Hello! My name is Adrienne and I am the wife to Chris and mother of 4 children. My oldest (9) was just diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic. We have no family history of this so it's all so very new to us! Just looking for support and help of other parents who have children with this.
Adrienne
Hey Adrienne. You sound like you have a wonderful family and I'm glad you've found TypeOneNation.
Type 1 doesn't have a strong family history (like type 2 does) so a diagnosis catches most families off guard. The good news is that when your child grows up and has a family of his own he/she has less of a chance of passing it on to his/her kids. www.diabetes.org/.../genetics-of-diabetes.html
Make sure you have a good doctor with experience treating type 1's who has a similar treatment philosophy to you. The goal for your family and your child's medical team should be helping your child figure out how to live normally while balancing diabetes. Diabetes should never keep a person from doing anything, you just sometimes have to be creative in finding a way to do it.
There are also great books that will help you:
* 50 Diabetes Myths That Can Ruin Your Life; And the 50 Diabetes Truths That Can Save It by Riva Greenberg
* Think Like a Pancreas by Gar Scheiner (he also has online classes at www.type1university.com)
* Using Insulin by John Walsh
* The Diabetic Athlete by Sheri Colberg
This link has more www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/d_06_b00.htm
I was diagnosed at age 4 and am 40 now with no complications. I'm nothing special and have definitely benefitted from the technology and modern treatments like carb counting and insulin pumps. There are lots of us living normal lives with type 1 diabetes.