Long time since I was here, but came back cause I need help gals

Wow, its been a while since I have been back to pg.org and wow its changed.. I like it!

I am a June Jitterbug and my daughter Pagan was born June 3rd (this is a new account because I can't for the life of me remember the old password or email associated with it.. LOL) Some of you other June mommies will know who I am if you pay attention to facebook.

I will try to make this a short story (I apologize if its beyond novel length.. I can get long winded sometimes)

Around the time my daughter was 15 months old, her "sperm donor" as I now call him, decided to go on a drug binge and threatened to kill her.. I made a choice that no mother or parent should ever have to make and I called CPS for help (they were involved after she was born but they closed the file).. I voluntarily placed her into their care so they could do one thing at the time that I knew I couldn't.. keep her safe... and they did. They got me out of the situation too and helped me get back on my feet after losing everything. March 21st, 2011 was the day .. well it felt like my first day as being a mom but without all the labor pains.. and my daughter was returned to me.. and me and her became an unstoppable duo.. BUT she came home sick..

We were in and out of the hospital serveral times before I woke up and went to get her for breakfast and she wouldn't wake up. I called 911 and we spent a week in the hospital.. at the time we got to the ER they tested her sugars and they were at a 2...she had a chest cold that every time I was at the hospital or dr's office I was told to keep her home and let her rest it off.. then she started puking.. she couldn't keep anything down and that lead to her unconsious state. A week later and after a few tests they determined she had a chest cold and unfortunately had caught a stomach flu which lead to all of this...

Fast forward to a week shy of a year of all of that happening.. she has been very healthy.. I am the one who has been sick and she never catches a thing (lucky girl.. I want her luck sometimes...LOL) but anyways.. Saturday night I noticed she was getting stuffy and congested.. and she kept waking up throughout the night crying.. Sunday.. full blown head/chest cold.. refusing drinks, food.. anything.. she was still semi-active.. she would play for 30-45 minutes then lay on the couch and cuddle for 30 minutes.. I tried everything to get her to eat.. but she wasn't having it.. She went to bed Sunday night at 9pm and I woke up at 10:30am well before her.. I tried to wake her up but she would just look at me and roll over.. I knew something was up.. I turned the tv in the living room on to her favorite tv show and she sluggishly walked down the hall.. she sat on the couch and just as I put her breakfast beside her.. the water she had been drinking throughout the night (it was the only time she drank).. all of it.. puked right up all over her.. I literally cried NO because I knew what this meant.. another trip to the ER and possible admission..

We got to the ER around noon and she was running around, playing.. you'd never know the kid was sick... after she puked her energy came back..I told the hospital.. same symptoms as last year, blah blah type of stuff so they knew to look in her records.. luckily for us.. the pedi that was on duty.. was the one who admitted her last year.. so when they told him what was going on.. he sent his head resident down asap to check her out.. by 4:30 we were no longer in the minor er area.. we were in the major er area and they were hooking Pagan up to the IV.. she went from a playful little girl to a baby who couldn't stay awake.. we were admitted and taken to a room by 7pm.. her ketone levels in her urine were beyond higher then they should be when we arrived at the ER but her sugar was ok.. throughout the night they tested her blood sugar and the lowest it got was a 3.6.. the next day I was told we would be going home even though she had a fever and was not eating.. they did not tell me what was wrong, just that they sent cultures to the sick kids hospital in Toronto to get answers...

Then the dietician came in.. and yeah.. my mind is just mush.. she gave me all this paperwork on hypoglycemia, reactive hypoglycemia, ketotic hypoglycemia.... and told me that I had to change the way we eat to accommodate her now.. I am more then fine with that but the diet she gave me.. it is the diet we are basically on.. I am borderline diabetic so I already follow a diet of whole grains, fruits and veggies.. I just need to tweak it a little bit for her.. so that she has 6 mini meals a day instead of 3 meals and 3 snacks.. no biggie.. I was already lucky because my daughter doesn't like candy, sweets or chocolate.. you put junk food in front of her and a bowl of fruit.. she will grab the fruit..

But my dilemma now is we've been home for one full day and I am working on adjusting to 6 meals a day.. today we did 5.. she passed out for her afternoon meal and I wasn't gonna wake her.. she was soo tired...she literally kicked her shoes off when we came back from shopping and went to bed.. how many 2 year olds do that?? So yeah.. I let her sleep for an hour and then we had .. not a mini snack but a joined snack.. I combined 2 mini snacks into one .. but thing is.. with all these meals.. she hasn't eaten barely anything.. today in total she ate 5 cheese cubes, a finger full of hummus, 2/3 of a mini hot dog and a few sips of water and homo milk.. she is refusing to eat anything.. they did not give me anything to monitor her blood sugars.. just said if she gets a fever to call the dr during clinic hours.. but yet they released her from the hospital with a fever..

I am worried about what will happen if she keeps this up and won't eat.. I can't and won't restrain her to eat because to me that's inhumane.. I have gotten advice from loads of people on the types of food to feed her.. and a mom from my June board suggested a way to entice her to want to eat her foods, but I tried it tonight and she ignored it... I give her gummy vitamins and normally she eats like 4 of them.. she loves them.. tonight she told me to throw them out, she doesn't like them anymore.. I near bout cried.. not over the gummy's.. at the fact that this whole ordeal has changed my baby sooooo much. I truly have no idea how to make her eat.. Tuesday night after we got home from the hospital I had a neighbor come over to help me since Pagan kept passing out and the hospital nurse had told me to make sure she eats before bed.. my friend suggested we go to the store to get a treat..as soon as she had the sugar she was fine.. by the time we got home she was ready for bed.

Does anyone have any experience with hypoglycemia in toddlers or kids.. and if so.. when their bodies go into "fasting" mode, do you have any tips on how to snap them out of it... Any suggestions are more then welcomed at this point because I am scared of what tomorrow may have in store for us.

I think you need to call the clinic as soon as it opens tomorrow. I did a quick google search on Hypoglycemia and she should be getting insulin and be testing blood sugar from what I've seen.

As far as getting toddlers to eat - have you tried a offering food in an ice cube tray? I do that sometimes for my kids for fun. I put little tiny bits of food in each ice cube part. It's fun, it's just little bit of each food (she'll have to like something right?).

*hugs* I'm sorry you are going through this. It must be really scary!!!

I remember you! I'm so sorry she's sick, but I'm SO happy you are great otherwise and ditched the sperm donor.

I have many diabetics in my family so I'm familiar with blood sugar issues. I think you need more professional opinions. Perhaps a specialist? Hypoglycemia is generally an indicator of something else going on. Being that this condition hasn't stayed constant, there could very well be something else causing it.

As far as food, until you have more answers I'd keep food out all the time. What ever you know she likes, keep where she can get to it. And baby her a bit until things get worked out. When she's not eating, there is really no bad food ya know? Higher sugar foods help when they crash so I'd always keep them on hand. When she seems like she's starting to crash, get out her favorite juice or maybe you could talk her into a couple M&Ms or something. My grandfather travels with a candy bar instead of glucose paste. Figures sugar is sugar so if he's crashing he may as well enjoy it, lol.

What I know about the serious forms of Hypoglycemia is that it needs to be monitored just as closely as a type I diabetic. You should have both urine dipsticks and a blood glucose monitor and take readings of both multiple times a day. This way you can be proactive about diet, not reactionary. I know that once your body goes into ketosis (a harmless natural process for healthy people and part of various controlled fasting), you don't feel all that hungry. You don't feel hungry because your body is burning fat to get glucose - by products being ketones. If she's in this cycle, it's probably a reason she's not eating much. Eating more sugars/carbs will throw a healthy person back out of it in no time. Like a glass of juice and a bagel does the trick. Although eating a bunch of carbs and coming out of ketosis can also cause fatigue... "carb-o-crash" as it were. Takes a day or so to get back on an even keel.

