When Your Child is Diagnosed with Diabetes: PARENT’s QUESTIONS
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When Your Child Is Diagnosed with DIABETES: PARENTS’ QUESTIONS for the Health Care Team
Parents of children with diabetes often have concerns about the disease, its impact on their family, and how to keep their children safe and healthy. Use these questions to talk with your child’s health care team and learn about your child’s diabetes care needs… at diagnosis and later on as well.
What are the different types of diabetes?
- Which type of diabetes does our child have?
- Will it ever go away?
Overview of Diabetes in Children and Adolescents
What does this mean for other members of our family?
- Does it mean our other children will get diabetes too?
- What about other family members?
Overview of Diabetes in Children and Adolescents
What are my child’s treatment goals?
- How can we help our child meet these goals?
- How often will our child need to visit you each year?
Overview of Diabetes in Children and Adolescents
(See Treatment Goals and Family Support)4 Steps to Control Your Diabetes. For Life
NDEP Teen page
(See Tip Sheets for Kids with Type 2 Diabetes)
What other health care team members can help care for our child’s diabetes?
- How do we contact them?
Overview of Diabetes in Children and Adolescents (See Visiting the Health Care Team)
How can we work together as a family to help our child?
- How can we help our child check blood glucose, take insulin, eat healthy foods, be more active, and learn about diabetes?
- Who can help us work together as a family?
Overview of Diabetes in Children and Adolescents (See Helping Children Manage Diabetes)
What emotional issues might our child and family face?
- Will diabetes affect the way our child behaves?
- When do we start letting our child manage his/her own diabetes care?
- Who can help us cope with these issues?
Tips for Teens with type 2 Diabetes: Dealing with the Ups and Downs of Diabetes
Overview of Diabetes in Children and Adolescents (See Transition to Independence )
Learn about age-related issues and diabetes on the American Diabetes Association website
Learn about reactions to being diagnosed with diabetes on the American Diabetes Association website
Should we tell friends and family about our child’s diabetes?
Who can help us if we don’t have medical insurance?
Insure Kids Now! A national initiative to linking families to low-cost insurance programs
What resources are there to help our child in school?
Helping the Student with Diabetes Succeed: A Guide for School Personnel
Overview of Diabetes in Children and Adolescents (See Diabetes at School)
What research is going on?
Three large nation-wide studies are under way.
The TODAY study wants to find the best ways to care for type 2 diabetes in children and teens and has begun in 13 medical sites. To find out if you can join go to www.TODAYstudy.org.
Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet is a group of studies looking at ways to prevent or to treat type 1 diabetes early. To find out if you can join go to www.diabetestrialnet.org/public.html or call1- 800- HALT- DM1(1-800-425-8361).
The SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study will help us learn about how type 1 and type 2 diabetes differ, what medical problems arise, the health care children receive, and how diabetes shapes their daily lives. www.searchfordiabetes.org
A lot of other research is going on. To find studies in your area, talk to your health care team and visit the JDRF and ADA (links below).
Additional Resources for Parents and Children
National Diabetes Education Program
www.ndep.nih.gov or call 1-800-438-5383
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF)
www.jdrf.org or call 1-800-223-1138
Children with Diabetes
www.childrenwithdiabetes.com
American Diabetes Association (ADA)
www.diabetes.org or call 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383)
- In This Section
- Source :
July 7th, 2011 Obesity is getting bigger in the United States Two-thirds of all adults and about a third of all children and teenagers in the United States are overweight or obese according to a report release Thursday by the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). According to “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2011,” adult obesity increased in 16 states during the past year and rates soared to 30% or more in these 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Four years ago, only one state – Mississippi – had an adult obesity rate of more than 30%. No state showed a decrease in it obesity rate in Thursday’s report. Nine of the 10 states with the highest adult obesity numbers are in the South. Mississippi, for the seventh year in a row, had the highest adult obesity rate at 34.4%. Colorado, at 19.8%, had the lowest, and in fact is the only state in the country with an adult obesity rate under 20%. Twenty years ago no rate was above 15%. The report found rates grew fastest in Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma and slowest in Colorado, Connecticut and the District of Columbia. “There was a clear tipping point in our national weight gain over the last twenty years,” said Jeff Levi, Executive director of TFAH. “And we can’t afford to ignore the impact obesity has on our health and corresponding health care spending.