Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Handling Sleepy Lows

When Kacey was just a little over 2 years old, I was the "bad guy" and took her bottle away from her. Frankie and I fought constantly over whether this was the right decision or not because his Grandma let him have his bottle til he was ready to give it up, which happened to finally be when he was 7! Yes, 7 years old! I was disgusted by the thought of my baby having a bottle that long and so during the day I would make her drink from a sippy cup and at night she'd have a bottle for bed. Then I just replaced it with a sippy cup all together. Everyone parents differently and by no means am I bashing Moms who let their babies have bottles longer...it just wasn't for us. (Please no bad comments) In our search for sippy cups, we spent money on tons of cups to find the "right one" that wouldn't leak and was easy to wash. Thats when we found the Playtex Insulator. It was perfect for us! She had probably 10 cups and that didn't include the ones at Nae's house and Granny's house. LOL! Being the anal mommy that I am...her cup matched her outfits. Yes...I know....BAD! Maybe thats where she gets her "matching" analness (is that a word?) from...haha! Anyway, these cups went everywhere with us. They were dropped, they tumbled, they were thrown and never ever did we have problems with leaks. We LOVED them!

(I promise I will get to my point soon.....)

We finally found a drink that Kacey will drink for lows....GATORADE! She wouldn't drink it before because Gatorade brought back such bad memories of how sick she was before diagnosis. She was playing softball and she was downing the BIG bottles of Gatorade before a game and then not being able to make it through the game before she had to pee 3-4 times and then feeling sick at her stomach. This went on for a few weeks before diagnosis and then once she threw it up then she didn't want anything else to do with it. When she was diagnosed, she had these horrible thoughts about how Gatorade made her feel. She was sick....VERY sick. So when we were shopping the other day, we strolled the juice aisle, hoping to find something that sparked her interest and she she made the comment about Gatorade and asking to try it again. They now have the G2 which is low sugar (7 carbs per little bottle) so she chose that AND the high sugar one for lows. She ended up having her first low that same day and needed it....and.....IT WORKED! She drank it without being sugar sick and her low came right up!

Now to my point...
Last night, she went low during her sleep. She was only a 71 but she still had 1 unit of IOB and I knew she needed something but not much to bring her up. I opened a Gatorade and thought if I could get her to drink half of it then she'd be fine. I tried to wake her and she was really out of it. I put a straw in the bottle and tried to get her to drink. She was so dazed that she wouldn't drink. How do you all get your kids to drink during lows? I knew she was trying but it wasn't working. So I woke her up all the way for her to drink but she doesn't remember drinking.

Now I'm wondering if I need to go back to using a sippy cup? LOL! I worked so hard to finally take that stupid cup away from her and now I'm having thoughts of buying another one just to get her to drink.

6 comments:

Amy said...

I typically use a straw and it works well for Jada..last night, though...I gave her a banana and at first she tried to "drink" the banana. She thought I was giving her a juice box!!

Donna said...

Now, mind you, Jacob is only 3 - so this could be a bit different. =) But we use a juice box to bring up a low - the straw is easy for him to latch on to at night. Whats funny is sometimes when I am in just checking his sugar at night, he wakes up just enough to know I am there, but is still mostly asleep he will start sucking on nothing!! Haha Poor little guy. In addition to that because Jacob often wakes up thirsty at night we keep a playtex insulator cup full of water in bed with him. That way when he wakes up thirsty he doesnt have to get up to get a drink. =)

Wendy said...

LOVE THOSE SIPPIES!!!!!!!!!

So sad that my girls are out of the sippy stage already -- even Maya Papaya :(

But I do keep one on hand for just this sort of thing. Juice boxes work fine for Addy and she doesn't get that "sugar sick" feeling Kacey has. But for highs at night, I need something that she can drink water from without having to fully wake up.

Hence the sippy :)

PS -- LOVE IOB!!!!!! Looks like it saved the day yet again :)

Renata Porter said...

We use bannanas. Usually Milk too. I don't like juice boxes because it only solves the problem short term. We try to stay away from sugar only drinks or food. However, I will say that I just bought some new breakfast drinks. They are pretty high in protien and have a decent amount of sugar. Haven't had to use them yet, but I am sure we will when needed. Also, to get them to drink. I usually get in their face and they see I am serious. Probably sounds mean, but I think when they see Mom aint playin, they drink. Then it's all good when their BS comes back up.

Ronda said...

We use sippy cups during the night...she grabs those juice boxes and then before she gets the straw in her mouth, it squirts all over the place. Less mess with a sippy cup.

Lynnea said...

We use a sippy lid...had one still floating around the house when J.J. was diagnosed. Less mess than juice boxes..plus we tend to use milk for the lows at night. He doesn't even wake up, but will naturally start sucking when the lid is placed near his mouth. He says he doesn't remember drinking in the night!!:)