Protein / low glycemic breakfast & snacks for 7 year old

[lunamoth88]

My 7 year old DD is having symptoms that seem like hypoglycemia. When she gets too hungry shes grouchy and lethargic and then gets a tummy ache and soesnt want to eat. Her doctor said we should just try to improve her diet and keep an eye on it for now.... She also grew a ton this year (went from being on the high end of the 7 year old height chart to being on the high end of the 9 year old chart in a couple of months, so maybe it has to do with that. We try to eat a fairly low glycemic diet in general, but she doesn't always like the options we give her... She also has to be careful about too much dairy because of constipation issues. Any suggestions for good snacks and breakfasts that won't have her carb crashing an hour later?

[Choose2Reuse]

Hi, I have blood sugar issues (gestational diabetes that didn't go away) so unfortunately know all about carbs and glycemic index stuff.  I can give you a few suggestions and then feel free to ask more specifics if you like! 

Usually the problem is that if you eat stuff that raises your blood sugar a lot, you release a lot of insulin and then your blood sugar crashes (sounds like that's what's happening to your daughter?).  So the trick is to keep the blood sugar steady by eating a lot of small meals with low-glycemic-index foods so that the blood sugar stays relatively steady.  Diabetes diets usually have you eat three meals and three snacks--eat something every 3-4 hrs.

Another trick is that fiber helps slow down carb absorption, so the more fiber something has, the better it is for blood sugar.  (You can get a similar effect by eating veggies with your carbs.) Similarly, if you eat your carbs with protein or fat, the absorption gets slowed down.  If you just eat carbs you can pretty much guarantee you will be hungry again soon!

One of the most surprising things to me was exactly how AWFUL wheat (and flours and grains in general, even 100% whole-grain wheat) are for my blood sugar.  Not awful like sugar maybe, but awful as in waaaaay worse than low-glycemic index stuff (I have to really reduce the amount of carbs I eat if I eat, say, even sprouted whole-wheat bread).  If your daughter eats a lot of grainy wheaty things, you might want to substitute some other starches (steel-cut oats, brown rice, beans, yams/sweet potatoes are all really good for blood sugar).  Oh!  also remember that milk and yogurt are carbs, and the lower-fat they are, the faster they hit your blood sugar.  Skim milk is basically sugar.

Breakfasts:

--eggs are really good, of course; you can add an egg to a starchy breakfast to get some protein.  Omelets, quiche, scrambled, fried...lots of ways to eat eggs!

--you can add walnuts (or nuts of some sort) to oatmeal for some fat.  My mother adds some protein powder to the milk for protein (but I think it's gross, sadly)

--steel-cut oats are really low glycemic index

--breakfast burritos are delicious (eggs, veggies, salsa, maybe beans, if you use rice use brown rice)

--greek yogurt with fruit & nuts is yummy.  Normal yogurt counts as a carb, but greek yogurt (the real kind with 20-odd g of protein/cup, not the fake "greek stye" stuff) counts as a protein.

--there are recipes for "ricotta pancakes" that are mostly egg & cheese with just a tiny bit of flour.  I haven't tried them but my mother says they're good!

--beware stuff like muffins and pancakes.  There are a LOT of carbs in a muffin, scone, etc and nothing to balance them out.
 

Snacks:

Here again you want to have your daughter eating some protein or fat with her carbs to prevent carb-crashing

--peanut butter (or almond butter, or whatever) on apple slices or banana

--peanut butter on crackers or sticks of celery or toast

--hummus dip with veggies or pita bread (this is just carbs but you could also give a slice of cheese or something, and it's fairly innocuous glycemic-index wise, especially with veggies)

--cheese & crackers

--greek yogurt with fruit & nuts

--Trail mix (fruit & nuts, not sugary)

Hope that helps--feel free to ask more and I'll try to answer if I can!