When your child has diabetes, you will face many challenges. As a parent, you are not only managing the psychology, blood sugar levels, carbohydrates and insulin injections, but also the misconceptions of others around your child. Here's a few tips to help deal with some common issues:
1. It is not your fault! Remember these words because that feeling surfaces now and then. A common misconception that's often heard is, "What did you do; feed your child too much sugar?" You have two choices, either get angry or educate them. Most people will lump Juvenile diabetes and Type Two diabetics in the same big category. If the truth be known, most people don't realize that Juvenile diabetes is caused by an over active immune system that kills beta cells. Type two diabetes is caused by exhausted insulin making cells from the over consumption of carbohydrates.
2. Educate the school. Every teacher that teaches your child needs to be aware that your child is diabetic. The diabetic Association can provide a sheet that shows the illustrated symptoms of a child having low blood sugar. Make sure to tell the teachers that your child must be given the liberty to treat the symptoms without having to wait for their attention. At a very early age, diabetic children learn to discern when they are having low blood sugar. Make sure you emphasis the severity of the condition, most schools know the severity of anaphylactic children but may overlook the diabetics.
3. Allow your child to join sports teams. Speak to the coach and assure them that this is a healthy activity essential to lowering blood sugar. Most coaches will be nervous about having that responsibility but, be supportive and soon the coach will find that these children are extremely independent a responsible.
4. Sleep-overs and birthday parties are the most difficult of all social interactions there are. Remember to respond to invites by speaking to the parent and educating the parent about dietary restrictions with quantities that they understand, tell them how prepared your child is to treat themselves and what to do to help treat an emergency. Don't ever expect another parent to give an injection, so be sure to make yourself available. A lot of times the child will be left out of such activity and there really isn't much a parent can do except trying to get to know other parents in the school community. This social networking often opens the door to invites.
5. Teach your child how to cope with going out. Take them to restaurants and teach them how to guesstimate their carbohydrates. I know this sounds a little hard difficult, but practice at home with measures that can be accomplished without a measuring cup. Here's a few tips; a potato the size of mom's fist is about 30 grams of carbs, about a handful of cooked rice or 4 heaping soup spoons full is 30g carbs; experiment at home to find ways of doing inconspicuous measures and carbohydrate counts. Many commercial fast food restaurants will have a food guide and that will tell you exactly how much the carbohydrates are for their meal plans. When ordering that diet pop, don't be shy make sure that the server knows the consequences of a non diet pop mistake.
6. Teenagers can sometimes go into denial about their diabetes. Believe it or not, at a certain age kids will try to forgo their medication. The psychology is simply a matter of the child wanting to see for themselves. Some want to see if they still have it, while others are just frustrated with having to take injections. Be supportive, patient and sometimes you need to be firm and show them the consequences of untreated high blood sugars. Either way, it passes but, be mindful because it does happen often and you need to be on top of it right away.
As the parent of a diabetic child, you are chosen to stand by and raise a perfectly healthy child with a disease. Educate those around you and don't be too hard on yourself. Remember your child will become very responsible and should be given the freedom of independence no matter how difficult it may seem to be.