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Young Children and Diabetes
Younger children often believe that they did something to cause their type I diabetes. Some children believe that eating too much sugar caused their diabetes. It is essential to correct this misconception and reassure children that their diabetes is something that their body was born with and has nothing to do with what they did or how they behaved. With each developmental milestone, children will understand their diabetes, its treatment, and the role they play in taking care of themselves in a new way. As their cognitive understanding of their illness grows, it is important for children to be encouraged to ask questions. -Lauren Mednick, PhD, Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry Discussing diabetes with preschoolers The amount of involvement in discussions and treatment is different for different age groups. Due to their immature reasoning skills, preschoolers engage in several errors in logic that need to be considered when speaking with them about their diabetes. First, preschool age children often demonstrate magical thinking and egocentrism in which they believe that they did something which caused their diabetes. In addition, preschool age children think in a very literal, concrete manner. It is therefore essential to provide them with very simple, minimally confusing explanations about diabetes and the need for treatment. It is also very important for young children with diabetes to be reassured that their diabetes and its treatment is not a punishment for poor behavior and more importantly, they did nothing to cause their diabetes. An easy way to assess for misconceptions in preschool age children, as well as school age children, is to ask the child to repeat back explanations and listen for and correct any errors. -Lauren Mednick, PhD, Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry Discussing diabetes with school-aged children As children grow developmentally, their definition of diabetes and understanding of its treatment will also mature. School aged children will have many questions and concerns. It is important to provide basic, non-threatening explanations about their diabetes and the consequences of not following their recommended treatment regimen. In addition, school age children will still need help with many of the daily diabetes related tasks, but this does not mean parents should do everything for them. In fact, this is a perfect age for working together and helping the child start to develop problem solving skills related to treatment. For example, when a child checks his/her blood glucose and he/she has a high or low, the parent can assist him/her to determine the steps he/she needs to take to correct for this. Joint problem solving and modeling will provide the tools necessary for more independence in adolescence. -Lauren Mednick, PhD, Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry
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Copyright © 2009, Children's
Hospital Boston Department of Psychiatry. All Rights Reserved. The information on this website should not be taken as medical advice, which can only be given to you by your personal health care professional. Updated: June 8, 2009 |
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