One More Question ...
Question: My daughter is 16 & has been sick for about 2 years. She passed out twice at school. She has just now been diagnosed with Hypoglycemia. We don’t see a dietician for another 2 weeks so I’m confused on what to feed her. Can you help me? She’s a teenager so I don’t want to say no to chocolate chip cookies, or should I? Her doctor said protein every 2 hours. That’s no way to live! I’m wondering if this is just a quick fix until she sees the dietician. Please help!
Here is my answer: Thanks for your email. I know how worrying it can be when you first experience hypoglycemia .... and how confusing it can be with all thedifferent advice you get about diet. Most doctors don't really know a lot about hypoglycemia, which makes it more worrying.
The most important thing to control hypoglycemia is to cut out sugar from your daughter's diet as much as possible. (Actually, everyone should really cut out sugar as much as possible). This is very difficultfor teenagers becaue they usually eat a lot of sweet things. This is what causes the hypoglycemia in the first place. This means all thingslike ice cream, cookies soft drinks, jam (I think you call it jelly inthe US) - everything with sugar in it.
This may sound pretty hard to do. But I can assure you from personal experience it will totally tranform your daughter's health if she can doit. Because we all need to have soemthing sweet now and again, you'll bepleased to know that sugar is least harmful for people with hypogyclemia if you eat it at the end of a meal. So your daughter can have a small dessert after dinner - but only a small one and not too sweet.
Ice cream is particularly bad for hypoglycemia, for some reason. I always get a migraine if I eat too much ice cream. As for eating protein every 2 hours - I wouldn't advice that. This is an old-fashioned theory that I have tried myself and I always felt worse for doing it. Your daugher just needs to eat three balanced meals a day,with one or two snacks if she is hungry in between. I usually have a piece of toast and butter, with a cup of tea as a snack (we drink tea here in New Zealand). Coffee can also make hypoglycemia worse if you drink too much - don't drink more than two or three cups of coffee a day.
A cheese or peanut butter sandwich is a good snack if your daughter likes it. I hope you don't get too confused with all the advice! Just try to get your daughter to eat three balanced meals a day of good plain food. As little added sugar as possible. It's when teenagers start eating lots of sweet "junk" foods and soft drinks between meals that they tend to get hypoglycemia. I hope this helps and let me know how you get on.
Regards
Chris
Here is my answer: Thanks for your email. I know how worrying it can be when you first experience hypoglycemia .... and how confusing it can be with all thedifferent advice you get about diet. Most doctors don't really know a lot about hypoglycemia, which makes it more worrying.
The most important thing to control hypoglycemia is to cut out sugar from your daughter's diet as much as possible. (Actually, everyone should really cut out sugar as much as possible). This is very difficultfor teenagers becaue they usually eat a lot of sweet things. This is what causes the hypoglycemia in the first place. This means all thingslike ice cream, cookies soft drinks, jam (I think you call it jelly inthe US) - everything with sugar in it.
This may sound pretty hard to do. But I can assure you from personal experience it will totally tranform your daughter's health if she can doit. Because we all need to have soemthing sweet now and again, you'll bepleased to know that sugar is least harmful for people with hypogyclemia if you eat it at the end of a meal. So your daughter can have a small dessert after dinner - but only a small one and not too sweet.
Ice cream is particularly bad for hypoglycemia, for some reason. I always get a migraine if I eat too much ice cream. As for eating protein every 2 hours - I wouldn't advice that. This is an old-fashioned theory that I have tried myself and I always felt worse for doing it. Your daugher just needs to eat three balanced meals a day,with one or two snacks if she is hungry in between. I usually have a piece of toast and butter, with a cup of tea as a snack (we drink tea here in New Zealand). Coffee can also make hypoglycemia worse if you drink too much - don't drink more than two or three cups of coffee a day.
A cheese or peanut butter sandwich is a good snack if your daughter likes it. I hope you don't get too confused with all the advice! Just try to get your daughter to eat three balanced meals a day of good plain food. As little added sugar as possible. It's when teenagers start eating lots of sweet "junk" foods and soft drinks between meals that they tend to get hypoglycemia. I hope this helps and let me know how you get on.
Regards
Chris
posted by Chris Mole at 7:30 PM
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