#94 Normal Growth, Forbidden Foods, Sneaking Snacks and Red Flags when it comes to Feeding with Aren Dodge, RDN, CDCES

In episode #94, Aren Dodge returns to help guide us through a myriad of topics. We discuss normal growth in our children, forbidden foods and snacks, sneaking foods, and red flags when it comes to feeding. Aren is the owner and founder of Dodge Diabetes, she's a registered dietician, a diabetes educator, and she has been living with type 1 diabetes for nearly 30 years. As a diabetes educator, Aren has advanced training from the Ellyn Satter Intitute and the Ellyn Satter method of division of responsibility which you'll learn more about in today's episode. As a diabetes educator, Aren is trained on all of the FDA approved pump systems that are on the market today! Feel like you might need Aren's help? Good news! She's available! Be sure to check out the links below so you can find Aren on the web and on social media. Enjoy the show!

Aren's Website: Dodge Diabetes
Aren on Instagram, @dodge_diabetes
Aren's awesome Facebook Group: Dodge Diabetes Community
Learn more about the Ellyn Satter Institute and the Division of Responsibility
Episode #92 with Aren: Raising a Healthy and Competent Eater
Episode #93 with Aren: Helping and Encouraging our Healthy Eaters

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Episode Transcript

Katie (00:00):
Hello and welcome to episode 94 of the Sugar Mama's
Podcast.
If you think I'm talking alittle softly today in the
intro, It's because I'm up earlyand most of my family is still
asleep.
The other members of my familygot up at an ungodly hour to
search for the elf on the shelfbecause it's the beginning of
December here.
Gotta love that Elf on theshelf.

(00:21):
I took last week off from thepodcast to celebrate
Thanksgiving with my family, andwe had such a nice time.
I hope you too, had a lovely andrelaxing holiday and that your
blood sugars behaved, or yourkids' blood sugars behaved.
Aaron Dodge is back today Tohelp guide us through a myriad
of topics, we're going todiscuss normal growth in our
children forbidden foods andsnacks, sneaking foods, and red

(00:44):
flags when it comes to feeding.
Erin is so great.
She is the owner and founder ofDodge Diabetes.
She's a registered dietician, adiabetes educator, and she has
been living with Type onediabetes for nearly 30 years
Erin has advanced training fromthe Ellen Satter Institute And
Ellen Satter's, method ofdivision of Responsibility,

(01:05):
which you'll learn more about intoday's episode As a diabetes
educator, Erin is trained on allof the FDA approved pump systems
that are on the market today.
Feel like you might need Erin'shelp.
Good news.
She's available.
Be sure to check out the linksin the show notes to be able to
find her on the web and onsocial media.
Enjoy the show.

(01:29):
You're listening to the sugarmamas podcast, a show designed
for moms and caregivers of typeone diabetics here.
You'll find a community oflike-minded people who are
striving daily to keep theirkids safe, happy, and healthy in
the ever-changing world of typeone.
I'm your host and fellow T one Dmom, Katie Roseboro.

(01:52):
Before we get started.
I need you to know that nothingyou hear on the sugar mamas
podcast should be consideredmedical advice.
Please be safe, be smart, andalways consult your physician
before making changes to the wayyou manage type one diabetes.
Thanks.
Hello friend, we are back today.

(02:13):
I'm back with Erin Dodge ownerof Dodge Diabetes.
Just a reminder, Erin is aregistered dietician, a diabetes
educator, and she's been livingwith type one for nearly 30
years.
So needless to say, she's awealth of knowledge and
information and I'm just feelvery fortunate to have her on
the show.
So welcome.

Aren (02:32):
Hello.

Katie (02:33):
Hello.
All right.
Today's topic is going to be onjust kind of growth in general
with our kids.
Kind of like what's normal,where should we kind of start to
get a little concerned aboutpatterns in their growth that
we're noticing.
And then we're gonna kind ofsegue into talking about, you
know forbidden foods maybe kidssneaking food, trying to hide

(02:55):
that from their parents.
And then we'll try to tie allthat in you know, looking at all
that through the lens of being aparent with a child that has
type one diabetes.
So we'll do our best to get allthat in today.
And I have no doubt that Aaronis, is ready and prepared with
all that information.
Aaron, let's start with.
You know, just every year wetake our kids in for these
wellness visits and we get thesegrowth charts and, you know, the

(03:17):
doctors are explaining whatpercentage they are on the
growth chart.
So, for parents out there, couldyou just kind of give us an idea
of like, what's, what's anormal, growth pattern on one of
those growth charts?
What, what should that looklike?

Aren (03:30):
For your child that's a little bit older, and even like
in the toddler to adolescentage, they'll sort of nestle into
a predictable growth pattern.
So you'll find that they'll hangout.
If they start at the 50thpercentile, they'll kind of stay
at the 50th percentile, andthat's considered normal

(03:52):
predictable growth for thatchild and some kids.
Smaller than other kids.
Some kids are bigger than otherkids, so as long as it's growing
predictably on that growthchart, we know that that's
normal growth.
what's interesting is kids, evenas infants know how much to eat,
it's only when unfortunately,well meaning as parents, we try

(04:15):
to kind of get involved andinterfere and we kind of step
into those roles that we talkedabout in the previous episode
about divisional responsibilitywith infants specifically I'll
just mention.
So any kind of way that you feedyour baby is, is great.
But what we know about formulafeeding versus breastfeeding is

(04:36):
that when you're breastfeeding,you have no clue.
How much food that baby'sgetting.
You're just kind of, looking forclues and cues from the baby
when they're crying.
If they're hungry, you feed themand it's kind of like this on
demand thing.
And if everything's going great,the baby's getting enough food
and self-regulating how much toeat.
And they did this superinteresting study even in the

(04:58):
NICU with premature babies.
And you know, again, helpmeaning, well meaning healthcare
professionals would try tointervene and get this baby to
eat more calories to gainweight.
And guess what the baby didwould just eat less.
For what their body needed.
And then if they diluted thefood down, they would just eat

(05:18):
more to get that same sort ofpredictable amount of calories
that the body needed for thatspecific baby and how it was
made and genetics and all thatstuff.
So it's super interesting howwhen we try to interfere that
sometimes innately the babyalready knows how much to eat.
But if you start ignoring thecues from the baby that it's

(05:38):
done eating and try to get thatlast couple ounces in with the
bottle, whether it's, you know,pump breast milk or formula
food, you can start to seepatterns and trends.
If it's a consistent thingthat's happening where the
baby's gonna go off of hisnormal projected growth for
predictable healthy to get thehealthy body that that baby's
intended to get as a evengrowing into an.

Katie (06:01):
Okay.
So like for instance, I justtook my son, my son's 12.
I just took him.
He does not have type onediabetes, just to clarify for
anybody that's jumping in.
And is new to the podcast.
But he has always reallyconsistently been like in the
50th percentile on the growthchart.
So kind of right there average.
And so that's kind of where Iwas predicting he would go.
And then recently he's kind ofjumped up to the 70.

