If anyone in your family is diabetic it's essential that everyone in your family understand the disease and how it is treated, including children. This is especially essential if the person with diabetes is a child. Children need to understand not only how the disease works but also the symptoms for both high blood sugar and low blood sugar to avoid a health crisis.
Step 1
Meet with a diabetes educator or nutritionist for advice about your child's diabetes. Your child may accompany you on this visit, or you may choose to relay the information to your child later in your own way. It's essential that you have accurate information about the disease to teach your child about it.
Step 2
Start with teaching your child about the basics of diabetes, including the mechanics of eating, exercising and taking insulin. If your child doesn't understand how important it is to follow the rules set down by her doctor, the results can be disastrous, as diabetes can still cause blindness and death.
Step 3
Help your child set up a chart to make sure that he is following the rules and give rewards for compliance. Additionally, make sure your child knows that he will receive special treats on holidays associated with sweets, such as Valentine's Day and Halloween, so that he will not be tempted to ignore the rules.
Step 4
Visit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International website for stories from other children and families affected by diabetes and share them with your child. Newly diagnosed children often feel alone, frightened and confused by the restrictions of diabetes and worry that their lives will never be the same. Stories on the JDRF website can help them cope better with the current situation and feel some hope about research being done to find a cure for juvenile diabetes.
Step 5
Don't expect a young child to fully understand diabetes, which is a complicated disorder. The most important things they need to learn is that their food intake is always related to the amount of insulin they have taken or need to take, and what low blood sugar feels like.
Step 6
Consider sending your child to a camp for children with diabetes, recommends the Children with Diabetes website. A camp not only helps your child understand and manage his diabetes better, it also allows him a week or more where he will meet others with the disorder and not have to worry as much about self-monitoring his disease.
Tips and Warnings
- Make sure to educate your child's friends and their parents about diabetes, too.
