Learning that your child has diabetes can be hard on parents

Most parents take their children to the doctor expecting that their child merely has a sore throat or some similar ailment. However, when the doctor finds diabetes, the sudden shock of realizing that their child will have to inject themselves with insulin is more than they expect. However, most parents adjust to the news in about four months and soon accept it as a part of life.

• Many parents struggle emotionally with the news that a child has diabetes, and take months to adjust, according to new study findings.
• After analyzing 40 interviews with parents of newly diagnosed children with type 1 diabetes, UK researchers found that many believed their children's initial symptoms stemmed from easily curable problems, such as throat infections, and were therefore ill-prepared for a diagnosis of a chronic disease.
• "Most parents are very shocked by the speed of a diabetes diagnosis and the fact that changes have to be made to their child's life straight away," Dr. Lesley Lowes of Cardiff University told Reuters Health.
• Attention to diet is also necessary to prevent blood sugar levels climbing too high or dropping too low.
• "Suddenly normal childhood routines are replaced with insulin injections, blood glucose monitoring, regular mealtimes and increased vigilance," Lowes noted.
• Parents also worry about the long-term effects the disease may have, she added.
• Lowes recommended that parents of a diabetic child ask healthcare staff "as many questions as they need," and contact other parents of diabetic children, who can provide some needed empathy.
• Indeed, most parents said they had accepted their child's diagnosis within 4 months and adapted to it, Lowes and her colleagues report in the Journal of Advanced Nursing.
• By 12 months, all had adjusted to the change, seeing it as part of their "everyday lives," the researchers write.
• Family and friends of parents with a diabetic child can do their part by learning about diabetes and how to deal with it in a "natural way, with a minimum of fuss," Lowes added.
• "The key message is to fit diabetes into your life, not fit your life into diabetes," she said.