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Subscribe to our Parents' E-Newsletter! Twice a month we'll send you a quick summary of news, information, resources, quick tips, and special offers just for parents of children with diabetes. Click here to subscribe! We Need Your Help! In order to better serve you with the information most appropriate to you, we need to hear from you: Please create a site profile. Did you know that by registering with the ADA Web site, diabetes.org, you will be provided with the diabetes information that is most interesting and relevant to you? Simply click here to begin. Once you have chosen your username and password, please take a few moments to tell us what type of diabetes information you are looking for and we'll do the rest! A Child You Care About Has Type 1 Diabetes Click here to download our brochure, "A Child You Care About Has Type 1 Diabetes." Perfect for caregivers, friends, grandparents, and other family members. "HELP! My Child Has Diabetes!" Okay. Your child has been diagnosed with diabetes. First things first. You're in the right place. The American Diabetes Association can help. This web page, and others on the diabetes.org site, can help you with everything you need to know and do in order to get diabetes under control. And if you ever have any questions, need more help, or can't find an answer to a question, just e-mail us. Send us an e-mail to wizdom@diabetes.org. We'll answer your question, give you more resources, books, Web links, and more, and we'll do it fast. Now, diabetes. There are 3 main things you need to learn about. In sum, diabetes is a giant juggling act. You (and your child) need to learn to juggle (1) food, (2) exercise, and (3) medication (insulin if your child has type 1 diabetes; insulin and/or other medications if your child has type 2). Once you learn to manage those three things, you're on your way toward good diabetes management. But diabetes doesn't stop there. Diabetes effects every aspect of your life, from what you eat, to family vacations. From sending your child to school to your marriage. But that's what we're here for, to help you learn more about all of this and to help you deal with it. Read on! Does Your Family Have a Wizdom Kit? Wizdom is a kit of information and education for families of kids with diabetes, free from the American Diabetes Association. Each kit contains two books-- one for kids and one just for parents-- each containing everything you need to know to get started on the road to good diabetes management. Click here for more information on the goals of control. Emotions A diagnosis of diabetes can send shock waves through your entire family. It will take some time for your family to work through all the emotions that started with the diagnosis-- but it will happen. Caring for diabetes will simply become a part of family life. But in the first weeks and months after diagnosis, expect that you, your child, and your family will experience an array of emotions. For more information, see our Tips for Helping Your Child Cope with Diabetes. Your Family and Diabetes Diabetes affects the whole family-- parents and siblings as well as the child with diabetes. It may also have some impact on your choices as parents and on the relationships between family members. It helps to learn more about some of the challenges that diabetes can bring to parenting and family life and ways to deal with those challenges successfully. In general, your kids will take their cue from you. If you treat diabetes in a matter-of-fact way, your kids and others will follow suit. If parents panic at every high blood sugar, so will they. After the initial adjustment, diabetes can become just another part of what makes your family unique. Coping With Diabetes…For Parents Earlier, you read tips for helping your child cope with diabetes. Many of those same tips can help parents, as well: As you learn more, you’ll feel more confident about caring for diabetes and you’ll be able to explain diabetes to your child (and others) more easily. (Check out Chapter 16 for resources for learning more.) Talk about it. You’re trying to remain strong and upbeat for your child’s sake. But you need to talk about your feelings and reactions to diabetes, too. Make some time to talk with your spouse, a close friend, or a counselor. Do your favorite things. Just as diabetes shouldn’t hold your child back, it shouldn’t hold you back, either. Give yourself the gift of time—time to do things you enjoy, time for you and/or your spouse to get away from it all, time to just play with your kids without worrying about diabetes. It may take a little more planning, but you can do it. Work as a team. The whole family can pitch in to care for your child’s diabetes. Both parents should know how to give shots, test blood sugar, interpret blood sugar results, and treat hypo- and hyperglycemia. Depending on age, siblings can also keep a watch for hypoglycemic symptoms, help write blood sugar results in the logbook, and even learn how to test blood sugar. The more support your child has from the rest of the family, the easier it will be to stay on track in her diabetes care. Participation in diabetes care by the rest of the family can also help prevent "diabetes burnout" in your child or in the parent most involved in diabetes care. Stress Relievers No matter how well you’re coping, diabetes brings a lot of added stress. Try some of these ways to reduce stress.