(06:24):
Fifth percentile on the growthchart, which when I look at him,
I think he looks perfectly fine.
I mean, I, I, I think he got myjeans.
He's probably gonna be a littleshorter than, I mean, his dad is
six one, so I don't know thathe'll be that tall.
I mean, I don't, I'm not reallysure, honestly.
But, you know, I look at him andI, I think he's happy, he's
healthy, he's doing great.
You know, and I, I do think he'sprobably getting ready to go

(06:45):
through a big growth spurtbecause he's 12.
So we're getting ready to, youknow, probably enter into the
hormones of the teenage yearsand all of that.
But like as a parent, is thatsomething that I should be
concerned about or at what pointin time should I start to be a
little bit concerned about youknow, the growth chart, whether,
whether or not they're goingdown in the percentile, you
know, the percentage or goingup.

Aren (07:05):
So most kids by age seven, they again kind of find that
like little pattern wherethey're gonna be through like,
you know, being 18 through theirum, into their adult years.
anything that's more than.
A jump in those percentiles.
So going from like the 50thpercentile up to the 75th or the

(07:25):
95th percentile specifically forweight is gonna be a concern
that you wanna kind of look atin terms of how you're feeding.

Katie (07:32):
Mm-hmm.

Aren (07:33):
And we know that kids naturally get chubby and then
grow like three inches and it'sso interesting that their bodies
know what type of foods to eatto support their body if they
have that good competent eatingskills that, that they've been
developing with feeding andparenting and all that.

(07:54):
So for example, toddlers knowthat they need to eat more fat
because they're growing this bigold no and brain that they need
all that extra fat for.
So they'll, I mean, honestly, mykids, whenever.
They were toddlers would eatlike butter, like they would
just grab it, scrape it off thetoast, and eat the butter.
And it was their body knowingthat they just needed more fat
to grow in that point of their,of their projected growth

(08:17):
intake.
it's kind of like the Frenchparadox.
You hear like, oh, the Frenchpeople, they eat sweets and they
just know when to stop or theyknow what to eat and when to
eat.
And if you can kind of listen toyour body, you sometimes you'll
crave vegetables and sometimesyou'll crave more fattening
foods.
And that just may be like evennow they're learning more about
women's hormones and kind of thefoods that help you through your

(08:39):
cycle and build those hormonesurges and things.
And that's all kind of innatelybuilt.
when it comes to kids, we takean average of the three days of
food.
So sometimes the kids will likenot eat anything one day, and
then the next day they'll eatyou like outta house and home,
and then they'll be not reallyhungry for the next meal or
snack.
So there's a lot of jags withkids eating.

(09:00):
But you just have to trust theprocess.
specifically like with your sonon the growth chart like you
said, he may be getting ready tohit another growth spurt with
height and so that his weight,if he did jump up a percentile,
as long as you watch it and it'snot projecting even higher off
the growth chart or droppingdown below more than one or two
percentiles at a time, thenyou'll know that that's normal

(09:24):
predictable growth where theykind of stay and grow pretty
smoothly along that curve asthey become teenagers.

Katie (09:31):
Yeah, I I mean the doctor obviously saw the growth chart
and she said everything lookedgreat and you know, wasn't
concerned at all.
So therefore I was not concernedat all.
And just having read the book,you know, it didn't seem like a
stark, you know, this wasn't thefirst appointment that he had
jumped up to the 75thpercentile.
I think it was like, you know,it's been, maybe there's been a

(09:52):
couple dots on that line, so Idon't know.
It didn't really raise any redflags with me, but I was just
curious, I wanted you to kind ofexplain to parents like, what,
what are some red flags that wemight see on the growth chart
where we might need to rethink,like, okay, well what am I doing
as, as a parent?
You know, how am I feeding mychildren?
Maybe what can I do differentlyto you know, not pressure them
as much to eat more or eat lessthings like.

Aren (10:15):
Right.
And I think as, as a parent too,you want to be supportive and do
everything you can to help thembe healthy.
But sometimes that can backfire.
And specifically with a again,you have to kind of look in the
mirror and sort of see, like yousaid, like you're not super tall
and, but your husband's a littletaller.
But if you are, are.
Then you can't expect that yourchild's gonna be in the 95th

(10:37):
percentile for height.
And same thing for weight.
Every kid is gonna be different,and as long as they're kind of
somewhere on that growth chart,you can be confident that
they're gonna grow up to get thebodies that they're meant to get
if they grow predictably.
And you're feeding with thatdivision of responsibility and
love at the table and not kindof tiptoeing into their jobs

(10:58):
with restricting and, andpressuring with food.
But the other job as a parenttoo, is to just give your kids a
little bit more confidence abouttheir bodies and feeling
comfortable in their own skinwhatever size that might be.
So give them emotional supportand things around food and
growth in their own bodies.
But A lot of parentsspecifically get concerned if

(11:20):
their child is falling off thegrowth chart.
And if they've always been onthe low end of the growth chart
and it's growing predictably atthe third percentile, then
that's still predictable normalgrowth and wouldn't really
require any changes in yourfeeding, just feed how you'd
normally feed, just like thoseNICU babies that would just eat

(11:41):
less if you kind of concentratedthe formula.
It's just feeding in that mostreliable way because we know
that that a child's weight isnot what you feed them, it's how
you feed them.

Katie (11:53):
Yeah.
I'm just thinking about this kidin our neighborhood, which
obviously won't name any names,but, you know, he just, this
child has always been very, verysmall, like, very, very slender.
And my kids, they have a goodrelationship with, with them and
they're always like, you knowmaking jokes and it's, it's a
funny thing.
And the other day, like somebodyactually said something like,
I'm a little bit concernedabout, so andSo, because, you

(12:16):
know, they really are so skinny.
And I'm like, okay.
Like, I don't, first of all, weknow that this person belongs to
a very wonderful family, that isabsolutely providing food for
their children.
And like we've known this personfor seven years now, or five
years now, five years now.
And they've always been skinnyand small.
Like I think it's just, I thinkthat's just their stature and

(12:38):
how they are.
And it was just funny to me thatall of a sudden somebody was
like actually concerned aboutit, whereas years and years go
by and it's just kind of like afunny thing that people comment
on.
But

Aren (12:47):
No, it's true.
And then, you know, as long asit's predictable growth, that's
what we wanna see is just thatpredictable, steady growth that
sort of follows that pattern onthe growth chart for weight and
obviously for stature also aswell.

Katie (13:02):
Yeah.
I know my sister-in-law used toalways has told me several
times, like, she's super talland super, super thin and she
has been her whole life.
And people when she was in highschool, like people would
constantly be concerned that shehad an eating disorder.
Cause she was so thin.
And she's like, I promise I donot have an eating disorder.
Like, I, I eat and I eat a lotand I love food.

