SHARE YOUR OWN STORY: EMAIL US EVALUATE THIS SITE

• Diabetes impacts the entire family
• Parents’ attitudes make a major difference
• Planning and structure
• Setting limits
• It comes down to the parent-child interaction
• Working together as a family

Diabetes impacts the entire family

For certain, diabetes impacts the entire family. It is dependent on the age of the child. It will be different if the child is very young and is absolutely dependent on the parents. Older children, certainly teenagers, participate in their own self care. The research shows and my own experience certainly confirm that youngsters who have the support of their parents and family do better because this is a heavy physical and emotional burden. So if you have a cohesive, loving, warm, supportive family helping you, you’re going to do better.

-Joseph Wolfsdorf, MD, BCh, Associate Chief, Division of Endocrinology

Top of Page

Parents' attitudes make a major difference

Parents’ attitudes make a major difference. If parents feel guilty about having to prick their child for blood sugars or for insulin, the children pick up on this and as a result those kids may not test their blood sugar enough and may not give themselves enough dosages of insulin when needed.  Once someone has backed off on blood sugar checks, which is our major tool for knowing how to treat them, it is very hard to get them to increase how many times they check their blood sugar. If this is the case, every time they come back for an appointment I say, “add one more check, one more a day.” I keep on saying the more the parents set the tone and help take this responsibility of the kids, the better.

-Christina Luedke, MD, PhD, Physician, Diabetes Program

Top of Page

Planning and structure

At the time a child receives the diagnosis of diabetes, everyone feels bad for the child.   But there needs to be a lot of planning and structure.  Rules and guidelines work easier for some families.  It is best to create a systematic approach to maintaining the child’s diabetes—it needs to be built into everyone’s lives.  Children need to know why they are doing what they are doing.  When you are managing toddlers with diabetes, you should never say you are going to “test” their blood sugar—they aren’t receiving agrade. It is best to say you are going to “check” their blood.  It is important for the kid to learn to trust mom and/or dad with decision making.  It is also important for parents to call us when they have questions at any time.  They should always call.

-Maryanne Quinn, MD, Physician, Diabetes Program

Top of Page

Several limits

Overall, parents need to be parents and not friends in this situation.  They need to figure out where they can give the child choices, and which ones are not choices. First of all, the child has to learn from the very beginning that it’s time for a shot and they are going to get it. As soon as parents set that limit it helps the child, especially the small ones, to quit resisting because they just learn it is going to happen no matter what. That helps them to know that having a tantrum isn’t going to help the situation.  The child feels better knowing this is something he or she can accept and can’t change.

Top of Page

It comes down to the parent-child interaction

All treatments are tailored to the individual.  A lot of this depends on the parent-child relationship.  It is necessary that the parent and child communicate.  For instance, if a teen is on an insulin pump and does not monitor his or her blood sugar, then he or she runs the risk of developing diabetic ketoacidosis.  If this teen is unwilling to accept the help of his or her parent, then there could be some problems.  Really, it comes down to parent-child interaction.

-Maryanne Quinn, MD, Physician, Diabetes Program

Top of Page

Working together as a family

The family environment has an important influence on adaptation of children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.  Managing diabetes in children and adolescents is most effective when the entire family is involved.  It is helpful to involve the entire family in diabetes education and lifestyle changes.  For example, since the child or adolescent diagnosed with diabetes can no longer drink regular soda, it is important to only have diet soda in the house.  If siblings do not think that this is fair, they can be told that they can drink their regular soda outside of the house, but inside the home all of the family members will be eating the same diet.  This will encourage a family cohesiveness, which has important implications for diabetes management.  Specifically, family environments with increased cohesiveness, decreased conflict, and increased expressiveness are associated with a lower risk of experiencing poor metabolic control. 

TOP OF PAGE