The Challenges In Children with Diabetes
It is a fact that having a child suffering from diabetes can pose new challenges and worries. It can be very stressful for parents and the child, and that it will seem that this is a death sentence to your child. However, children with diabetes can still live a full and normal life. With proper management, living with diabetes can be easy and normal.
Having an infant or toddler diagnosed with diabetes can be very frightening. They don’t know anything about the disease and it can really be challenging for parents to manage and treat the disease as the child have no way of communicating what they are feeling.
The same situation goes for preschoolers with diabetes. They really haven’t learned to recognize the symptoms of having low blood glucose level and they will never be able to tell others when they are feeling low. This is why it is very important to constantly check the blood glucose level of your child as often as possible.
However, you need to understand that the child may be frightened by lancets poking their fingers and regular insulin shots. You should expect that they will try anything in order to avoid it or at least try to delay it from getting them. It will help if the parents talk to the child and tell them that they know it hurts and also tell the children that they are being very brave. Stickers and rewards will prove to be helpful in encouraging the child to get the insulin shot or get pricked by the lancets for drawing blood for sample. Instead of scolding or threatening them with punishment, always use positive reinforcements.
However, it must be remebered that using food as rewards may sometimes develop an unhealthy relationship with food.
You also need to keep in mind that children with diabetes can have the same fussy eating habits as other children who are not suffering from the disease. It is best not to force the child to eat the certain food you are offering them. Instead, try offering them a different kind of food, which is also good for their diabetic diet. You can also offer them juice or milk instead if they really don’t want to eat.
During school age, your children will start wanting to be like their peers. It will be often difficult for them to understand why they are different from other children as they need to take insulin and have to follow a certain meal plan. Usually, the best way to handle this kind of situation depends entirely on the personality of your child.
Some children wants to show off to their classmates about their condition, such as they try to check their blood glucose level themselves and even try giving themselves an insulin injection for show and tell. Some older children with diabetes even presented the disease as science projects. However, you need to keep in mind that there are children that will not want to bring the disease they are suffering from on center stage.
They prefer to keep quiet about it and it is important for you to let your children decide who to tell about their disease and how much to tell. However, it is important to tell teachers, coaches, family, and close friends about it in order for them to understand what your child is going through.
These are the challenges that you should expect when living with children with diabetes. It can be very challenging and depressing at first but after a while, you will see that you and your child will be able to adjust and live a normal and full life.
Teens and Young Adults Also Get Affected By Diabetes:
Diabetes is a disease that can affect everyone. Whatever the age, sex, and race are, diabetes can affect everyone. This disease has taken into its grip to almost 16 million American nationals today. And, 800 thousand new cases are diagnosed each year. Living with diabetescan be hard especially for teeages and young adults.
You have to consider that the rapid mental, physical and emotional growth of tens can add to the challenge in managing the disease. With the taking of insulin, monitoring blood glucose levels, and strictly following a meal plan, it can be very tiresome for teenagers and can really add to the difficulties of just being a teen.
Most teens tend to ease up on diabetes care and tend to act like everyone else. This is understandable as they are in the age where pressure from friends can really affect them.
Psychologically, you have to remember that the teen years are the years where the teen will test their limits, which includes testing his or her limits with diabetes. At some point, they will even refuse to adhere to their meal plans, skip insulin injections and they may even stop checking their blood glucose levels. In most cases, teens who do this suffer from the consequences of not taking the disease seriously. They may get hospitalized for DKA and can experience serious hypoglycemic actions. They often get discouraged in continuing testing their limits and will eventually try to follow the management care for diabetes.
However, there are some cases where teens refuse to do certain tasks in connection to the disease. Even if they experience the serious complications that diabetes has, some teens tend to consistently refuse to follow certain procedures in order to manage diabetes. As a parent, you need to find out why.
If you find out that the diabetes plan is too rigid, try adding more flexibility to it in order to make it easier for them to follow. Giving rewards is a great way to encourage them to follow the tasks designed to manage the disease. Set a goal in what he or she needs to achieve in order for them to be encouraged.
You also need to remember that the hormones that cause puberty can eventually affect the blood glucose levels. At times you can not predict diabetes so it becomes very hard to manage it. So, try to avoid blaming your teen for having high or low blood glucose levels. It may not be their fault and they may already be trying hard to keep it within the acceptable range.
Because of the unpredictable blood glucose levels that the hormones can cause, try encouraging your teen to work with you in order to solve the problems caused by this kind of situation. Instead of scolding them because of their unpredictable blood glucose levels, try to find a way to praise his or her efforts in trying to keep it in acceptable levels, especially if he or she gets frustrated with it.
These are the challenges that you need to expect when you are living with a teen affected by diabetes. It is very hard for a teen , when he is under the grip of the diabetes , that is why you need to understand them more. With patience and perseverance as well as self discipline, your teen will be able to live a life that is as normal as possible.