Like most aspects of parenting with diabetes, I’m not alone in managing these concerns.
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I don’t talk about diabetes complications with my kids, or any fears I have related to diabetes, because I am unsure how to walk that line between “it’s serious” and “it’s nothing to be scared of” while managing all the in-between feelings. As they have both gotten older (my son is almost 6 and my daughter is 12), they understand more of the subtleties of diabetes, but I’m still working to protect them from the long-term concerns. I remember when both of my kids were very young they knew why I needed to wear my diabetes devices, like my insulin pump and my CGM sensor, and they knew that juice and fruit snacks were sometimes used to treat low blood sugars. There is a fine line between what I will and won’t disclose to my kids as it relates to diabetes. It has always been important to me that they know what diabetes is (keeping the information as age-appropriate as possible) and how this disease plays out in our day-to-day lives. That agency is exactly what I’m aiming for when it comes to my own children I want them to feel like they can ask questions and talk about how diabetes influences their lives. When a parent suffers from a chronic illness like T1D, children should be understood as participants and agents who shape, and are shaped by, their environments.” I was struck by one of the article’s conclusions, that “children are embodied health care actors who also will try to make sense of their parent's illness. Explaining Diabetes to my Kidsĭuring my article search, I came across a piece exploring how having a parent with T1D influenced the experiences of Norwegian children ages 5 to 8 years. There are publications on the experiences of parenting with chronic illnesses and disabilities, but specific articles about children’s roles in their parent’s diabetes management are not nearly as prevalent as articles about parenting a child with diabetes. While searching for journal publications on the topic of parenting with diabetes, I found that there’s a shortage of articles. They know I have high and low blood sugars, they know that I need insulin to survive, and they have become aware that parents are not perfect. No matter how you pronounce it, diabetes has definitely influenced the way I parent.Įxplaining and managing my diabetes means opening up a layer of my own vulnerability to my kids, letting them in early on the secret that parents are human, too. When she was younger, my daughter called it “diabeedles.” My son thought it was called “diabeebees” for a long time. Hear real-life accounts from parents with diabetes – candid portrayals of both the highs and the lows. "Mom, are you glad I don’t have diabetes?” It can be emotionally challenging to parent with diabetes and find the right way to talk with your child about the condition.
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