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If you have a child with T1D, which of the following people do/did you feel comfortable with babysitting your child? Select all that apply to you.
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fortunately to this date, none, oldest being 47, hopefully all remain that way in their lifetime.
My son was dx’ed at 8 months old. The only people willing to watch him were family.
Wow! 8 mo old! I can’t imagine how challenging it must be to estimate insulin meal doses for children diagnosed at such a young ages when how much food will actually gets eaten is so unpredictable.
Special props to T1D parents!
I don’t have children with T1 but I have two grandkids with it. Their parents felt comfortable leaving their kids with me, since I have T1
My three kids are all in their fifties, and fortunately for all of us, none have diabetes. You can’t know how lucky that makes me feel. I’ve always believed that it would be easier to have diabetes than to have a child with the condition. And after almost 70 years of lots of shots, test tape, and all the rest of it, I still feel that way. Three years ago, my labradoodle was moved into our category following a case of pancreatitis, so my belief has been reality checked. I’m not complaining because my now much smaller world has something in it that I have the experience to deal with. I’m almost ridiculously grateful to have the years of experience learning first hand how to manage Charlie’s insulin regimen, applying Libre’s to make sure he’s in range as much as possible, and giving him 4 shots a day of 2 different insulins. Some have called it a bad joke. I call it serendipity. Charlie reinforces my will to take care of both of us, and to find something to be happy about each and every day.
So many of these questions are not appropriate for those of us with long term T1. I think my mom tried so hard, but it was not an easy answer. I managed to have severe lows most everywhere and with everyone we knew when I was left in their care. It was a nightmare until I grew older.
Me too! I think part of the hot mess syndrome suffered by many of us from that era was the fact that we were on such limited & primitive insulin formulations – often NPH once or twice a day, or maybe one shot of NPH with some R or Lente given later on. But still, we were lucky to have insulin to keep us alive.
Diabetes self-care was much more complicated and difficult in those days and we had to work hard with the limited resources that we had. For us T1D long-timers, it’s a miraculous blessing that we are still alive and thriving with diabetes tech advances!!!
I was a young child with T1 diabetes back in the 1960s. My single divorced mom worked full-time as a dance teacher & choreographer 6 days a week, usually in the afternoons and evenings. My younger brother and I spent a lot of time with babysitters when we weren’t at school. None of the babysitters had T1 diabetes but my mom taught them whatever she knew from what she was taught. My mom left detailed instruction notes for the babysitters about meal prep, snacks, S&S of insulin reaction, what to do give me if I was having one, and when to call a doctor, i.e. if I was having a seizure.
On Saturdays we often stayed with my father relatives, usually his sister so we could play with our cousins of similar age. At that time nobody else had diabetes on either side of the family. My aunt was a grade school teacher so she did have some familiarity about kids with diabetes from her own experience as a teacher. Because of the insulin I was on I often had severe insulin reactions just before lunch time if I didn’t eat a mid-morning snack. My aunt was always very diligent about making sure I had something to eat – like a peanut butter and apple sandwich cut into little squares for snack time.
I have been a T1D since the age of 13 and have a younger sister (3 years) who had been insulin dependent since a few months after birth. My mother, of course, was very concerned when babysitting of my sister started. Fortunately my mom and dads close association when forming a local chapter of the Canadian Diabetes Association in the 1950’s / ’60’s they met and associated with other diabetic families, health professionals associated with the disease and others from much larger communities. The babysitting often included other siblings as well. There were 5 children in the family and some of us thought we were the “best babysitter” and through the incredible patience of our parents did get that opportunity, probably at a much younger age than others and it made us feel kind of proud of ourselves especially amongst our grandparents and the many other relatives and friends. I will never forget the very first time my parents were able to go out of town together for several days. There was so many relatives both for and against that! I was of course brought up in a “diabetic family” so when I was diagnosed at 13 and was being taught how to give myself an injection every morning I devised a plan to help my little sister to finally be able to inject herself as well and it worked! WE all knew how to sterilize the glass syringes and sharpen and sterilize the stainless steel needles, but our Dad was the only one who would inject my sister until I got out of the hospital and then we often played games daring each other who could do it first. I was released from the hospital by mid October and my sister was teaching her other siblings how to inject her morning insulin dose before Xmas. Our parents, but especially my Dad, were so grateful that a big portion of their daily lives was getting to be as close to normal than it had ever been for over 13 years. My youngest sister would still require a baby sitter for several more years but now the options had expanded. Her life took on a new meaning as well because she was able to do more things as there were enough of us to be around whenever needed. My point of this story about babysitting a diabetic child is it can be done by almost anyone who is determined they want to do that, a little bit courageous and happy they can assist others when asked.