Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Wonderful Wizard of Walmart

As much as I dislike going there, I am one of those people that seems to always be going to Walmart. The place drives me nuts! It's always busy...full of a special breed of people wandering the aisles with their screaming children and leaving their carts in the middle of everything making it impossible for you to get by without moving their cart for them resulting in you being on the receiving end of getting the infamous "stink eye" for touching their cart. Going there on a weekend is pretty much pure self torture. In any case, they sure do make it convenient one stop shopping now. I am the type who will usually wind up needing the most random of things all at the same time...like strawberries, a birthday present for Emma's friend, some toilet bowl cleaner, cat food, and a new swim suit for Emma. I don't know anywhere else really that I can find all of those things at the same place for relatively cheap...so off to Walmart I go. I thought I was smart this time though and I decided to go after I picked Emma up from school on Friday. We parked the car in the first open spot which happened to be in the back field...back where the crows are circling overhead...waiting and watching you...crows are creepy. Anyhoo, we began our trek up to the store chatting away about Emma's day at school...the sun was shining...it was a beautiful day. As we approached the doors, I was mentally gearing myself up for the masses of stupid people about to bombard me. Much to my surprise....the place was fairly quiet! However, the smell of pure sugar hit us like a brick wall as soon as we entered the wonderful world of Walmart. They had a table set up out front and were selling bags of bright pink and blue cotton candy for charity. Yes, as I was preparing myself mentally for the crowd and mapping out my yellow brick road-type route in my head of the quickest way in and out of the store....I should have been thinking of excuses for NOT buying a $2 bag of cotton candy. UGH. Emma instantly began the begging routine...."PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE MOMMY? Can I PLEASE have some cotton candy??? It's ONLY $2!! PLEASE??? I won't ask for ANYTHING else for the rest of my life if you just PLEASE buy me some cotton candy??" Double UGH. That is the one "food" item I have yet to let Emma have since diabetes. I live in Canada and at our clinics here we are told upon diagnosis that they are allowed to eat absolutely anything they would have eaten (ate?) before...I just need to count the carbs and give the necessary insulin to cover it. It works out just fine for us. However, I have always been leary of the whole cotton candy situation...I mean it's pure sugar...that's all it is...straight sugar...I picture the roller coaster climb to a high and the lightening fast drop to a low after eating it. So, I have never done it...luckily she has never asked for it either...until last Friday! I thought I would just ignore the begging and keep on my yellow brick road path of the store and see if she would drop it. That was a big NO. She continued on and on and on....so finally I had to say no. I have no problem telling her no. I just wasn't sure about using the diabetes as a reason for the no. So, i told her that it was too close to supper and she already had her afternoon snack...so no...we wouldn't be getting any cotton candy today. She was heart broken....I felt like crap...wanting to cry every time we walked past a little kid happily munching away on some with pink and blue fluffy cotton candy stuck to his face. It made me mad. I wish my kid could do that too. What do ya do though...another obstacle climbed and passed over to the best of our ability at the time. Curse you Walmart...and yer little friend, Cotton Candy too!!!
On a positive note, we went out for dinner tonite and I had to guess the carbs completely on absolutely everything Emma ate. Two hours later...she was a nice even 7.6 (136 for those in the states)...awesome! I love when I guess right. It was a good day.

6 comments:

  1. Count yourself lucky! Mikayla is one of those kids that the 'count crabs and eat what you want' DOESN'T work for. There is no sugary treats here unless someone is blowing out candles on a birthday cake.

    Besides Cotton Candy is just plain BAD for you so you should feel GOOD about saying no. Sometimes saying no to food doesn't have to be about Diabetes sometimes its just healthy parenting.

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  2. I'm sorry to hear that the eating what you want thing doesnt work for Mikayla, Sara! That must be difficult! I agree...cotton candy IS bad for you...which is why i think Emma has really only ever had it 2 times her whole life. Just was sad to me to see other kids enjoying a treat while Emma couldn't...another reminder that diabetes has in fact made us different from the rest.

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  3. You know...I think a little cotton candy here and there is OK. Joe likes to have it at our annual state fair...and surprisingly it doesn't have as much carbs as you think b/c it is mostly air. He is on the pump so it makes his regimen somewhat more flexible. I think once in awhile...like anything in life...is OK. I hope you don't think any less of me for voicing my humble opinion on this one. xoxo

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  4. We rarely go to Walmart. I love your description of the people who tend to go there!

    My daughter had cotton candy at the circus the other day. I let her have cotton candy a while ago and she did exactly what you said: I bolused, she dropped low. (Read about it here: http://www.d-mom.com/cotton-candy/_

    Perhaps next time you can indulge by buying the cotton candy for her, but taking it home to eat with a meal or when you can keep a good eye on her.

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  5. we are pretty lucky cuz the one cotton candy incident we had was at a festival last summer and Bryce just happened to be going low so we were like "you want cotton candy? well YES, please, eat some cotton candy!! and eat it now!"

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  6. I totally agree ladies...everyone deserves a treat now and again! Cotton candy has always been the one thing that has freaked me out though to give her...lolol...i am sure i will attempt it one of these days. Try to plan it around activity or something.

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