(13:22):
And, but she, she was reallyfrustrated with that.
Like, people were very concernedabout her weight and it's just
like, I've, I've always beenthis way.
This is, this is just how I am.
D know.

Aren (13:33):
Right.
Yeah.
So with the, with the lowweight, again, a lot of parents
will just try to get any kind offood in that they can.
So that usually turns intoreally lack of structure and
like just constant grazing, likea free for all.
Cause any time they eatsomething, it's like a
celebration because you havethe, the physician let's, if

(13:54):
it's a failure to thrive orsomething like that, like a
diagnosis like that, it's somuch more pressure to get those,
those foods and those caloriesin.
And so just too much pressure orinterference in general will
make the child again thatreverse psychology, not want to
eat as much.
And not having the reliablemeals and snacks will backfire

(14:15):
as well because they found thatkids who graze eat about 50%
less calories than they would ifthey were given set steady meals
and snacks.
So and the other thing we know,speaking of the, the division of
responsibility is that when youprepare the meals, there's a lot
more nutritious options andfoods to eat a sit down meal

(14:38):
than there is when they're just,you know, nibbling and snacking
and grazing.
So I would just encourage you ifyou do have a child that's
underweight or that there's beensome concern about with their
weight and their growth on the,on the growth chart, just work
with your provider and yourphysician.
But try not to interfere toomuch with the how much and the
what.

(14:58):
Just sticking with the divisionof responsibility in providing
those opportunities for thechild to eat that structured
meal with nothing between mealsand snacks except water.
That way they'll have anappetite and they'll be ready to
eat when they sit down and eat ameal or their next snack.

Katie (15:13):
I have a friend who actually follows the Ellen
Saturn method.
She said she's been moreconsistent with it at certain
parts in time, you know, atcertain times in her kids' lives
than others.
But she really is intentionalabout having which is what
you're talking about withstructured snacks, where she
actually has sit down snackswith her kids.
Like she, and I mean, this takesa lot of planning and not all of

(15:34):
us have this kind of time, butwhen her kids get home from
school, she has like, it'salmost like a snack meal ready
to like sit down with them andthere's, there's options on, you
know, it's not just one thing,like it's not just almonds or
whatever, you know, she'll havea couple things on the table,
but like, this is our snack andyou can eat as much of it, or as
little of it as you want, butlike, we're not eating again

(15:56):
until the next meal.
And she has told me that likewhen she's really good about
being intentional and doingthose structured.
snack situations.
It makes such a difference inthe way that her kids come to
the table at dinner and theirattitudes because then they're
not just getting home fromschool and grazing and grabbing
things out of the pantrywhenever they want them.

(16:16):
They're, they're, they're havingwhat she provided and then they
know that they're not gonna eatagain until, until dinnertime,
which is really only a couple, acouple hours away,

Aren (16:25):
Right.
And the trick is, is for them toarrive hungry at the dinner
table, but not starved becausewhat we know about kids that
have Issues with structurearound food whether it's like
over restriction with not eatingenough calories or if it's like,
unfortunately I think evenduring the pandemic it was like

(16:46):
one out of five kids were foodhad food insecurity, so they
weren't getting enough caloriesor enough food.
And so what that turns into isif you can imagine just
empathizing and being a child,you depend on this other grownup
human for all of your meals andsnacks and for your wellbeing,

(17:06):
and all of a sudden there's thislack of structure and you're
starving and there's nothing toeat and no one to give you food.
It makes a lot of panic andanxiety.
And then guess what happens whenyou do get exposed?
You're in a situation where youcan eat as much as you want.
that's what tends to happen withfood insecure kids.

(17:26):
And I have a big heart forschool food lunch programs and
things because of how they helpin food insecurity and things.
And those are the kids that aretend to be more overweight
because they lose that abilityto self-regulate their hunger
and satiety.
So when there's an opportunityto eat, They're gonna eat as
much as they want until they canget as full as they can, because

(17:49):
they're not sure when they'regonna have that next meal or
snack, which is really sad andit kind of breaks my heart.
But you'd think that a childwithout enough food is gonna be
skinnier or thinner, and that'sactually the opposite because of
that lack of structure and thatlack of trust that they're gonna
have the next meal or snackavailable you know, in a few

(18:09):
hours.
So when you look at the growthcharts for accelerated growth,
again, if you see normal,steady, predictable growth, and
then all of a sudden there's abig jag where the child gains
weight above two percentiles.
So it goes from, let's say the50th percentile up above the
75th or even into the 90thpercentile, that's a red flag on

(18:33):
that growth chart and how thechild's being fed.
Not what you're feedingspecifically, but how you're
feeding.
So it could be that foodinsecurity piece that, is
causing that big growth change.
And the same thing can happeneven without food insecurity
with a mom that's not able tofeed'em at a certain time.

(18:54):
Or you get busy and then it'sreally late by the time you sit
down to have dinner.
That can create some of thosesame patterns.
And if it's consistentlyhappening, then you're gonna see
problems with the growth chart.
But again if the weight is, ison the high side what they know
is that if you if you think evenin the back of your mind that

(19:15):
your child is overweight,they've shown that you will
unintentionally manipulate andpressure.
Your child's feeding and eating,whether it's the look or
something kind of obscure whereyou're not really saying
anything or when you'reportioning out plates or
something like that, then theyget less or whatever it is.

(19:37):
The way that you talk to yourchild that is having that
accelerated growth are heavier.
They've shown that even justthinking that they're overweight
will make that happen.
They will start to increasetheir weight on that growth
chart just by thinking it.
So you have to be a realadvocate for your child at all

(19:57):
sizes and encourage them to, youknow, like listen to their
stomachs, you know, withoutbeing kind of in, in a judgey,
like I told you so way, butjust.
Nonchalant okay.
Listen to your stomach.
You don't wanna get a belly acheor whatever.
And use those, that sort ofterminology, but without
pressuring or giving the lookor, you know, encouraging them

(20:20):
to eat less of a certain food orthe quantity.

Katie (20:25):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I have, I have some kids thattend to overeat more than
others, and you know, and theyhave, there have been some
situations where they'veactually like made themselves
sick because they just hadunlimited access to certain
food, and I hate so much of itthat they like felt ill.
So moving forward with that,like there have been times

(20:45):
where, You know, I've seen that,that that's pattern, same
pattern is kind of starting.
And I've said, you know, hey, Ijust, let's just take a minute
to like, take a breath.
You know, remember last timewhen you, you felt so sick after
you ate all of this?
Like, I want you to listen,listen to your body, I think is
what I say.
Not, I don't think I've saidlisten to your stomach, but
listen to your body and youknow, just remember how you felt

(21:07):
last time.
Cause I know, like I saw it withmy own eyes.
You did not feel good.
Or there have actually been afew times where there's been
like vomit involved.
So that's obviously not, that's,that's definitely not good.
But so are you talking aboutlike that sort of thing or is
that, is that encouraging or isthat more of like an I told you
to situation and you

Aren (21:24):
Well, it's just your tone.
So if they're eating like aforbidden food, like a dessert
or a snack or whatever, andyou're kind of lecturing or
giving that kind of, everybodyknows that tone that no one
really likes to be talked tothat way, but just like, That
interference.
But for, for if you say, Hey,listen to your stomach, don't
forget last time you over, youoverdid it.