I really don't think the doctors you have seen thus far are helping you enough. I hope you are able to get it under control soon. My prayers are with you <3

Thanks Tink and Lina..

I have gone to her nurse practitioner (yesterday) and I got a blood sugar monitor.. its the exact same kind I had when I was preggo with her...LOL Only difference is that the test stripes have butterflies on them now o.O She also told me that it is reactive hypoglycemia and I need to make drastic changes to our eating habits in order to control it.. she had no clue we were on an uber healthy diet already.. she assumed that Pagan ate alot of junk food.. nope... since I am borderline diabetic, she said the way I have to adjust our diet would work for me too but I need to keep an eye on how I feel as it could hurt my sugars.

The NP told me she is the opposite of a diabetic.. so to speak.. a diabetic has trouble producing insulin, Pagan produces too much and therefore she burns her sugars off too quickly unless she has carbs to level them off to release at a slower rate. If she has just a chocolate bar.. or even a few skittles.. her sugars will rise and about 15-20 minutes later she will crash and want to sleep... and she shouldn't be crashing that badly.

I also went to the library and got the Hypoglycemia for Dummies book and yeah.. alot of her faves she can't eat anymore. Here is a cheat sheet I need to follow.. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...eat-sheet.html She can't have her beloved hot dogs, cheeseburgers, deli meats.. nothing...we say bye bye to eating out at our favorite restaurants.

She started eating yesterday and so far I make up a veggie and fruit tray that she gets every 2 hours. Thank god she loves fruits and veggies.. she never really liked junk food, so that is somewhat of a blessing. I have read a few things in the "Dummies" book and after looking at meat around here (aka not alot of it is organic) I am making a choice of going vegetarian.. meat-wise she is only allowed organic lean/extra lean meats and I went to the local farmers market this morning and none of it was organic.. I was soo discouraged. We have a health food store here and I looked at their organic meat.. it was over priced and over processed that I am shocked they could call it organic...lol

I do have a friend from one of Pagan's baby groups who is going to help me get in contact with some farmers for organic veggies and fruits and she is apart of an organic co-op group so I can make an order for certain fruits and veggies monthly.. I got a bunch of vegetarian cookbooks today.. and omg I was drooling in the library they looked soo good. We were almost veggie people anyways.. I had cut out most of our red meat and was on my way to cut out the rest of the red meat and white meat.. I was hoping to gradually adjust to this but Pagan kinda made me stop procrastinating on that and yeah.. by next week we will be fully veggie people..

I was told she could still have some treats as long as she has an equal amount of carbs to even out the release of the sugar in her system.. so easter.. yeah I am not 100% sure how I am going to pull that off.. or even her birthday cake.. but one step at a time.. first I need to get her sugars under control.

Her NP also told me when she gets sick.. her metabolism will automatically start to absorb her own glucose instead of requiring her to get it from foods and she will more then likely enter a fasting phase(like you mentioned Lina).. when she is this young, whenever this happens I am to take her to the ER, let them know whats going on and they will hook her up to an IV to get her fluids.. I would assume as she gets older she will understand that her body may say she is not hungry but she will know she needs to force herself to get something into her. I also think its why I am having soo much trouble getting her to eat.. she is still sick.. she has a head cold and she doesn't want to eat much...but she is drinking loads now.. and with her starting to eat little bits yesterday.. it looks like we may be heading in a good direction.

