Diabetes management in a teenager - how to get him to be sensible? Experiences please

[mears]

DS3 was diagnosed in February of this year and DH and I have marvelled at how well he has adjusted to injections and modifying diet.

However, he has lately not been testing his sugars on a regular basis. This started when the diabetic liaison nurse said he could have the odd day off. Last week he did not test for 5 days in a row with the reason being that he 'knows' when he is high or low. He always tests when he feels hypo BTW.

I totally lost the rag with him the other night and had a go at him, telling him that he was not displaying any signs of maturity. He admits he 'can't be bothered' testing.

He tested yestaerday and is running high in the morning 10.9, but my argument is that he needs to do regular tests to identify a pattern. He point blank refuses.

Will he come round on his own to my way of thinking? Anyone been through this? I know there are experienced insulin users out there. Any comments welcome.

Hi again mears,

Gosh, three years already!

I know of a number of boys who were diagnosed in their late teens, barely test, are on two injections a day and somehow have good HbA1c's. As you probably know, there is a theory that there is more than one type of T1 diabetes (as well as MODY), and another that people glycate at different levels - so someone like my DS never has an HbA1c below 7.5-8.0% no matter how many hypos/hypers he has, while other people who run similar BG levels can have HbA1c's in the mid 6's. Maybe your son falls into the "easy to manage" camp, or he's still producing a bit of his own insulin - either way, something is working!

I didn't see The Hospital last week, but heard that it was pretty hairy. Ds was in severe DKA on diagnosis and I would not want him to go through that again

Hi Tangarine :) I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. I think my DS needs a wee fright but he is on a very even keel and seems to have the knack of being able to calculate his insulin needs. I have sent him a link to watch the Hospital episode on diabetes. He tends to not want to discuss it or get involved in any support groups so I leave him to it (most of the time).