Dealing with Diabetes in Kids

Some Other Symptoms of Diabetes in Children

• 1Bedwetting. Children with diabetes may make more urine in response to a chronic disease such as diabetes, and this may result to bedwetting.
• 2Stomach pains. Diabetes is a systemic disease that can cause widespread pain, numbness in the feet and legs and stomach pain. Children with diabetes are also very much susceptible to stomach ailments and other gastrointestinal illnesses. As such, diabetic stomach pains can be indicative of peptic ulcer, diabetic ketoacidosis or an aortic aneurysm. If your child experiences unrelenting diabetic stomach pains, runs a fever (more than 101 degrees) and has consistently high or low blood sugar, consult your doctor immediately.
• 3Nausea and/or vomiting. According to WrongDiagnosis.com, of the 2564 total causes of nausea, about 23 can be due to diabetes or a family history of the disease.
• 4Fruity-smelling breath. A child with diabetes can have fruity smelling breath as a result of diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition that occurs when the body cannot use glucose as a fuel source anymore and uses your child's stored body fats instead to do the job. Ketones, the by-products of this process, start to build up in the body and produces the fruity odor in your child's breath.
• 5Breathing problems. Ketoacidosis may lead to hyperventilation and other breathing problems.
• 6Loss of consciousness.

Living with Diabetes

Helping Children Cope with Diabetes

• 1Encourage the child to develop healthy eating habits. Once a child is diagnosed with diabetes, there will be more restrictions - and this includes restrictions on what they can and cannot eat. So, it is very important for parents to teach their kids the importance of eating healthy and well-balanced food to avoid further diabetes complications in the near future. Parents must also make sure that the child follows regular meal and/or snack schedule.
  
  Take note: If the child doesn't want to eat a certain type of food you're offering, don't force it. Instead, give him/her a variety of healthy foods that he/she can choose from.
  
  

  

• 2Teach the importance of regular exercise to your kids. Obesity can lead to more complications among kids with diabetes so you must make exercise a part of the child's daily routine. Majority of health experts advocate that kids with diabetes should have at least 60 minutes of physical activities every day. Here are some great products that may help your child get his daily dose of exercise:
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  However, avoid very rigorous activities that may cause excessive exhaustion. Even simple walks, jogging, or even helping out with household chores. As long as there's enough movement for the day, your child will be safe.
• 3Test blood glucose levels regularly. Blood glucose testing should be done at least four times per day. If possible, the parents should monitor this themselves to ensure that the child is coping up with the condition.
  
  

  

• 4Consider insulin injections or use an insulin pump. Insulin injections work by moving sugar from the blood into other body tissues where it is used for energy so the liver stops from producing more sugar. Now, since insulin injections can be quite painful, others prefer to use insulin pumps - a mechanical device which can be used to deliver insulin more like the pancreas does.
  
  Since most kids are afraid of the needle, here is something you need to consider to conquer the anxiety of insulin injections.
  
  

  

• 5Work closely with your doctor and diabetes health care team. To help achieve the best possible control of your child's diabetes and to monitor signs of diabetes complications and other health problems that occur more frequently in kids with type 1 diabetes, you need to fully cooperate with your diabetes health care team.
• 6Reassure your child of your love and support. There are children with diabetes who think that having the chronic illness is their fault. Many of them also think that they have that condition because they did something bad or they are not just good enough for their parents. To erase these doubts in the child's mind, parents must always ensure their child that they will support him or her no matter and they will love the child no matter what.
  
  The key to coping successfully with Type 1 diabetes lies in understanding the disease. Here is an excellent resource that gives very good examples of what the blood sugar should be for each age, how much food to give, tips for exercising, the action of insulin, how to treat low blood sugar and what to do on days that your child is sick.