<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

My son Nicolas was 3 years old when diagnosed diabetic.  Later tests
showed him to also be celiac (like his uncles).  Furthermore, Nicolas is
very allergic to milk and unusually tall for his age (outside and above the
growth curve).  Since he was about 14 months old, he also has
displayed "mild" autistic symptoms, head banging, thumping, destructive
tendencies, etc., forcing us to remove him from daycare (uncontrollable
crying) and making it impossible to find a babysitter (he seemed not to
understand what a caregiver was trying to tell him).

     Our son is now 5 years old and we are hoping to enroll him in
kindergarten this year.  Our main concerns are his wildly fluctuating blood
sugars, which do not seem to be controlled well
with insulin, and that do
not necessarily correspond to food/carbohydrate intake.  He seems to stay
on a "see-saw", with blood sugars falling rapidly during sleep or exercise
and rising dramatically with even a minimal stress.

     After seeing a program on tv noting types of foods that "help" to
balance the hormone system (mainly aimed at people with thyroid problems)
we started eating more soy.  For whatever reason, soy seems to help
stabilize Nicolas' blood sugar and help him to relax, to remain more calm.
I have never seen soy specifically mentioned as being useful for
diabetic/celiac children, has anyone noticed this effect in their child?
We find that soy milk alone is not enough, that he needs to eat a bit more
(for example, soy pasta) to have the beneficial effect.  We know that
thyroid problems are often found in children with the problems Nicolas has.

     We would put Nicolas on the pump immediately if we felt it would truly
help his problem, but statistics show that pump users have only a slightly
better HbA1c than non-pump users!  Seems to me that if insulin alone was
the problem, that the pump users should have a much better HbA1c...could
these problems be due to the inability to find a stable hormonal balance?

     I would love to chat with other parents of children with similar
problems.  You can contact me directly at [log in to unmask]

     Best regards to all,
Sherri McFerran Russo