Telling friends and family about your child being diagnosed with juvenile diabetes may bring about mixed emotions. You don’t want your child to be pitied, you don’t want them to be looked at differently, yet you do need people to understand that your child will need some special considerations sometimes.

When you first tell people they will either provide positive support, be neutral, or there may be some negative reactions. The first two reactions are not a problem, you may get offers of support or it may be a non-issue for others. It is the naysayers you need to be careful of. You know it is a serious disease and you need to be sure your child is aware of it too but you don’t need outsiders bringing doom and gloom into the situation. There are tools and support to manage diabetes and your child can still expect a full and happy life.

The easiest way to deal with negative reactions from friends and family members is to educate them. Most times they have an incorrect impression of what diabetes is, how it is managed, and the long-term effects. It is serious but damage can be minimized with good control.

Your child may be nervous telling his or her friends too – afraid that they will be looked at as different. Most children will have a neutral reaction or none at all. It is not something that will affect friendships and it is not a problem. If your child does suffer from teasing or taunting because they cannot have candy or some other silliness – let them talk to you about it and express their feelings. Some of their friends may have questions and some may not. If there is a concern with how your child is being treated or how the diagnosis will be received speak with your child’s teacher.

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The vital step after your child is diagnosed with juvenile diabetes is to develop a support network in the community. Your child’s school should be at the top of this as a resource to tap into. Not only is it essential that the teachers at your child’s school know about his special dietary needs and what to do in an emergency they can provide help in other ways too.

In addition to good control of blood glucose levels to ensure the current and future well-being of your child’s health, good control of diabetes is critical to learning. When a child is experiencing highs or lows in the blood sugar reading this can create disruptions and make it hard for them to concentrate and learn.

The teachers or other support personnel are going to need instruction for handling your child’s diabetes and what to do in case of an emergency. For a child with a low blood sugar it is important that their blood glucose level is checked and that they have something to eat. For a child with a high blood sugar, their blood glucose will need to be checked too and a decision has to be made whether or not to give insulin. This is a big responsibility to hand over to another adult and can be nerve-racking for parents.

An emergency kit should be with your child at all the time with instructions on what to do to help if something is wrong. Included should be a snack, a food item or glucose tablet that is fast acting (gets sugar into the system quickly), a list of emergency numbers to call, and a glucose monitor. A teacher or school nurse should be designated as the person responsible for your child while at school and they should have a back-up in case they are not present for a day or more.

The best way to help your child adjust to being a diabetic is to involve him or her in their treatment plan. Depending on their age and level of maturity the level that they are involved and what they can do will be different. Be aware that as children grow older, they are going to take more and more control over their disease and you have to know when it is time to step back and let them.

For children three years of age and under, the management process is going to be solely in your hands. Even if there is a desire to do things on their own, their coordination skills and maturity level isn’t where it needs to be to give themselves injections or test their own blood. As they are approaching the three year old mark, you may be able to involve them in decisions like which finger is to be used to test their blood or putting the strip into the monitor. Be on the look out for ways to include them as they become older and interested in doing so.

As your child becomes a preschooler they are going to want to do everything on their own no matter what it is. Your child may begin to have more control over testing their blood but it still needs to be done under parental supervision. Insulin injections should still be handled by the parent at this age. Your child will have definite opinions on what they should be eating for meals. Give them options and let them decide what is going to be made for dinner.

From the age of about eight years old and up, your child may be ready to give themselves their own injections. You will have to follow your child’s and your own comfort level.

Hypoglycemia is when a child (or any other person) with diabetes is suffering from low blood sugars. This can be an extreme and dangerous situation and in the worse case scenarios can lead to a diabetic coma or even death. But with careful monitoring of blood sugar levels this can be prevented.

An important lesson to teach young children with juvenile diabetes is to recognize the signs of when they have low blood sugar. For very young children this is going to be difficult when they don’t have the words or comprehension to explain what they are feeling.

Your child can develop hypoglycemia if they have not eaten enough, have had too much insulin or if they have missed a meal. All of these situations can be avoided but they still happen from time to time. Make sure your child always has some emergency food on hand for these types of situations and knows when they should eat it.

A child suffering from hypoglycemia may display certain symptoms that can help an outsider know what is going on. Especially for young children keep a look out for mood swings, shakiness, paleness, acting strangely or the inability to concentrate. The condition can manifest itself in many different ways but in an individual they usually react the same way to hypoglycemia. Learn how your child reacts to low blood sugars and advise others who care for your child in the course of a day so that they too can be prepared.

If your child is frequently suffering from hypoglycemia, consult with your doctor or diabetes educator. An adjustment to the insulin schedule or the amount of insulin that is given may need to be adjusted. A closer look at the meal plan is warranted too, maybe meal times or the type of food eaten needs to be changed.