I have told her home daycare provider and she seems on board with it but I don't know if her stuff is organic or not.. so she told me before that if Pagan needs to eat things that she does not normal buy or give her daycare kids, I would have to pack Pagan's 3 mini meals.. when we talked last, I gave her a guideline of the foods Pagan must have and when she gives out sugary snacks how to compensate with carbs and proteins.. she told me the kids at her daycare will eat the same things as Pagan because it is the healthiest (healthier) then what she is feeding them now. I am going to look through my cookbooks and find treat snacks that she can make as well.. and I will be making them and including them so when she gives her daycare kids a granola bar, she can give Pagan a healthier version that looks similar. My goal at daycare is to not make Pagan have a freak out everytime the other kids have something she can't eat.. so I figure if I make a healthier version from scratch, it may help... and I will still send the 3 mini meals that way I can be sure the proper foods are there in case the daycare worker runs out of something.

I'm so glad you were able to meet with the doctor to go over all this. It sounds like you have a good handle on your plan. I have a great recipe for granola - see here: http://www.thegranolachronicles.com/...n-granola.html I think it would work well if she's wanting something sugar, but the oats should cancel out the sugar.

Good luck!

ooo ... thanks Mel, she is gonna love that... (so will I... teehee)

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Originally Posted by efresch

ooo ... thanks Mel, she is gonna love that... (so will I... teehee)

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It's good! We add raisins, craisins, pretzels etc. to it sometimes as well!

How are things going so far?

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Originally Posted by tink9702

It's good! We add raisins, craisins, pretzels etc. to it sometimes as well!

How are things going so far?

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Beware another long winded post.. (I swear I don't even talk face to face this much...LOL)

I wrote out a few recipes for snacks like the Honey Granola one you put in.. and I am all geared up and ready for the weekend to come to go get ingredients and get in the kitchen.. we soo need snacks that are not just veggies and dip with fruit cubes.. LOL

I've been reading the Hypoglycemia for Dummies book and its helping alot.. too bad the people in the medical field don't seem to agree with anything in this book. I have people telling me don't go all organic, don't become full on veggie eaters(these are the people who think vegetarians are aliens I assume since they are pushing fatty meats on me), and I had someone today tell me to just look at the nutritional values on the back(side) of the packaging and do some math in your head to figure out how much sugar is in each thing... if the amount of sugar is low compared to the caloric count, then its ok..umm.. I was good at math like .. oh about 11 years ago when I was still in school.. but now.. LOL.. yeah nope.. with everything else going on.. standing in a store and dividing the amount of sugar(g) by the amount of calories.. with a 2 year old.. thats just asking toooooo much.

We went out to a baby group tonight (they were having a temperaments workshop - according to the evaluation they did of us and the kids.. Pagan really is a mini me.. we were spot on identical for all but one thing.. I am a bit more shy in public and she is not) and they offered dinner.. I had to look at the packaging, and talk to the lady who cooked it all.. they were somewhat clueless when I was asking how much sugar is in it.. even the spaghetti sauce was partially homemade (tomatoes came from a can) but she didn't even know if she added any sugar on top of what was in the canned tomatoes.. It kinda gave me an idea of how I need to be when we are out in public and we have to eat out.. I have to be skeptical about everything until it comes to me like second nature. Even after the workshop, the children were in a different area being taken care of while the parents took the workshop in a trailer on site.. I asked what Pagan ate and I feel I was lied to.. they told me she ate some spaghetti and some caesar salad.. I know they lied about the salad because Pagan HATES lettuce and there were no croutons on it so she would not touch it anyways. When we go shopping Friday, it will be easier as the store we are now going to be shopping at(only store in town that has a large variety of organic produce and meat) is NOT connected to a mall or any fast food joints, so I can hopefully manage to get her in and out of the store and as long as I have her snacks(mini meals) we should be ok till we get home.

