Children and diabetes

When your child is diagnosed with diabetes, it can be pretty scary. Here’s what you need to know.
Nov. 8, 2010 | By: Stefanie Wallace

It's never easy to learn there is something wrong with your child, but finding out he or she has diabetes can be pretty scary. According to the Canadian Diabetes Association's website, more than three million Canadians have diabetes, and approximately 10 per cent of those have Type I, or juvenile diabetes, usually diagnosed during childhood or adolescence.

Along with the shock of the diagnosis comes an abundance of questions and concerns about the well-being of your child: Is this life threatening? How will this affect my child's daily routine and my own? Could this have been prevented? 

According to the Canadian Diabetes Association, it is important to keep a guilt-free perspective:  no one really knows what causes Type I diabetes, it is not preventable, and eating too much sugar is not the culprit.

"When you eat, your body gets energy by making glucose, or sugar, from the food, and insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that uses the glucose and helps your body control the glucose level in your blood," says Paul Cavanagh Sr., a pharmacist in Hagersville, Ont. "When a person has Type I diabetes, the pancreas doesn't produce insulin, and the glucose stays in your blood instead of being used for energy."

Although juvenile diabetes isn't preventable, there are ways to determine how at risk your children may be. Cavanagh recommends researching family history, as a history of diabetes may put your child at risk. The symptoms of Type I diabetes may pop up suddenly, even though the disease itself develops gradually. When there's no more insulin in the body, blood sugar levels rise, causing symptoms including:

• Extreme fatigue and weakness
• Dehydration
• Frequent urge to urinate
• Abdominal pain
• Slow-healing wounds

For parents of children with Type I diabetes, the additional responsibilities can be hard to adjust to. The Canadian Diabetes Association stresses how important it is to work with your child's physician, nurse, dietician and pharmacist to become more knowledgeable about the disease and gain confidence in helping your child. Cavanagh suggests that parents keep their child active and eating healthy meals and snacks, ensure the child’s blood glucose levels are checked regularly, and follow the insulin and/or medication regimen the child's doctor has prescribed.