Reading is Fundamental

My daughter had a few late afternoon and evening lows last week.

When she's out and about, she carries juice boxes, glucose tabs and smarties. When she's home she prefers something different. There are occasional seasonal choices in the fridge like fresh apple cider or high-test lemonade leftover from a cookout. Usually, though, the home juice of choice is orange juice. She pours four ounces into her pink sippy cup and waits for the low to turn around. Nine times out of ten, unless she's under 50 or been exercising heavily, those 4 ounces bring the low up within 15 minutes and life goes on.



Last week, not so much. The lows seemed slower to respond. If it was dinner time and she hit 70 after 15 minutes, we'd eat and subtract some bolus insulin. Otherwise, she found herself adding more juice, or a little snack of fruit or crackers to make sure she came all the way up.

A couple of seemingly sticky lows in one week was weird. And a nuisance, especially at dinner time. What was going on? Maybe it had to do with impending full moon or some other such mysterious and passing variable. Or maybe something had changed and my daughter's new normal involved closer to 20 carbs per low.

Then I walked into the kitchen as she poured the last of the orange juice into her cup:

I accidentally bought low-carb orange juice. I don't drink it and my husband hadn't noticed when he slugged it down still half asleep in the mornings.

I read a lot of labels: cereals, snacks, bread, starches and countless other packages are fully assessed before they're consumed. I missed this one. Which explains why those lows wouldn't come up.






via Adventures in Diabetes Parenting