Diabetes and Marriage Your child’s diabetes diagnosis is a major family event. Like any crisis, diabetes can put a strain on your marriage relationship. You and your spouse may have had very different reactions—maybe one expressed a lot of anger, and the other felt depressed. Give your spouse the freedom to react differently from you—and give each other time and kindness during this difficult time. Communication is an important part of any marriage, but it is doubly important when you’re feeling the strain of diabetes. Cultivate open, honest conversations between you and your spouse. When you’re upset, try to use "I" statements rather than "you" statements: "I feel overwhelmed by diabetes care. I’d like you to help with blood sugar testing." rather than "You never help with diabetes care!" Take some time together…alone. It’s natural to fear leaving your child with someone else—especially when diabetes enters the picture. But you and your spouse need times of refreshment and renewal. Teach an adult you trust about diabetes care. Then go out for dinner, leaving your child in the person’s care. The first time, you’ll probably spend more time checking up on the babysitter than eating dinner! But after a few times, you’ll be able to trust that your child is getting good care. Eventually, you may feel comfortable enough to take short trips away. Eating Disorders Do you think that your child or teen may have an eating disorder? More and more teens, especially girls, with diabetes do. Maybe she's skipping insulin shots to lose weight, binge eating, or dieting excessively. Learn more in our Spring 2002 issue of Diabetes Spectrum, dedicated the effects and treatment of eating disorders in adolescent girls and young women. Guest editor for this issue is Dr. Denis Daneman, MB, MCh, FRCPC, is a Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Click here to browse the Diabetes Spectrum archives. Diabetes and Siblings Brothers and sisters of children with diabetes may have a variety of reactions to the diagnosis. Some may fear that they will get diabetes. Reassure them that they can’t catch it from their sibling. Many siblings become jealous or feel left out because the child with diabetes suddenly begins to get more attention. Let them express their feelings. If it’s true that you’ve been giving more attention to the sibling with diabetes, admit it and explain why. Many parents find that siblings of a child with diabetes appreciate "special time" with one or both parents. Set aside some time for each sibling to do something with you that he or she enjoys. It could be a special outing, or something as simple as playing a video game together. You may find that these special times reduce the number of complaints from siblings about their brother or sister with diabetes. Maintaining Routines and Traditions One of the keys of adjusting to diabetes is to keep your family routine as close to normal as possible. In most cases, diabetes care should fit into your lifestyle—not the other way around. It’s natural to be very focused on diabetes for the first weeks and months after diagnosis, but work to maintain your family’s routines and traditions. For the Single Parent Diabetes is a heavy burden to carry alone. Without the support of a spouse, single parents should reach outside of their immediate family to find support. Grandparents, close friends, and other family members may be willing to learn about diabetes care. Try to train at least one other adult with whom you and your child have a close relationship—more than one, if possible. Hopefully, this person can give you weekly or even daily help and support as you take care of your child’s diabetes. Single parents need time to themselves as much as married couples do. Ask a responsible adult (who can care for diabetes) to care for your child while you have an occasional afternoon or evening out. If you don’t have a support system nearby, look into joining a support group for parents with diabetes. They can give you ideas and support as you care for your child’s needs—and your own. You Can Do It! It’s easy to get caught up in worry about your child with diabetes. You worry about hypoglycemic reactions, complications, and the effect of all this on your child’s psychological well-being. Of course, it’s good to know what to watch for and what to do if something goes wrong. And as you become more familiar with and confident about diabetes care, your worries will probably decrease. Research studies have shown that children and teens with diabetes have psychological problems at about the same rate as children and teens without diabetes. That means that your child is likely to adjust well to her diabetes and get on with her life. Yes, there will be ups and downs—don’t we all have them? But rest assured that that millions of children with diabetes grow up to be happy, healthy adults—and your child can, too. Off to College? Transitions are made much scarier when diabetes factors in. There are a lot of new issues to deal with in diabetes any time routines change, and schooling tends to have more than it's share of routine changes for families dealing with diabetes. Maybe you've already been through starting preschool with diabetes, the transition from preschool to kindergarten, or heading to high school. Maybe you're gearing up now for what is for many parents the biggest hurdle of them all-- sending your child with diabetes to college. As a parent, you need to be prepared. Get started with a commentary from one of our online journals, Diabetes Care, Preparing Students with Diabetes for Life at College (this document is a PDF file. You'll need the free program, Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it on your computer. Click here to go to adobe.com and download Acrobat Reader.) Links & More Information Want advice from other parents of kids with diabetes? Want to share successes or seek support? Need tips on dealing with diabetes? Visit the Parents' Place Community Forum and hear from other parents just like you! The Parents' Quick Guide to Kids with Diabetes is a quick "start up" info for parents of newly diagnosed kids. Get ideas on what to tell your child, the school, and the babysitter, learn about differences in diabetes in various age groups, and more. Diabetes Summer Camps: click here to go to our list of ADA-affiliated summer camps. What's a POD? Learning about diabetes is an ongoing process. It seems like you're always learning something new or stumbling across new problems you've never seen before. That's why we created our Print-On-Demand (POD) series. Each title gives you more information about a different aspect of living with diabetes-- from building a good relationship with your child's school to balancing diabetes with sports & exercise. We have titles Just for Parents, for parents dealing with Diabetes in Infants & Toddlers, and more. Click here for a list of available titles. Frequently Asked Questions We get a lot of questions about diabetes. A LOT of questions about diabetes. But that's what we're here for: Questions. Answers. Support. Information. On anything from current diabetes research funding, to your child's first HbA1c test, to information about islet cell transplantation. Check out our Frequently Asked Questions "FAQ" sheet for more information.
Click here to go to the Parent Forum and talk with other parents of children with diabetes.
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