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the medical costs associated with obesity are staggering– totaling about $147 billion in 2008. More than 80% of people in this country with type-2 diabetes are overweight and new diagnoses doubled in 10 years, according to Thursday’s report. Overweight and obese people are at risk of developing high blood pressure and high cholesterol, risk factors for cardiovascular disease and stroke. They may also be at greater risk of colon, kidney and esophageal cancer. African Americans, Latinos, those with low incomes and less education had the highest overall rates, topping 30 to 40% in many states. The report found about 33% of adults who made less than $15,000 a year or did not graduate from high school were obese. The researchers found that a lack of access to fresh fruits, vegetables and other healthful foods in some neighborhoods and a dearth of safe community areas for families to walk and for children to play all factor into the obesity epidemic. But there’s more to it. “Portion sizes in restaurants are much larger than they have been, soft drinks at convenience stores are much larger than they have been,” said Dr. James Marks, senior vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “When people have a larger size they will eat more. Snacking has gone up more and more. All of these things contribute.” “We’ve built inactivity into our lifestyles. We’ve designed communities around cars,” said Levi. “Kids are watching TV and sitting around computers. We’ve found plenty of ways to entertain ourselves that don’t include activity.” “The information in this report should spur us all – individuals and policymakers alike – to redouble our efforts to reverse this debilitating and costly epidemic,” said Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “Changing policies is an important way to provide children and families with vital resources and opportunities to make healthier choices easier in their day-to day-lives.” Recommendations include making sure all food and drinks sold in schools meet the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans, increasing access to quality and affordable foods, expanding the amount and intensity of physical activity in schools and in out-of-school programs, increasing physical activity by providing communities safe places to walk, bike and play, introducing pricing incentives to help people buy healthier foods and regulating how and where unhealthy foods are marketed to children. Marks says what’s particularly tragic is the increase in type 2 diabetes among younger adults and kids. “Since the 1970s, the rate of obesity has tripled or quadrupled in children,” said Marks. “We’ve got an even larger problem coming in our children.” Source: Saundra Young – CNN Medical Senior Producer
Tips For Teens: Dealing With The Ups and Downs of Diabetes Many teens like you deal with diabetes everyday. Most of the time, it’s not a problem, you just deal with it. But sometimes, you may just want it to go away. Do you ever… All of these feelings are normal. Lots of teens who have diabetes feel the same way. It’s okay to get angry, feel sad, or think you’re different every now and then. But then you need to take charge and do something to feel better. Everyone feels down sometimes. You are not alone. Reach out for help. Talk to someone in your family or where you worship, a friend, a school counselor, teacher, or your doctor or diabetes educator. It might help to write down your feelings in a journal. If you still feel down or sad, ask your parents to help you find a counselor. It is okay to ask for help. There are many people who care about you and want to help you stay healthy and happy. Your health care team (diabetes educator, dietitian, doctor, nurse, psychologist, and social worker) can help you learn how to make healthy food choices, be more active, and feel good about yourself. Stay in touch with them. Let your health care team know how you feel and what you need. You or your parents need to give the school nurse, teacher, or other school staff a copy of your diabetes care plan. Let people at your school know you have diabetes and that you need to eat healthy foods, eat your meals, take your medicine on time, and be physically active. Don’t let diabetes stop you from joining in school activities. You can do all the things your friends do and then some! It’s easier to manage diabetes when the whole family works at it with you. So… What’s healthy for you is healthy for everyone in your family. Ever worry that your friends may have wrong ideas about diabetes? Ever have kids make fun of you about your diabetes or weight? Teasing hurts. The best thing is to just walk away. talk to someone…write down your feelings in a journal…write to a pen pal…email a buddy…stay in touch It’s time for YOU to do something about your diabetes care. Write down your top three goals—use the chart on the back page! Choose goals that you really can meet. Put in the date when you set the goal and when you met it. Take it one step at a time. Make healthy food choices, be more active, and work towards a healthy weight. Soon you’ll see progress and feel great. Attention visually impaired visitors: To use common screen reading programs with PDF documents, please visit access.adobe.com, which provides a set of free tools that convert PDF documents to simple HTML or ASCII text. Source:
Source: wmtwtv on YouTube On World Diabetes Day, a Maine teen talks with News 8 about her battle with the disease. News 8′s Keith Baldi reports.
Obesity is Getting Bigger in the United States
Tips for Teens: Dealing With The Ups and Downs of Diabetes
Feelings
Still down?
Speak up
Let your school know what’s up
Mom, Dad, other family members, get with it!
Want to meet other teens who feel like you do?
Still my friend?
Take Action!
Write down your Top 3 Goals
Got it.
Teen Diabetes-Video 2:41 min.
Posted August 8, 2009
Subcribe Here
