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Juvenile Diabetes
Tackling the Diagnosis as a Family
By Renee Roberson
"Type 1 diabetes is a 24-hours-a-day job," Schaffer says. "You constantly have to think about it. There are over 100 things that can affect blood sugar and there are only three – food, activity and insulin – that we can control. We have to count every carbohydrate that passes through Daniel's lips, keep track of how active or inactive he is, take into account his blood sugar and match his insulin intake accordingly."
Schaffer says that a common misconception is that people with Type 1 diabetes can't eat sugar. In reality, a person with the illness can eat whatever they want to as long as it is covered by insulin. "Obviously, different foods affect the blood sugar differently and so there are some we avoid or manipulate the insulin intake in order to make it fit well into his meal plan," she says.
Schaffer's son is the only one in his school that has juvenile diabetes, but when she found out there were 35 more families in her county that had children with the illness she helped start a support group focused on the needs of those children and their families. She also works with the local school system to ensure more funding toward the school health department and serves as a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation mentor for newly diagnosed families.
Scarsi also suggests that children and their parents compose a letter to their teacher before the start of the school year, or after a diagnosis, so that the teacher might understand their unique situation a little better and learn what they can do to help make the child's life a little easier throughout the year.
