Raising a child with diabetes adds a new and different dimension to parenting. It comes as a shock to most parents, even though there is nothing that could have been done to prevent it. How well the body copes with the disease is strongly linked to how your child thinks and relates to others. Each of these dimensions has an impact on how they behave.
Although the changing emotions are a normal phenomenon for anyone, in children with diabetes, they have the potential to make blood glucose levels unstable. Rosemary Flynn, a clinical psychologist at the Centre for Diabetes and Endocrinology, says children with diabetes have to learn to live a lifestyle that promotes their health and enables them to function in the best way possible. This lifestyle includes eating foods that are healthy, exercising and taking medication. Here is what you can do to manage a diabetic child:
1. Initiative and self-control – Initiative is being able to make the right decision as needed, while self-control is being able to follow the regimen of managing diabetes. These two develop progressively with age and maturity, and are often influenced by the parenting style. They both will be needed to enable your child to live with the condition.
2. Developing a conscience – Children who suffer from diabetes face many challenges daily. These include the temptation to eat too much, avoid food or eat the wrong kinds, avoid injections or finger pricks, avoid exercise, over-exercise, falsify blood glucose results as well as having extra insulin. For children to take responsibility for their own health and make the right choices depends on values such as honesty, success, achievement, self-reliance and being cooperative. Having a well-integrated conscience is the key to developing these values.
3. Family balance – Parenting that is flexible but firm works well. Children react better when they have clear limits, expectations and rules which adapt as they move into their teenage years. Feelings are valued and the connection between parents and children is of utmost importance. If you can get this right, you will truly be a flexible family, and blessed with the benefits thereof.
4. Managing anxiety – Research on children suffering from diabetes has found that if too much anxiety is present, they cope either by avoiding management to reduce their anxiety or becoming so frenetic in their approach to self-management that their stress levels become intolerable. In either case, controlling the disease is then lost. Coping with diabetes is always a family affair. As a parent, you can play a substantial role in the level of anxiety that your child experiences. This can be through either specific fears related to diabetes or those that arise in their life context. All of them have an impact on how well your child will cope with their condition.
5. Anger – Angry children may sabotage their diabetes management. Even those who have accepted their condition and manage well, sometimes get angry. This is because of the impact diabetes has on their lifestyle. It is important to acknowledge the anger, and work with your child to enable them to reduce it. Anger gives rise to a chemical response in the body and unfortunately for a child suffering from diabetes, this response means that they develop high blood sugar levels.
6. Depression – This difficult emotion takes away any motivation to succeed. So, handling depression and suicidal feelings is a necessity for children with diabetes. Three ways to help them become more resistant include building their self-esteem, encouraging physical activity and joining a support group. Camps and support groups provide a sense of community, particularly when children see that others handle their diabetes well.
