My three old is proving to put up the challenge lately with sleep. And the other night, after I tucked him in, I heard him upstairs, mumbling about something “forgot, forgot, forgot.”
Mind you this was a Thursday night and all I needed at the moment was a breather, so I let him settle himself asleep as he didn’t come off as upset and he’s gotten pretty savvy at brewing up reasons he shouldn’t have to go to bed yet.
Forty-five minutes later, I make my way to our master bedroom and a quickly grew a little worried as it seemed Declan had been waiting for my footsteps. I reach the second level and immediately, I hear, “Mom you forgot your medicine.” I opened his bedroom door and asked what he was talking about. He gets up and hands me my container of glucose tabs.
Oye, #parentingfail. He was so worried about my glucose tabs and didn’t want me to go to sleep without them in their home of my nightstand. (My one year old loves pulling out my goodies and putting them all over the house. This time, they ended up in Declan’s bed.)
I tucked him away and was flattered he cared about my “medicine.”
The reason I am sharing this story, is to open up the conversation of how other households go about informing family members of someone having diabetes. Beyond the illustration I painted above, I test my blood, change my pump site and draw up insulin in front of my kids, and also share why I eat certain foods to be healthy. While my oldest is only 3, I want to continue educating him about my health, and help him with a plan if I have a low blood sugar. It was also drawn to my attention of how beneficial it could be to educate significant others on how to test blood sugar and suspend insulin pumps.
When I did the local JDRF walk here in Cols, OH, Lilly was passing out Disney books, where one of the characters had diabetes. I loved this idea, and I am sure there are many other examples available online and beyond.
I grew up in a household where a parent had diabetes and we weren’t all too much in the know, but I wish we were. Either way, there is no perfect way of sharing diabetes nor is there a perfect way to parent. I hope this story brings you comfort and motivation to share anything needed with loved ones.
In closing, have you heard of a FREE program called TrialNet? This is a screening for people who have a relative with type 1 diabetes. There are about 200 locations in the US and to be eligible you need to be at least 1 years old. This data can be scary, but helpful and it is something I have chosen to have done for my children. For more information click here.
