Merry Christmas for Children with Diabetes

Tempted by so many delicious foods, many people tends to gain a lot of weight during Christmas. It might have small influence on normal people, however it should be avoided for diabetes patients.

Compared with adult, many children do not realize the importance of controlling diets to their illness and healthy and they usually have poor self-control ability, therefore parents should pay more attention to the diets of children with diabetes.Though diabetes patients need to monitor the intake of sugar, children need enough calories and comprehensive nutritions to ensure development requirements. The following are some suggestions for children to enjoy this big festival and at the same time avoid too much weight gain and control blood sugar within safe level.

Generally healthy diets for diabetes should be low-sugar, low-sodium and low-fat.

Staple foods

While cooking meals, do not put too much oil, salt or sauce. Prepare small portion of foods for children with diabetes. The frequency of meals can increase but the amount of each time should be small. At each meal stick with small portion of comprehensive foods like lean meat, poultry or fish, vegetables and whole grain. Vegetables and fruits that are low in sugar and high in fiber and vitamins are good for children.

Desserts

Many children are picky eaters. They often like to eat candy and cookies and do not like vegetables and staple foods. Candies and cookies contain high level of sugar, therefore diabetes children should not have too much. If possible parents can prepare some homemade cookies and use sugar substitutes to reduce the use of sugar and use some flavorings such as cinnamon, nutmeg or vanilla to increase the flavor of the cookies. Fresh fruits are good choice for desserts and the intervals between meals are proper time to have fruits. Low-fat caramel custard, gingerbread cake, butter-free popcorn and fat-free vanilla ice cream are also good choice and will be very popular among children.

Drinks

As for proper drinks for diabetes children, water, diet drinks, coffee or tea with fat-free milk are available. As for adult, alcohol should be avoided especially when the stomach is empty.

Nursing cares

Some parents worry that their children get hurts and become too protective to their children and do not want the children to play outsides. Actually this is not conducive for them. Proper exercises can do a lot of benefits to children with diabetes.

Besides, parents should have close monitoring of the blood sugar level of the children and adjust the diets and take medicines timely to bring the blood sugar well under control.