(21:46):
And you know, every time mommyover does it, it makes me feel
sick.
So just make sure that you'relistening to your body and just
kind of leave it at that.
And we've all done it.
I mean, Thanksgiving is comingup, Christmas holidays and
everybody's overdid it wherethey ate more than they should
have.
And then it's like a reminderlike, oh man, why did I do that?
Why did I have that extra blahblah, blah, and now I'm

(22:06):
miserable?
So just learning kind of thatintuition with food, having food
competence and being able to eatwhat you want, but then just
kind of self-regulating how muchthat you consume without making
yourself feel sick.

Katie (22:21):
Right.
And I have heard them verbalizeI think I'm, I, I don't think
I'm gonna have, you know, thisor another one of these because,
you know, I'm, I'm pretty fulland I don't wanna feel sick.
So I, I've actually heard themsay that a few times, so I feel
like that's, that's good.
Right.
They're kind of recognizinglike, I don't wanna feel that
way

Aren (22:39):
And honestly, forbidden foods are really tricky.
So forbidden food would be anykind of goody snack treats,
sweets, cakes, cookies, candy,and then also, so those are like
the sweets and desserty things.
And then other forbidden foodslike chips and french fries and
like more of those high fat highsalt food foods.
And those foods in general,forbidden foods are typically

(23:02):
higher calories because of allthat extra sugar and fat, but
they're delicious and they'rereally easy for kids to love.
But with that said too, it'ssort of just like with
everything else, with parenting,it's kind of a tiptoe line where
you don't want to let it be afree for all, but you don't
wanna over restrict to the pointwhere it creates.
These food related, likeemotional issues.

(23:25):
So you wanna kind of normalizethese foods and the way to do
that is with that structure andgiving them exposure to some of
these sweets and treats.
And even like with in somescenarios, even unlimited
amounts so that they can learnthose cues and those satiety
signals from their body so thatthey know to stop.

(23:45):
So I think some kids have abetter handle on this than
others.
My daughter has definitely has asweet tooth, so she gravitates
towards sweets a lot more.
But the worst thing you can dofor a child that has like a
sweet tooth is to justcompletely restrict all of their
sweets.
And you guys have all seen thosechildren that they, you know,

(24:07):
that their parents are superstrict about what they're having
and the amount of sugar and theserving sizes.
Think about the last birthdayparty you were at.
Most kids that have a normalrelationship with sweets will
grab a cookie and then go runand play and have fun.
But then there's always that onekid that hovers around like the

(24:27):
cupcakes and the desserts andall the stuff that's laid out,
and they almost over obsessabout those forbidden foods
because they're so restricted,they don't have a relationship A
healthy relationship to wherethey can stop when they're full
and eat, you know, a little bitwhen they're hungry.
And so, and you guys know, Iguarantee, you know, a grown up

(24:48):
like that too.
You know, a friend that ifthere's a bowl of chocolate on
someone's desk, They have noself-control.
They walk by, grab a piece everysingle time, and their garbage
can's full of, of Hershey kisswrappers.
And that's probably someone whodoesn't have that
self-regulation and a goodeating competence.
So when it comes to theforbidden foods, you wanna leave

(25:11):
opportunities to where it's justan everyday sort of food, for
example, with meals.

Katie (25:17):
Okay.

Aren (25:18):
best way to include dessert with meals is to have it
on the table with the rest ofthe food.
You don't wanna put forbiddenfood up on a pedestal because
then that makes the kids thinkthey're that much special and
they're that much more of a, ofa want and a need and a have.
So if you just put like achocolate pudding on the table,
everybody gets a certainportion.

(25:38):
The one thing with, so typicallywith the division of
responsibility, the child canchoose how much or whether or
not they eat anything on thetable except dessert.
Because let's face it, your kidwould eat all their calories in
dessert.
It's way easier to likechocolate pudding than it is to
eat green beans.
So when it comes to thoseforbidden foods, you set it at

(26:01):
the table on the plate with therest of the food at that meal
time as part of that, thatdinner option, and then they can
eat it first.
It doesn't matter.
They can eat it in the middle orat the very end of the meal.
So you're kind of taking thatstigma away from that forbidden
food when you give it with therest of the other meal.

Katie (26:19):
and I'm, I'm sorry, I'm not sure if you said this or
not, but she does have a ruleabout desserts where it, it
might be out there with all theother foods, but you are, you,
you get one serving of dessert,is

Aren (26:28):
Correct.
Yep.
So you just get one serving cuzotherwise if you gave them
unlimited access, they wouldjust eat that the meal.

Katie (26:35):
right.

Aren (26:36):
Now

Katie (26:37):
But then, oh, go ahead.

Aren (26:38):
I was gonna say there's other opportunities though where
you can kind of let them choosehow much and whether in
instances with forbidden foodsas well.

Katie (26:46):
Yeah,

Aren (26:46):
So that's specifically with desserts.
But let me back up a second andsay, remember we had the sugary
forbidden foods and the high fatforbidden foods.
What they found in research isthat the high fat foods don't
compete.
For kind of like theavailability with the other
foods as much.
So, for example, like chips.
So if you guys are having orfrench fries, if you're having

(27:08):
burgers, having fries is a side,even though it's kind of a, a
higher fat, higher calorie food,having unlimited amounts of
those fries as an option foryour meal is absolutely fine.
So the child can self-regulateand decide if they want more
fries the burger and whateverelse that you have at the table.
But in terms of dessert, youwanna limit that to just one,

(27:31):
one portion that's appropriatefor the child.

Katie (27:34):
Okay.
What are, I'm trying to thinkabout how I wanna verbalize this
question I think, I wanna ask,like for parents that have been
restricting their kids eating, Ifeel like it's probably a good
idea to honestly evaluatewhether or not that is working.
you know, do a littleself-evaluation for, your own

(27:54):
family and you know, you doing xnumber of years of this and
restricting foods and you'reonly allowed to eat a certain
amount, or you have to eatwhat's on your plate.
Or try everything that's on thetable.
Pressuring, I guess pressuringwould be a better word, like
pressuring around feedingsituations.
I feel like it's a good idea totake a step back every now and
then and, and ask yourself like,is this, has this been working

(28:16):
for me?
Because I do feel like a lot ofparents, myself included that
sometimes it turns into, it hasnothing to do with the food.
It has everything to do withcontrol.
we just wanna have control.
We all do.
Kids do, parents do.
We all want control over thesituation.
And like, and I think we getstubborn sometimes we'll say
something like, you need to, youknow, have at least one piece of

