) around is important.