Jelly Beans

What do you use to treat a low blood sugar (less than 4 mmol/l, 72 mg/dl) ?

Whatever you choose, it should be

made of fast-acting sugar, ie not a complex carbohydrate like a piece of bread, cereal or grains
on the packaging, ensure it is 90% or more ‘carbohydate’. Simon and Lucy both use jelly beans from Nature’s Confectionary Company – each jelly bean is about 3g of carbohydrate (they are quite small, normal jelly beans are approx 3x bigger). These jelly beans are also gluten free
easy to carry round, and not get stuck to the wrapper (this happens with barley sugars)
easy to find in a shop if you don’t have any on you

Good Hypo Foods

Jelly beans (also good for coeliacs like Lucy, as GF varieties are available)
Jelly babies
Juice boxes – these are far better at night for kids. Unlike jelly beans, they don’t stick to teeth and cause dental issues later on. Ideally teeth should be cleaned at night after hypo feed is eaten, but often this is the last thing you feel like doing
Some people use glucose tablets, but to my mind they are an unnecessarily high-cost alternative

When you have a hypo, Jade will tell you how many jelly beans (or whatever hypo food you use) are needed to recover.

If you’re not low yet, it will tell you how many carbs to have, and by when, to avoid an upcoming low.