(28:38):
broccoli.
Well then the kid doesn't wantto eat one piece of broccoli and
then, but it's like, but nowI've said it and I want you to
obey me and I'm gonna make apoint and, and all of this.
So like, I don't know, is there,are there any, I, I have fallen
into that trap, so I will be thefirst to raise my hand.
But is there any words ofencouragement for, for those
parents that are like, oh yeah,that's me too,

Aren (28:55):
There's always hope, like there's always time to make
those changes, even if they'realready kind of teenagers.
And you've missed kind of thewindow.
You can always start anytime.
Anytime is better than never.
And even for those older kids,having that conversation and be
like, listen, I know I've triedthese tactics before and what

(29:15):
I've seen work really well iswith like the older adolescents
and stuff.
Even kind of showing thedivisional responsibility and
having them, the parents and thekids keep each other accountable
for tiptoeing in their lane, Youknow, in like a kind way.
So it's kind of nice to be ableto have that conversation and
that feedback from the, from thekid about about their division

(29:36):
and responsibility and theirjobs with feeding.
And like I said on that EllenSatter Institute website,
there's age specific things thatcan kind of help guide you
because.
Across the lifespan.
There's a lot of differentrecommendations from what you do
with toddlers versus kids thatare pretty independent.
So that might help show you alittle bit more specifics about

(29:58):
what that looks like in terms ofdivision or responsibility for
specific age groups.

Katie (30:02):
Mm-hmm.
and probably having, having aconversation too with your older
kids.
I was listening to a parentingpodcast the other day, and the,
it had nothing to do withfeeding it, it was about a
certain it, it was likebasically this parent had kids
that were, one was a toddler andthe other one was in high
school.
So like a huge range between herfour or five kids.
And the older ones were voicingtheir frustration with the fact

(30:23):
that the, the younger one getstreated differently.
And, you know, the parent wasjust having to have a
conversation with them of like,well, of course I'm treating
them, you know, they're three orfour or whatever, and you're,
you're 17.
Like of course I'm gonna havedifferent expectations for this
child versus you.
I think just explaining that,you know, if you're a parent
who's sitting down at the dinnertable, and maybe you do have a

(30:43):
high schooler and a toddler,like explaining to the high
schooler, you know, if they'reupset about not expecting, maybe
this toddler.
Behave a certain way at thetable versus the older kid.
Like, just have thoseconversations with them and be
honest, like, well, you're,you're different ages, you know?

Aren (30:58):
Right.
And that's just that wholeemotional support and growth
that kind of comes along.
And, and feeding is the corner.
Own for good parenting.
So if you do a great job withparenting and feeding, then I
think your child in general isgonna be, again, they shown with
the competent eaters have aremore happy, they have better

(31:19):
health outcomes in terms ofchronic disease and their
weight, having a healthy weightand a healthy relationship with
food.
And just more emotionally soundbecause of how they were fed and
raised in their parents.
It's a lot on our shoulders asparents, and to be honest, we
all wanna do what's right forour kids and every.

(31:39):
Pressure and every restrictionthat that we see happen is all
outta love and concern.
And like, oh my gosh, I don'twant my, you know, blah, blah,
blah.
That you are just really worriedabout that child and that's why
you're interfering.
But what the research shows, andeven in good emotional health is
that the child has to learn ontheir own limits, on those

(32:02):
forbidden foods.
So like you were talking aboutwith like, you'll eat till you
throw up.
It might take a child,especially if you've been
restricting food and restrictingthose sweets for a while it may
take that child getting sick attheir stomach or even throwing
up a couple times until theylearn and you reinforce that

(32:24):
they could have as much as theywant as certain sit down snacks
and things, and that they arenot putting that, that forbidden
food up on that pedestal towhere again, it just takes a
little time for their brain tosort of rewire to wear, I'm
gonna get snacks and sweets andtreats and things.
And they kind of lose theirshiny glow.

(32:47):
Like they, they lose that onceyou get sick on it and once you
realize it's just kind of asweet, then it's an everyday
normal food that fits into everyother fruit, vegetable, grain,
you know, meat sort of breakdownfood.
And that's the true, that'sprobably the true test of
competent eating is how youhandle sweets and, and kind of

(33:08):
overdoing it,

Katie (33:09):
Okay.
I know you wanted to talk alittle bit about just like
unlimited snacks or unlimitedsweets.
What did, what was your, whatwould you like to say about.

Aren (33:16):
So remember we were saying that the trick with forbid foods
is to not give Unlimited accessall the time, but then balancing
that with over restriction.
So the way that you can teachyour child how to eat and manage
forbidden foods and sweets is togive them opportunities to learn
how to self-regulate.

(33:37):
works the best I would say.
A few opportunities a week,maybe once or twice a week,
where at one snack you give themunlimited access to a plate of
cookies.
So you bring a plate of cookiesout for your kids and say, oh,
here's what we're having forsnack.
There's milk, you gonna milk andcookies.
And then you let the childchoose how many cookies they're

(33:59):
going to eat.
Now remember, if you've beenrestricting sweets in the past
or have only served one or twocookies at the snack time, this
new found access to sweets isgoing to backfire in terms of
those first few introductions ofthis unlimited access.
Because again, kids love sweetsand snacks, but they need to

(34:20):
learn how to regulate those justlike every other food.
So what we know is that kids whoare over restricted on sweets
and forbidden foods will.
Eat more of those foods whenthey get the opportunity and
almost overdo it to where itmakes'em sick.
And then even they will start,as they get older, start
sneaking those foods that areover restricted.

(34:42):
And you guys all know the kidthat like comes over to play and
then raids your pantry like,Hey, you guys have any snacks?
And like, goes and looks forfoods that are forbidden at his
house, that will kind of satisfythat urging like that sweet
tooth that they've beenrestricted on.
you have to find that happybalance and that medium.
So the plate of cookies, eatuntil you don't want any more.

(35:04):
And then when snacks over, we'regonna wait and we're gonna have
something later for dinner orfor whatever, or a bedtime
snack.
You can kind of build that in asa special treat.
But what you'll find is at firstit'll be six cookies.
I mean, the kid will just.
Will splurge because they'venever had that access to sweet,
but that luxury wears off afteryou've had a belly AC or two.

(35:26):
So you'll notice progress wouldbe four cookies and then a
little bit more milk and maybethree cookies, then it'll be a
more healthy relationship withthose sweet foods to where
they'll just eat a couple andthen they'll be done.
Nothing screams success withforbidden foods than serving a
bowl of ice cream to all yourkids and then noticing that they

(35:46):
don't finish it all.
You know, that's kind of like abig win in that terms of, of
balancing forbidden food.

Katie (35:53):
absolutely.
Okay.
Let's talk about type onediabetes a little bit.
Because serving a plate ofcookies to your type one
diabetic, I'm sure is making alot of parents sweat out there,

Aren (36:03):
Yes.
Cringe a little.
Ooh.

