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The sweet life with a diabetic child
“The sugar alcohols in sugar-free candy can cause gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea, especially in younger kids. Regular candy can be a better option with insulin to cover it. It’s a myth that sugar-free is always better for people with diabetes.”
Every day during Diabetes Awareness Month, I will share a fact, tip, or thought on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
I wrote this in 2012, but it still rings true and I thought it was worth sharing again.
I’ve wondered lately if all this awareness-raising we do during Diabetes Awareness Month isn’t just preaching to the choir. Does anyone hear us who isn’t already affected by diabetes?
I was writing to our school’s parent email list and decided that I wanted to throw in a little diabetes information to help educate and advocate.
Hopefully, it will help someone better understand what type 1 diabetes is and isn’t. Hopefully, it will help a parent see the signs before their child is in DKA. Hopefully, an adult will convince his doctor that he has LADA and not type 2 diabetes.
Educate and advocate. If that’s all we as parents of a child with type 1 diabetes do, I think that’s enough.
November is Diabetes Awareness Month and November 14th is World Diabetes Day. November 14 is the birthday of Dr. Banting, who along with Best, discovered insulin in 1921.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease with no known cause and no cure. There is nothing that anyone can do to prevent it. For whatever reason, the body attacks and destroys the beta cells in the pancreas. People with type 1 diabetes do not make their own insulin, which is needed to convert food into fuel for the body. They must get insulin via injections or an insulin pump.
Type 1 diabetes is different than type 2 diabetes, which is a metabolic disorder. In type 2 diabetes the body continues to make insulin, but it does not use it efficiently. This is called insulin resistance. Though there is thought to be a genetic component, lifestyle can play a part in its development. People with type 2 diabetes may be able to control their blood sugar through diet and exercise but may also need to take oral medications or insulin injections.
Type 1 diabetes used to be called juvenile diabetes, but that term is no longer in favor because of its inaccurate connotations. Children with diabetes will continue to have type 1 diabetes when they become adults (i.e., they don’t outgrow it when they become adults and it does not become type 2 in adulthood). Also, almost 50% of new cases of type 1 diabetes are now diagnosed in those over 18.
80 children and adults are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes every day in the United States. Rates are increasing at 5% each year and scientists do not have an explanation. Approximately 1 in 400 children has type 1 diabetes.
It’s important to know the signs of diabetes for early diagnosis before it becomes life-threatening:
Diabetes Awareness Month Posts
World Diabetes Day Posts
(Originally published November 14, 2012.)
“A 504 plan is a fluid document put in place in school to ensure that children with diabetes are given the same opportunities as other students.”
Every day during Diabetes Awareness Month, I will share a fact, tip, or thought on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
“Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, in essence, states that people with diabetes cannot be discriminated against because of their medical condition.”
Every day during Diabetes Awareness Month, I will share a fact, tip, or thought on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
“Insulin is not a cure for type 1 diabetes. It keeps people with diabetes alive, but it does not make it go away.”
Every day during Diabetes Awareness Month, I will share a fact, tip, or thought on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
My son wanted a blue circle and a rainbow on his hand today.
Today is World Diabetes Day.
It’s the birthday of Banting, who with Best, discovered insulin in 1921.
I wish I had some fantastic post to share with you. Inspiring words, enlightening thoughts.
You can check in on Facebook every day this month where some of my daily thoughts have gone viral.
Last night as I snuggled in with my six-year-old — the sibling of a child with type 1 diabetes — one of the last topics of conversation was WDD.
Me: Tomorrow is World Diabetes Day.
6yo: Oh! You mean “hope?”
Me: Well, yeah.
6yo: I’d better wear my Hope shirt.
Me: It’s also a day for diabetes awareness. We can teach people about diabetes.
6yo: And if they don’t learn about diabetes tomorrow they can learn about it the next year? So every November 14th people can learn about diabetes? I never knew that.
Q was diagnosed with diabetes just before he turned one. He’s never known family life without diabetes.
He surprises me from time to time with reflections on his sister’s diabetes and thoughtful questions.
Sometimes he asks for juice boxes or reminds me that “Smarties aren’t just for low blood sugars.”
As we laid in bed together I glanced at her DexCom receiver, which gets handed off to me each night. He took it and began counting the red dots on the screen and commented that Q had been low.
“Sixteen red dots. Twelve white dots and four more white dots. Sixteen and 16, that’s 32 dots, right?”
I know today is supposed to be all about my daughter and highlighting her medical condition, but I think as we celebrate World Diabetes Day, I’ll not only celebrate my daughter’s strength and resilience, but also her brother’s caring and advocacy.
When he woke up this morning, he put on his “Hope” to cure diabetes shirt, adorned it with a WDD blue circle pin, and asked me to paint a rainbow on his hand.
(This was originally published November 14, 2013.)
Kids First, Diabetes Second Book
Diabetes Awareness Month Posts
World Diabetes Day Posts
“Though you want your child to eventually self-manage their diabetes, take back over care if it becomes too much for them or they need a break. They have their entire life with diabetes ahead of them.”
