Hi everyone, my name is Jorden and my little boy just received a Type 1 diagnosis today. We start his insulin injections tomorrow and I’m mildly terrified at having to stab my child everyday. He’s extremely articulate and seems to be understanding that he’s getting all his “pokes” so we can help him feel better. Does anyone else have a toddler that they’re going through this with? How well do they handle the whole process? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!
My 2 yr old grandson was diagnosed a few weeks ago. Also looking for any advice. He does well most of time with injections.The tough part is judging carbs and then getting him to eat. Very hard on a daily basis. This is all so new. It is such a concern when thinking of how all this will be managed his whole life and he is so young!! My hope that the tools to manage this condition will come along soon.
I do not have a young child with diabetes, but I was diagnosed when I was 2. December marked my 35year of living without diabetes, complication free. I also had a baby in July without complications. I just wanted to let you know living a long, healthy life is possible, it just requires some work. Your kids are probably too young, but when able I strongly urge the use if a pump. It was life changing for me. Good luck!
Hi @JGilfeather119 and @carolyn46,
There are a lot of parents on here that can share their advice with you. If you don’t receive response in this thread right away there are a couple of parents groups as well.
Start with these two!
Parents of Children with T1D: http://t1n-migration.10uplabs.com/groups/parents_of_children_with_type_1/
Parent Support Group: http://t1n-migration.10uplabs.com/groups/parent_support_group/
Also, I suggest requesting a Bag of Hope: http://t1n-migration.10uplabs.com/bag-of-hope/ to be sent to you! It has a lot of great information for newly diagnosed families.
BTW @carolyn46,
There are a lot of great tools! Like Insulin Pumps and Continuous Glucose Monitors which can help make lives much easier. You should have your son/daughter ask their CDE or Endocrinologist more about it!
If you both have any other questions please let me know!
Gina
Thank you everyone for you responses. Every little bit helps. Does anyone have experience with 2 year olds on pumps??
Thanks all, this is so new its nice to know there are others out there going through the same thing!
Hey Jorden. When our daughter was diagnosed at 18 months old, my heart broke each time I had to prick her finger or give her a shot. Words are meaningless to a toddler. Cassie was simply to young to understand why we would inflict pain on her. But we were saving her life. Cassie’s 18 YEARS old now and is grateful for what we’ve done. There are lots of us that like to share our stories online to help others who are facing T1D. You can read about some of our adventures through the years (tears and triumphs) on my sporadically updated blog at http://www.daddybetes.com/ or via twitter @daddybetes, and as Gina said, there are great threads right here on TypeOneNation. I look forward to you being a part of our little online JDRF community.
The best advice I can give is to love on them a little more during the test/injection process. We were lucky that our son seemed to grasp the reality. We made it a matter of fact and have been very direct with what is going on right from the beginning. I feel like that helped with his ability to face the added steps of life for him. We started using a pump for our son at around 4; he was diagnosed at around 15 months. Our docs were not highly on board with starting earlier than that. The pump has definitely made life easier since, as you well know, planning food consumption for a little one is not an exact science. I recommend reading/studying as much as you can on them so you can have an educated discussion with the docs. That seems to put them at ease sending you home with one. Some of the main concerns we dealt with for him were the depth of the infusion sets for the little body and the increments of insulin measurement. We are fairly pleased with our Animas Pings (I have one too). The wireless remote meter feature is nice for a kid. My prayers are with your families. Be strong.
Hi Jordan & Carolyn. I’m sorry to learn of the recent diagnosis of your little ones. My daughter was four when she was diagnosed.
Did you happen to receive a Bag of Hope while at the doctors office or in the hospital after diagnosis? This bag is sponsored by Roche and has a meter in it, as well as the “Understanding Diabetes” book by Dr. Peter Chase (he’s pretty well known from Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes at University of Colorado) and, most important for your little one - a bear named Rufus who has Type 1 Diabetes himself. If you would like to request a bag, you can go to Resources tab above and click “Bag of Hope” button, http://t1n-migration.10uplabs.com/bag-of-hope/ to request one be sent.
There is a book on how Rufus was diagnosed that your son/grandson can relate to.
We also purchased the Fisher Price doctor kit for my daughter so she could give Rufus a shot when she got a shot.
I should also mention - I was diagnosed at age two myself, coming up on my 37th diagnosis anniversary. No complications you’ve heard so much about recently. Your families will get to a new “normal” soon. The first month is the hardest, the first year will have curveballs as each ‘event’ happens for the first time. Eventually, diabetes will be just a small part of what your family has to do. It will always be there. There will be days when it’s more than you can stand (I get that way even now after almost 10 years of two of us with T1D in our house) but those days aren’t as often as they are for you now. Just know - you are not alone.
Jorden & Carolyn
I just wanted to send a little note to let you know it get’s so much better and easier. I was diagnosed at 14 months, I’m 22 now and graduating college in a couple of months. Try to just take it one day at a time, and definitely don’t focus on the bad things that can happen. A girl I went to high school with has a great aunt who is in her 80s with no complications! She’s had diabetes since early childhood and that was before glucose monitors, and pumps and all the fancy things that help us live well today.
One thing I thought I’d tell you about that I saw in a Diabetes Forecast magazine awhile ago was injection ports. They have a few different types of them, and in the article they where using them on a 3 year old. You change them every three days and then they don’t need to be stuck for every injection. Here is a Wikipedia that explains them… Injection port - Wikipedia