Katie (36:06):
Yeah.
Yep.
So how would you, how would wehandle that as, you know, if our
kid has type one diabetes?
I mean, I'm assuming kind of theexact same way that you just
mentioned it, except for there'sinsulin involved.

Aren (36:16):
Right.
So it's unraveling and undoingsome of that food pressure and,
and str like the, therestriction that has to be
unraveled.
So again, it's not gonna beovernight or one sort of
conversation for them to feelsafe around foods.
And I actually, I had this lady,God bless her, she was about my

(36:37):
age and she had diabetes back inthe eighties and nineties before
we had a lot of knowledge aboutmatching food and insulin and
all that.
And she got caught sneaking up.
It was like one of those lamestarlike candies.
It wasn't even a, in my opinion,a good candy.
So she got ahold of this thingand got caught with it, and they
beat her with a belt.
I mean, not, not greatparenting.

(36:57):
It was out of love and concernbecause she had diabetes and
they were terrified.
but what happened 30 years laterwhen she's in my office with her
insulin pump and all that stuff,she has the worst relationship
with sweets and with foodbecause of the guilt and the
shame that was built around hereating sweets as a kid.
So it's a really fine line ofbalance with over restriction

(37:21):
and just unlimited access again.
So with type one, it's reallytreating food the same kind of
way and same approach.
So if you're giving your kidsall a snack, you can't, you have
to give everyone the samechoices.
And that includes meals too.
So if you're serving.

(37:41):
Steak and baked potatoes andgreen beans, then everybody at
the table gets the same optionsof things.
Now the dessert will be thatlike kind of same portion based
on the child's age.
And you only get one serving ofthat, but everything else is
fair game for the whole.
So, so what I would encourageyou to do, if.

(38:03):
Making special arrangements andfoods for your child with
diabetes, that's gonna backfireand turn into resentment and
sneaking food.
And if you've already noticedthat your child with diabetes is
sneaking food, again, you don'twanna look at this as a
short-term thing.
This is the long game andcreating a healthy relationship

(38:26):
with sweets and without guiltand shame around these foods
that are in the world around us.
So you're, you're feeding ithome to be able to push your
child out of the nest into theworld where there's all kinds of
food choices and selections.
And you're right, the sameapproach that you would take

(38:46):
with a child who's not diabeticor doesn't have diabetes, is
gonna be the same approach.
Now that sounds terrifyingbecause you're gonna sit there
and, and try to calculate forsix cookies.
If they'd splurge, then you haveto dose the insulin to match up
with that.
And again, it's almost like atherapy session for the kid to

(39:06):
reestablish a healthyrelationship with these sweet
foods because a lot of thatnegative sort of pressure
against not eating them and evenjust the whole culture of
diabetes and sweets has beensort of you know, manipulated a
lot to where it's not reallythat true.
So you wanna try to match theinsulin with the food, just like

(39:28):
a child without diabetes isgonna eat six cookies and their
pancreas is gonna dose theinsulin properly, naturally cuz
they don't have diabetes.
So again, you just have to beyour best pancreas in that
situation and match the insulinup with those six cookies, and
then trust that the next timethat you offer unlimited
cookies, that you'll graduallysee your child come around to

(39:50):
not be so super obsessed withsweets.

Katie (39:52):
Yeah, yeah.
I, I, I think I mentioned in thelast episode, or maybe the
episode before that I wastalking about our experience
with going to summer camp last,last summer with Sarah and I was
a chaperone cuz it wasn't adiabetes camp, it was a church
camp and, you know, meal times,every meal time, breakfast,
lunch, dinner was a buffet stylefree for all.
Now they did, I mean they hadlike healthy options.

(40:13):
There was a salad bar and therewas vegetables and everything,
but there was also pizza bar andthere was a dessert bar and
there was like a pancake bar atbreakfast.
And I mean, it was just, wasunlimited access to food.
And so the, that was, that washonestly a little nervewracking
for me.
especially with camp.
Cuz then there's a lot ofexcitement and activity involved
too.
So you don't really know howthat insulin's gonna respond all

(40:33):
the time.
But I don't know.
The way that I handled it, andmaybe this will calm some
parents down, is like I knewgoing into a meal like Sarah's.
Probably gonna, I can almostguarantee she's at least gonna
eat this number of carbs, youknow with, with her meal.
So I would just go ahead anddose for that ahead of time.
I mean, you know, I know noteverybody's comfortable with a
pre bowlus, but I would give itto her, you know, 15 or 20

(40:53):
minutes before we would eat.
And then I would just kind ofkeep an eye on her.
I wasn't hovering over her,following her around the buffet
lines.
I'm just kind of like keeping aneye on things outta the corner
of my eye while I'm also servingmyself.
And then I would, you know, justcasually walk by and glance at
her plate and be like, okay, ifshe eats all of that, then we're
gonna need to give this muchmore carbs or whatever.
And of course, I'm guessing atall of this, cuz who knows, I

(41:15):
didn't have a food scale withme.
But, but it, I mean, it workedout, it worked out.
I mean, not every day wasbeautifully perfect on the cgm,
but it, it, it, we had a greatweek, you know, it was really
fun and, and I think that wasreally a great experience for
Sarah to be able to serveherself and have control over
how much of the food.
That she eats.
And you know, I think that, Idon't know.

(41:35):
I, I just hope that offers alittle bit of encouragement to
parents who maybe don't know howto handle these situations and
are just really terrified

Aren (41:42):
Right.
And, and you as a parent ingeneral, you have to give your
kids the tools to be able to doit on their own.
So like, I bet it was even kindof nice to see, oh, look at
that.
She put a vegetable on herplate.
Like, you know, like kinda a paton the back for how you've been
feeding and.
The exposure she's had to allkinds of different types of
foods to feel confident andcomfortable on this buffet and

(42:06):
then still do dessert.
But a couple just tips because Iknow it feels so overwhelming
and especially if you have a lotof control over the food with
type one, which it feels socontrolling.
And remember, we know that thiscontrol correlates a lot with
DIA bulimia, and that's whereyou can restrict insulin to lose

(42:26):
weight or you're, you have areally poor relationship with
food, so that's why it's evenmore important to stick with the
division or responsibility sothat you can raise competent,
healthy eaters that have a goodrelationship with food.
Just so that you can have,again, the long game.
It's not just what they'reeating right now.
So I would encourage you if youare struggling with that

(42:47):
balance, start with somethinglike that you know the amount in
the grams and set someguidelines with your, with your
child that has type one and say,listen, you can have as many
cookies as you want, but let meknow how many you eat so we can
work together to dose theinsulin the right way.
Cause when you eat a lot ofcarbs and sugar, it makes it a
little trickier to be apancreas, So, in that scenario,

(43:10):
it might make you feel a littlemore comfortable to have
something that's measurable,that has a food label just to
kind of ease into

Katie (43:17):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, definitely.
I had just yesterday Sarah camehome, she gave herself insulin
in the car on the way fromschool.
And she came home and she hadlike, maybe like two thirds of
the carbs that she probablyneeded to eat.
And then she was like, can Ihave some of this bread?
Like we, our church, I don'tknow, I don't even know what,
how they get these things.

