World Diabetes Day — Tips from AboutKidsHealth on the role of family and caregivers
GUEST BLOG: Alisha Papineau, AboutKidsHealthNovember 14 is World Diabetes Day (WDD). This year’s focus is on the impact of diabetes on the family and support network and their role in the management, care, prevention, and education of diabetes.
In support of WDD, AboutKidsHealth is sharing ways that family, caregivers, and other support figures can help teens manage their diabetes and encourage them to make safe and healthy decisions.
As a caregiver, it’s important to remain involved in your teen’s health-care to make sure that they do not miss blood sugar checks, meals or insulin injections, and to help them make decisions about their diet.
Diabetes and eating disorders
On its own, diabetes may not trigger an eating disorder. However, the combination of dietary changes and restrictions, along with a mix of social factors, stressful life events and genetics may increase the risk of an eating disorder in some teens with diabetes.
Teens with diabetes often experience weight loss before their diagnosis. With the introduction of insulin therapy, they tend to regain the weight quickly because their bodies are balancing out as their blood sugar stabilizes. This can trigger body image dissatisfaction.
As part of your teen’s support system, you can help by promoting a healthy body image for yourself and your teen.
• Weight loss
• Episodes of binge eating
• Requests to change to low-calorie, low-fat or other diet trends
• Preoccupation with food and weight
• Many hypoglycemic or hyperglycemic episodes
How to help your teen
As part of your teen’s support system, you can help by promoting a healthy body image for yourself and your teen. Avoid saying negative things about your own physical appearance.
Caregivers or parents can help by talking with a diabetes dietician about more flexible meal plans to reduce any feelings of deprivation or lessen the focus on having a different diet than those around them. The rest of the family can help by eating meals together to encourage a healthy relationship with food and with the family.
Discuss any concerns you may have with the diabetes team and get support for your teen.
Read more about the risks of certain behaviours in teens with diabetes and the role of their family and support system in the article “Thrill-seeking and risky behaviour in teenagers” on the AKH website. You can also find more information about eating disorders.
AboutKidsHealth is SickKids’ health-education website and features more than 3,500 articles on a range of health topics. For more information on diabetes, visit the Diabetes Learning Hub on AboutKidsHealth.
