Feeding Advice

[meatball_mommy]

Hi there! Newly diagnosed 2.5 weeks ago. Moved within first week to DM. Meatball enjoyed it for a few days and pooped out. Moved to Fancy Feast (specific flavors that meet a good nutritional profile based upon Carb and Protein %) about a week ago and LOVING it. On ProZinc. Started with 1 unit, then moved to 2 units after a week. Just got home meter yesterday and started testing (spreadsheet in sig). We're sticking pretty religiously to feeding 1 can fancy feast (+ a small forkfull of DM to get rid of it) every 12 hours and dosing while he's eating. He's quite ravenous and just wondering if it's okay to feed him more and when. I've been reluctant to go outside the 12 hour window since I'm just starting home testing - basically I want to understand what the insulin is doing without the interference of food. But I also don't want to starve the little man! Just curious if there are any thoughts. Thanks in advance! New member Jo

 

[Wendy&Tiggy(GA)]

Hi and welcome to the board,

Good job on getting all set up.

It's the fancy feast classic pâtés right, or others under 10% calories from carbs? And is that leftover DM wet or dry? If its dry, shove it in the freezer for any possible not eating episodes later on.

Fancy feast classics are about 85calories a can so i think If my math is right, then he should be getting at least 2.5cans a day... and given he upis unregulated he may need more.. so I would increase the food. Weigh him every couple of weeks and adjust if his weight is going in the wrong direction..

How much to feed? Required calories per day = [13.6 X ideal weight in lbs] + 70

Also can you get some tests in at +5 to +7 to see if he is going lower then?

Wendy

 

[meatball_mommy]

Thanks, Wendy! Yeah, definitely the ones with less than 10% carbs (so mostly the classic or tender ones. I choose to stay away from seafood options and stick to beef/chicken). And, you're right. For his caloric intake, it's about 2.6 cans. From a calorie perspective, instead I've been doing 2 cans + about 1/3 of a can of DM to get him the calories. The DM is wet. We bought the dry, but after I read everything about dry food we put it in the back of the pantry. Aiming for an average of 235 calories a day. Tomorrow I start my first day off work for 5 weeks so a perfect time to be doing regular testing. I'll aim to get the +5 and +7 measures tomorrow. Sounds like, while I'm aiming to feed him the right amount of calories, it's not going to kill us right now to feed a bit more. He'll love that Thanks again - so great to just bounce stuff off of folks.

 

[BJM]

While you are working on regulation, its a good idea to test for ketones, a by-product of fat breakdown. Too many ketones may indicate diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially fatal, expensive to treat, complication of diabetes.

For some tips on urine testing, as well as other assessments you may wish to make, see my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools.