101 Tips for Parents of Kids with Diabetes

Book excerpt: Approximately 208,000 Americans under age twenty have diagnosed diabetes, and the number is growing at an alarming rate. From 2001 to 2009, the number of American children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes rose 23 percent; for type 2 diabetes it rose 21 percent. While scientists and government organizations assess the reasons for the increase, parents are left to deal with its day-to-day ramifications, and to guide their children through the discovery and treatment process. Jeff Hitchcock, the editor of this volume, was in desperate need of advice for how to best support his young daughter after her diagnosis. When he searched for support, he was shocked by how little information existed. So he started his own support group, Children with Diabetes. And now, more than twenty years later, Children with Diabetes has answered more than twenty thousand questions from other parents, gets more than twenty thousand daily hits on its website, and has a highly respected Diabetes Team, a wealth of on-call experts for parents in need of support. In this volume, Jeff has collected a whopping 101 tips for parents. The tips answer questions such as: What does the diagnosis mean? How do I get help? Should I change my child’s eating habits? What does insulin mean, and how is it used? And what should I tell my child’s teacher? For ease of reference, they’re categorized, so answers can quickly and easily be found. They’re also provided in simple, jargon-free, and easy-to-understand language.