The usual booths with lots to give away and pump people talking at you. Sometimes I feel like it's one big sell-a-thon of pumps. And of booklets detailing carb counting. And booklets of taking care of your diabetes. And spinny dials of carb counts. And pens. And smooshie rubber balls that I suppose are to relieve stress? I'm not sure what they are for, I just wish they would stop making them and trying to give them to me. Oh and yes, free pouches and holders and bags. I don't know about your T1 family, but here we have had our fill of backpacks, bags and pouches. I need no more.
And there was fun stuff for the kiddos to do. Moonbounces. Moonslides. Basketball hoops. Arts and crafts. Face painting. Contests by the DJ. A little train that went round and round the loop of parking lot. Fun times for the kids.
Thats Lenny, with the Minimed pump. He rocked. Every little kids loved that he had a pump!
Oh and the LifeFlight helicopter came to the hospital to deliver someone. I said a little prayer that they are ok. It was sobering to see it.
Oh and then they served lunch. I thought, well, this should be interesting. Lots of T1 kids - what have the nutritionists on staff at the hospital come up with for them to eat? At the beginning of the tables I was hopeful. I saw baskets of bananas and apples for the kids, along with bottled water. Yeah! Each food had a sign in front of it with the carb count. They were right about the apples and the bananas, giving them a 15g and a 17g carb count, respectively.
Then came lunch. A Domino's Pizza car pulled up. Let me REPEAT THAT.
A DOMINO'S PIZZA CAR PULLED UP.
And out popped a lovely pizza delivery woman with 40-50 boxes of pizza.Yep, they served Domino's pizza for lunch at the event.
See those boxes - Domino's pizza!
I didn't get any closer, for fear of being a 'food stalker.'
The kicker to it all??? The sign they created said 11 carbs a slice!
11 carbs - are you kidding me? If the pizza slice is the size of my closed fingers and hand on my outstretched hand, that would be about 35g of pizza. I went with my guess of 35g when it was time to dose.
And to think it gets better? Oh yes it does my friends! Dessert you might ask? What, pray tell, would they be serving for dessert?
ICE CREAM!!!!!
I wouldn't even have believed it unless I saw it with my own eyes.
Vanilla or cookies n' cream ice cream to be exact.
Wanna guess what carb counts they vastly underestimated on these?
Vanilla - 11g and cookies n' cream - 22g
I dosed 25 for cookies n' cream for Grace. She ended up not eating it. I filled in the carbs with a banana and still got a 60 BGL 2 hours later.
Tell me who in their right minds serves pizza and ice cream at the event for T1 kids? The event was sponsored by JDRF I might add. Wasn't there one person who thought about the T1 kids blood sugars and thought, hmmm.... wouldn't those two food items just skyrocket them a bit?
Where were all the lovely other lunch options, like:
Salad!
Sandwiches on pita!
Fruit!
Turkey burgers!
Veggies and dip!
(And as you comment, name some more options they could have served...)
It made me sad, and angry and disappointed. They served us whatever was easiest. I understand the 'easy' route, I really do.
What I don't understand is that at an event you are hosting, for families that struggle with nutrition and choices and meals, that the 'easiest' route wasn't doing any good for anyone. You had a chance, JDRF, to do some educating and teaching and it completely passed you by.
12 comments:
I've seen this over and over. I think it's more than ease, but also expense, or lack thereof when it comes to pizza and ice cream.
Wouldn't it be nice, instead of sinking their money in to bags and squishy balls, if the pump and pen marketers sponsored a nice box lunch with their name on the box? They would get a lot more respect from us Dmoms.
I'm with Lorraine...ease and expense and IT IS TOO BAD. We do pizza rarely as a "choice" in our home, but run into it a lot in the community. Same with ice cream. The event looked nice though.
P.S. I still cannot get your button to work??? Is anyone else having probs with it?
Sounds like a great time! Though it would appear that SOMEONE needs to brush up on their carb counting skills!
My gripe isn't the menu, because I'd be THRILLED to offer pizza and ice cream to top off a fun filled day to my family.
Unfortunately, I can't.
I'm betting they didn't offer any gluten free options. I've learned that, time and time again, celiac is overlooked - despite the fact that 10% of people with T1 have it.
Oh gals - it WAS a great time, don't get me wrong. It's just that the lunch, well, left me feeling not-understood on many levels and disappointed that I was at a hospital, of all places, and they STILL got it wrong. Wendy - you know I actually thought of you and gluten free options. They missed the boat on that too. My oldest who has autism was GFCF for many years. Still CF (casein free) but gluten is back in her diet.
Reyna - I'm not sure why my bloggy button doesn't work for you. It seems to work on other's sites. Hmmmm... What exactly is the problem - does it not load? not send you back to this blog? picture not appear? Email me and let me know and I can try to work on it. Thanks.
Makes me think of our JDRF Walk where they serve IHOP pancakes in the morn then have a BBQ after...hot dogs, chips, soda, and cookies! Ugh, seriously!?! Thank goodness for insulin :-)
Can t1 kids have pizza and ice cream? yes. have my kids had it before? Why yes. But it isn't easy to bolus for. It is one of the most trickiest foods to bolus for. Not the smartest thing to serve to T1 families. It seems that ease won over this time.
Wow - Yep, I would have been pretty disappointed too. Did you get the chance to talk to someone? I am pretty vocal with things like that, so I would have complained... or maybe made a phone call or two after the event. They could have even done something like the Subway party subs... those are soooo easy to calculate... 4 inches of sub is 30 carbs. And chip bags would all be marked. Not to mention that it would have just been a HEALTHIER alternative for both T1's and non-T1's alike.
I wish I could say that's unbelievable! But, unfortunately, I've seen the same kind of thing myself...over and over again.
The very first event for type 1 kids that we ever attended was held at a local hospital. They served lasagna with Italian bread on the side. For dessert, they created a cookie decorating station with huge sugar cookies, gobs and gobs of frosting and sprinkles galore. I was shocked!
I just read this and have been shocked to see the same thing at similar events here. I think we should start a group that advocates for better nutrition education for T1 diabetic children and their families!!
Where was this. I too am clueless.
Hey Bennet,
It was at DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington DE. We are DuPont folks, not CHOP.
Post a Comment