(43:38):
But like every Sunday they havethese bags of bread, literally
bags of bread on shelves fromPanera for anybody to take.
I think Panera just like,apparently Panera's like not
even allowed to give that stuffto the homeless community
because there's rules aroundthat.
Like if they

Aren (43:54):
oh my God.

Katie (43:55):
I know.
Isn't that awful?
so they bring it to our church.
Anyway, all that to say, usuallymy children are grabbing bags of
bread as we're leaving churchevery Sunday.
So we had this bag of churchbread on our counter and Sarah
was like, can I have some ofthat bread?
And I was like, Yeah, I, I said,yeah, you can have some, I said
that bread is pretty dense, so,you know, I wouldn't take like a
huge piece and then I'd likeforgot, walked outta the room

(44:16):
and forgot about it.
And Sarah apparently ate somebread and it, maybe it was more
than the carbs that she reallyneeded or whatever.
Anyway, long story short, sheended up pretty high.
And so later in the day I justlooked at her and I was like,
Hey, sweetie uh, you're runningpretty high.
You know, I, I really, it'sfine.
I'm just asking because I needto know how to manage this
insulin situation.
I don't wanna give you too much.

(44:37):
And you also have this automatedsystem that's probably already
been giving you insulin.
But like about how much, like,show me with your hands about
how big the size piece of breadthat you ate was.
And she did.
And, and I was like, oh, okay.
That's probably why.
Cause I was like, I, I need toknow, is this a pod fail

Aren (44:52):
Right.

Katie (44:53):
Or is this just, oh, you maybe ate more bread than we,
you know, than I realized youate or whatever.
And she showed me with herhands.
I'm like, oh, okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Not a pod fail.
It was probably just the bread.
I was like, all right, well weprobably need some more insulin.
So, and she did it and it wasfine.
And I don't know, there wasn't,I didn't feel like there was any
tension around it.
She willingly admitted how muchbread she thinks she ate.

(45:14):
I don't know.
I'm, I'm a little bit, Iprobably need to be a little bit
more structured than I am whenit comes to snacks

Aren (45:19):
but How old is she?
She's nine 10.
So she's, so if you, that's areally cool transition age for
them being able to serve theirown snacks and do more things in
around feeding and, andsnacking.
as long as you can keep thecommunication lines open and
like the optimal thing would belike, ugh, Hey mom, I ate a

(45:41):
little bit more carbs than, youknow, I ate this whole thing,
this whole, this whole slice ofbread instead of just the piece.
And then you guys could worktogether to dose that way.
And maybe just reinforcing thatcommunication to her in a
non-judgmental bread kind ofway.
Like you ate how much bread, youknow, kind of thing.
And you did perfect with it.
But anytime you kind of putjudgment or Pressure or any kind

(46:03):
of restriction, even in the toneof your voice.
It can be perceived by the childin a different way than you're
intending in terms of likewanting to help and like being
concerned and the, oh my gosh,the blood sugar's high.
again, trying not to, justlooking at the numbers like data
and not saying, oh, that blah,blah, blah, food that you ate.

(46:24):
Just I told you so, and nowyou're 300.
You know, trying not toassociate the foods
specifically, especiallyforbidden foods with bad blood
sugars.
And just trying to work as ateam to kind of get the best
outcomes in terms of more inrange blood sugar values.
And again, it's fines, it's alot of adjustments and juggling.

(46:45):
And honestly, you're doing thework of a pancreas.
It's hard, it's unpredictableand so just give yourself some
grace.
But I feel like the.
Instances of a few high bloodsugar readings in this recovery
process of unraveling overrestriction with feeding,
especially with kids withdiabetes.

(47:06):
It's way more important in thelong run for them as an adult
and having a good relationshipwith sweets and forbidden foods.
In the long run and they'rewatching you.
Like there's even research thatshows that if the mom is
dieting, like on and off cyclingand dieting and restricting and
then overdoing it, binging thatthe kids also see that pattern

(47:29):
and are more likely toover-indulge and then restrict.
it's, it's crazy.
And so again, the IT backfiresis just the bottom line is that
any kind of restriction withforbidden foods over restriction
will result in your child beingheavier than they should be for
their body and then themsneaking food behind your back.

(47:51):
And I just wanna.
Make kind of a blanketstatement.
I had, where I had a clientwhere it just went really wrong.
The mom really was verycontrolling in a caring way.
Like she wanted her blood sugarsto be perfect.
She was scared to death of anycomplications or problems, and
the daughter was prettycompliant.
Like, again, the child'spersonality will be different

(48:14):
based on your restriction too.
Some kids will just be like, Iain't, you're, you're not gonna
tell me what to eat.
And they'll just figure it outon their own.
Or, or like you said, thebroccoli bite, like they'll just
set you out at the table.
Wait you out at the table.
But some kids are like, oh mom,I'll do what you say, and
they'll go along with, But in,still in the back of their head,
it's messing up their innateability to be able to

(48:36):
self-regulate.
So this this little girl wentalong, did a lot of the
restriction, especially with theForbidden foods.
And then she graduates from highschool, her A1C is 5.6, she's
doing amazing on her devices.
And then she's pushed out of thenest and goes to college and
she's exposed to all of thethings that's so amazing at

(48:58):
college.
Starbucks, pizza, you knowmilkshakes and she has no clue
how to manage those items.
So if, I would encourage you, ifyou can work as a team and
communicate with your kids andas, especially as they become
adults and, and teenagersespecially, is what I meant is
that you can kind of help.

(49:19):
Hand that baton over to them intheir diabetes management so
that they can be successful.
And I feel like in this world,you have to let them be
comfortable and confidentnavigating these sort of sweet
foods and, and foods.
I mean, when your sugar's 300,it feels, it doesn't feel great.
But sometimes it's worth it.

(49:40):
I mean, that cupcake might beworth feeling 300, you know,
because it was just so good.
And you were at a party withyour friends and everybody else
was eating cupcakes and you justwanted to have what they were
having And it, it's so hard tobe a kid, even just remembering
when I was little and havingdiabetes.
And in holidays my grandma wouldgive me, give everybody else

(50:00):
desserts, and then I would getan apple and it

Katie (50:03):
Which, which is actually pretty hard to dose for

Aren (50:06):
Right, right.
So, but anyways, it's just likeyou have all this resentment.
Diabetes is hard enough, andthen you're like, oh, look at
me.
I'm different now.
I have to eat, you know, thisstupid apple.
And then you also are like, oh,apples, I hate apples.
You know, and you have thisnegative thing even about
healthy foods.
So again, you wanna kind ofclear the board and just be
really careful about yourwording.

(50:28):
And then just matching theinsulin and the food the best
you can to give your kids toolsto be able to navigate different
foods outside of the house.

Katie (50:37):
I think it's important to remember too, like you know, all
these low carb foods and, andsome people really just do so
phenomenally well, like with,with all of that stuff.
And I'm truly impressed.
I just, but like they, they'rereally expensive.
A lot of them are, not all ofthem, but a lot of them are.
Meat is really expensive.
Low carb options are so muchmore expensive than the other

(50:59):
stuff.
And yes, I know it's aninvestment in our health, but
like your, think about your kidsgraduating from college, they're
probably not gonna be makingenough money to buy all these
super expensive foods all thetime.
I mean, maybe they are causethey won't maybe have a family
at that time and kids, and, youknow, it all gets more expensive
the, the more people you add toyour family.
But, you know, I think that'ssomething to remember too, that

(51:20):
like, not everybody has thefinancial means to really eat
this, like this lower carboption lifestyle.
You know, it, it, so I.

Aren (51:28):
when, in terms of low carb, when it comes to feeding
with the Ellen Satter thing,Again, you get to choose what
you have in the house.
So if everybody is eating lowcarb, there's no exceptions and
there's no specific like, oh,Johnny has diabetes, so that's
why everybody's not allowed tohave X, Y, Z anymore.
I mean, siblings can be brutal.

(51:50):
So you have to make sure there'sno like animosity towards the
child with diabetes becauseeverybody's eating low carb all
of a sudden.
But again, everybody should beeating the same thing in the
household.
And then It's a level playingfield without, regardless of
diabetes.
And so you know your childbetter than anybody else.
You know their personality.

(52:11):
If they're gonna rebel and sneakfood behind your back, that's a
red flag that whatever approachyou're using isn't working for
their emotional help andprobably for their diabetes as
well.
Because if they're sneakingfood, they're likely not taking
insulin to, to cover that.
So watching out for those redflags, and if you try it and it
works great, then by all meanskeep, doing what works for your

(52:33):
family and you can modify kindof off that, that deal the
vision, responsibility a littlebit with what you're choosing to
feed your children, but reallyfocus on the how much and
weather, and then if it startsto become a problem or red flag.
I would reevaluate, take a stepback.
That's what the best parents do.
If something's not working, theytake a step back.

(52:55):
Don't feel guilt or anythingabout what you choose to do, you
know, for your family.
But honestly, I mean, low carbis a lot easier to manage
glucose values and to stay inrange.
But I feel like with the age ofthe technology that we have, How
close we can get to, to decentglucose values with these

(53:15):
automated insulin deliverysystems.
I feel like the rate and risk ofcomplications goes drastically
down when you, you embrace thistechnology.
So what we were afraid of backin the eighties and nineties
when we had all this lousyinsulin isn't really, if you can
be a ninja with insulin, you canchoose and eat whatever foods

(53:37):
you want to eat.
But I just wanna encourage youto not just focus as number one,
health criteria is your child'sblood sugars.
You have to look at the bigpicture in their emotional
health, their relationship withfood, and when they're an adult.
And if they wanna be do like yousaid, like do low carb or do
something like that.
Just make sure they have thetools to be able to do both.

Katie (54:00):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And I'm sure there's a lot ofparents listening that have a
specific question about theirspecific circumstances.
So, you know, I would encourageyou to get in touch with, with
Erin.
I mean, I will leave links inthe show notes to where you can
contact her.
And, and she's available.
She, she's available to work foryou so you can, you can get in
touch with her and, and she canhelp you troubleshoot.

(54:22):
Specific situation and whatyou're dealing with, with your
family in particular.
Cuz you know, there's only,there's only so much we can
cover in an hour long podcast,but, you know, I hope we got
kind of the wheels turningpeople thinking about how
they're, they're feeding theirchildren and if it's working, if
it's not, you know, maybe, maybea lot of people have realized
today that, gosh, we're doing anawesome job, or gosh, we really

(54:43):
need to take a step back and,and reevaluate what's going on
here.
Especially like, like you said,if your kid is sneaking a lot of
food or going to a friend'shouse and raid their pantry,
things like that.
So but anything else you wannaadd before we, we sign off for
today?

Aren (54:57):
No, I would just, again, that communication with your
child and then just giving themthe tools that they need to be
successful with diabetes as anadult is.
So valuable and you know, justfocus on love.
Like, and, and you know, yourchild and just doing what you
can to, to be supportive forthem is just, it's man, diabetes

(55:19):
is so hard.

Katie (55:20):
It is, it really is.
It is being pa let's be honest,just being a parent is really,
really hard.
So,

Aren (55:25):
right?
It is.
And then throwing that chronicdisease when it sort of thing in
there and then balancing it withthe rest of your family can, can
be tricky.

Katie (55:33):
Absolutely.
Oh, you know what, real quick,celiacs like you, you talked
about low carb, like if you'regonna do low carb, then
everybody at the table needs toeat low carb.
But I, I thought about Celiac inthat moment too.
Like if you're going, if you're,if somebody in the family has a
gluten allergy, then it'sprobably best that everybody at
the table is eating gluten-freeoptions.
Would you agree?

Aren (55:51):
Not necessarily.
So for the way that the dor, thedivision responsibility works
with allergies, it's just amatter of fact.
Sorry, you can't have that andhaving like an alternative.
So for example, I have celiacand so I have my own special
bread so that if we're havingbread at dinner, I'll just thaw
out a piece of mind to havealong with the family meal.

(56:12):
Same thing for, for kids withthe allergies.
I also have a dairy allergy, soyou can kind of modify the way
that you prepare things to havetheir kind of rice without
butter on the side.
Or you can buy specific itemslike sugar.
Sorry.
Gosh, don't ever buy sugar free.
I don't know.
I'm joking.
But I said sugar free, but Imeant dairy free.

(56:32):
So you can have, if you'rehaving ice cream for a snack
after, you know, for a bedtimesnack and everybody's eating ice
cream, then definitely you canget a substitute that's dairy
free for that child.
So there's, in, in terms ofallergies, there are definite
just substitutions that justwill go in instead of the
allergen.

Katie (56:52):
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
Well thank you so much Erin.
Thank you for your time asalways.
It's been such a pleasure tohave you on.
Um, I've loved chatting withyou.
Well, have a good day,

Aren (57:00):
Yeah, you too.

Katie (57:02):
That's it for our episode today, friend.
It is always a joy chatting withyou each week.
I hope this topic was a help anda blessing to you, and I just
wanna send a humongous thank youto Erin for taking the time to
come on and do this mini serieswith me on raising a healthy and
competent.
Eater.
Thanks, Erin.
Remember, you can hire Erin tohelp you if you need her.
If you're nodding your head yes,like I really need to do that,

(57:25):
then check out the links in theshow notes so you'll know where
to find her on Instagram,Facebook, and the web.
All right, have a great week.
I will chat with you soon, butuntil then, stay calm and bolus
on.