Rebellious Diabetic - aged 12

[LouBeeLou]

My sister (12 yo) has been diagnosed type 1 diabetic for about a year now (injecting inslulin twice daily). The problem is she doesn't seem to click that she needs to look after her sugar/carb/water intake, etc, etc, for her own health, she sees it as another rule she doesn't want to follow.

I know it's hard for her to see other kids troughing chocolate when she can't but she seems determined to eat everything she shouldn't. She is also at that age where she wants to fit in and be 'cool'.

She does not seem to grasp the idea that how she handles it now will determine the state of her health as an adult.

Does anyone have any ideas on how we can drill the message in? Shock tactics have not worked, my mum has told her stories of going blind, losing toes, etc, and she just shrugs it off.

Wondered if anyone has had experience with diabetic children? How did you get them to realise the importance of keeping their blood sugar at the norm?

Have you looked at the magazines offered by Diabetes UK? THey also have a cataloge with books too which may help.

Just bumping this up again

Is there a diabetes clinic at your hospital or info at your gps surgery, maybe if she saw others being cool AND sticking to the rules it might inspire her to be a bit more sensible.

Yes she has been to the clinic and they are all very helpful, she has been to meet other kids with diabetes but I think she is in some kind of denial (?) that's she's got it.

She gets regular visits from the diabetic nurse and the dietician and will sit and nod her head at all the questions but then ignores it all afterwards.

I thought maybe there were some books aimed at teens about this kind of thing - think I will have a look on the net - thanks for the links SoupDragon.

Halle Berry is a diabetic, does that make it cool?

I have diabetes but wasn't diagnosed 'til I was 19, so not much help from that perspective. Have to say I didn't take it that seriously until I went to work for Diabetes UK & then scared myself quite a lot.... Their publications are pretty good though, worth investigating. I think Soxwasher who posts sometimes has a daughter with diabetes so hopefully she'll see this.

Hi

I hope I can really help, I am a type 1 diabetic and have been for 27 years (since I was 3), I went through the rebelious stage at about your sisters age and continued for about 2-3years, believe me when you say "don't you know what you are doing to yourself" it never kicks in, I always thought "oh i'm fine now, that will never happen to me", my Mum always kept me under strict control but I used to sneak chocolate biscuits into my room, buy sweets with my pocket money, it is very normal for a diabetic child to do this.

One thing I would ask is that someone speak to your sister to make sure everything is alright at school, I guess I started "cheating" when I was getting picked on for being different ie. injections, snacks during lessons etc. so I kind of thought that if I could be a bit more like everyone else evrything would be fine. If there is a problem at school maybe it could get ironed out by someone coming in to talk to the kids about diabetes & explaining to them about it?

Just to let you know that despite "cheating" for that period of time the only side effect I have had is a problem with my eyes (which are now fine, have just had a few lazer treatments) but this may have happened whether I cheated or not as I had had diabetes for so long.

As an adult I learned that strict control makes for a happier life & would never dream of cheating again, people know I am diabetic & are always helpful in accomodating my needs.

I hope this has helped in some way, don't hesitate to contact me if needs be.

Kind regards