Hosting and kids' parties

If you're cooking for someone with type 1, or your child has been invited to a birthday party, a little information and a reliable schedule help far more than a special menu. This page is for hosts, relatives and parents: what genuinely helps at the table, the timing problem nobody explains, and how to make kids' parties work.

If you're cooking for someone with type 1

Not helpful

• Making a separate "diabetic meal"
• Pushing second helpings: that's a second dose, not just more food
• Asking "are you allowed that?"
• Buying sugar-free versions as a kindness
• Announcing to the table why the menu changed

A Nutrition Facts table is worth more than any reassurance. "There's barely any sugar in it" is not a number anyone can dose from. If you're serving something packaged, keep the box; the page on reading a Nutrition Facts table explains what the guest will be looking for.

The delay problem

This is rarely explained to hosts, and it's one of the most common causes of a low at a family dinner.

Many people with type 1 dose 15 to 20 minutes before eating. If dinner then slips an hour (speeches first, one more round of drinks), the insulin is already working and the food isn't there.

Birthday cake, loot bags and kids' parties

Going to parties matters for a child's friendships and independence. The answer is never to stay home. It's to plan a bit, and accept that it won't be perfect.

Before

Ask the host what food there is and roughly when. Suggest that the running-around games come after eating rather than before.

During

A plate of food is easier to dose than two hours of grazing. Activity lowers glucose, so a party is not an ordinary afternoon.

The cake, and the loot bag

Both are yes. The sweets in the bag double as hypo treatment later. There is no reason for a child to be the only one without one.

This last point is counterintuitive, so it's worth saying twice. The instinct to compensate for a party by restricting food afterwards is strong, and it does real harm. Withholding food to correct a high doesn't work, and it can be a step toward disordered eating.