Daycare is tricky and I am still debating on if I am going to pull her or not.. her first day back and I told the lady what she needs to eat... she gave her none of it.. for snack she had p-butter and crackers... she needed a fruit with it but didn't get it.. for lunch spaghetti.. no veggie or fruit and afternoon snack was 1/4 of a multi-grain bagel with cream cheese from Tim Hortons... multi-grain bagels are mainly made with white flour which is a no no and the cream cheese is processed so again a no no. When I picked her up she was soo cranky and she cried the whole walk home.. I tested her sugars and yea... needless to say she got a tiny drink of pop to bring her sugars back up so they were in the range of normal(4-7.. they were 3.6 when I tested)while I made up a proper snack for her to eat. I have talked to the daycare worker (she is in home daycare) and she has told me I will need to pack her lunch for her, snacks when we go organic next week, so I now get to dish out extra on organic food because its not cheap and it isn't that much more expensive but its still pricey.. but I also get to pay this lady for watching her(the cost is also to cover feeding her too).. I have offered to drop food off at her house so she could make her something but she told me her daughter (who is around 12/13) would eat it.. o.O I am a stay at home mom and the only reason she is in daycare is to mingle with other kids, but I am noticing that the amount of kids this lady had when she started going is slowly dwindling and she doesn't have many kids on the days my little mini me is there. (My fiance and his mom have both told me to pull her). I called and left a message last night saying I was pulling her till I got her diet figured out.. and she called me back and yeah I am a sucker cause I gave her another chance.. but I packed her food and detailed a menu that she needed to follow.. today I sent a full mini watermelon for her to give to all the kids with an afternoon snack (its not organic so figured the kids would enjoy it).. she sent it back.. untouched but in a baggie she had a few watermelon cubes.. it was loaded with seeds.. I don't give Pagan that.. I give her seedless only because she WILL attempt to swallow the seeds and choke on them... IDK.. I am just frustrated with the daycare situation.. any advice here is welcome because .. yeah.. lol

As for recipes, the Dummies book says all fresh organic meat/fruit/veggies are perfect because there is no risk of the chemicals on the regular stuff hurting her metabolism. I am figuring we will have organic chicken breast 2 times a week.. maybe for a lunch depending on the price.. if not turkey instead of chicken.. so we won't be full on veggies people but we will be pretty close.

I am however noticing that how we are eating is affecting my sugars.. I am borderline diabetic so I am not producing enough insulin and Pagan produces too much so I have to find that middle balancing ground to make it so I am not out of whack on my sugars as well. I had a bit of chocolate at the workshop(2 tiny mini eggs things) and by the time we got home I had a raging headache(also shared Pagan's bedtime snack which should have leveled it all out) and when I laid down with Pagan at bedtime.. I fell asleep with her, woke up an hour later and I was soo out of it.. I couldn't focus my eyes that well.. I had a hard time getting up.. so when I was able to.. I came out (I checked my sugars before her bedtime because of the headache and they were 6.3.. after I woke up and made it out to the living room.. I was bordering 3.8.. close to normal but a fast drop for just an hour).. but after I checked my sugars, I hopped to the kitchen took a sip of pop and made up some watermelon cubes with some marble cheese cubes and now I am ok.. tired because it is now past bedtime but my headache is gone and I feel a whole lot better. I am going to call my NP tomorrow and see if I can get her to send in the paperwork to the lab for me to go in and do the glucose test.. its been about 6 months but with Pagan's recent health development.. I would like to know where I am at so I can find our even balancing ground when making up meal plans.

I'm glad things are under control-ish. Yeah, even as wide spread as diabetes is, most don't have a clue about the diet.

Didn't even think about balancing out both of you! Yikes, that makes it even more difficult. Can you just give you and her different proportions of the same food?

Do you have an area that you can do a container garden this summer for your own produce that you know is organic? The more cooking you can do that is homemade the better in this situation, but it's tough, a lot more work etc.

Personally I'd give the daycare provider one week. If I didn't think she was doing what I wanted, I'd pull her. Then find story times at the library, playgroups, moms groups etc. to go to with Pagan so she still has exposure to other kids. Most of those things are free. You could also do a music class, swim class, gymnastics class etc. once a week.

hang in there, you'll be a pro at this in no time!