Emotional Challenges Parents Face When a Child Has Diabetes

As a parent, what was your reaction when you first received the news that your child has diabetes? You probably experienced a whirlwind of emotions, followed by the struggle to re-compose yourself. Chances are, it was a trying experience for you.

Challenges You Might Face if Your Child is a Toddler

• Trying to identify what the child is feeling as the child may not have the vocabulary to express himself.
  
  
• Resisting being overprotective and encouraging the “sick” role in the child.
  
  
• Reconciling the mixed emotions about inflicting pain due to the use of needles in insulin injections.
  
  

Related: Diabetes in Childhood and Pregnancy

Challenges You Might Face if Your Child is a Teenager

• It is a herculean challenge to manage teenage angst, raging hormones and diabetes. Needless to say, it will be trying for you, your child and your family. Differentiating between normal adolescence mood swings and low blood sugar mood swings is hard.
  
  
• Dealing with rebellion against the diabetes self-care regime. To a teenager, this will mean restrictions, a threat to their need for independence and spontaneity.
  
  
• Struggling with when and how much autonomy over diabetes care to hand over to the adolescent.
  
  

Read on for tips to help you and your child manage diabetes better.

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Read these next:

• Overweight Children at Greater Risk of Diabetes
  
• Raising Healthy Kids
• Being Hospitalised When You Have Diabetes