Little cousin (13) a new type 1

JustLucky

Well-Known Member
Messages
61
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi, everyone. I was diagnosed just a year ago with type 1.
Unfortunately my wife's little cousin (he's almost 13) has been diagnosed with T1 just a few days ago after the usual symptoms.
He is still in the hospital but BG is OK now, feels well now and together with his parents he's starting the education these days with the nurses and doctors. He should be home in a couple of weeks or so... He'll get a Libre sometime soon.

I've told his parents to go slow and first to listen to the doctors and nurses, but still they are asking a ton of questions.
As I don't feel that confident in giving advice to children (or young teenagers) as I've been diagnosed at 35... any kind of advice here would be much appreciated, particularly concerning the kids wanting to play football and run around all day :cool: without having a hypo every 5 minutes. How do you manage school, meals and insulin? What kind of challenges to expect?
Thanks for sharing your experience.
 

Wooly123

Active Member
Messages
42
Hi there,

I am 33 and was diagnosed at age 7 and I am still no expert! All I can say is running around and playing football shouldn’t be a problem once insulin doses have been sorted which I’m sure the medical team will get him started with. I highly recommend the Libre 2 which I get on NHS as it has alarms that you can set to inform you of lows/highs. I always bring hypo snacks with me when being active. ‘Lift’ glucose tablets are good. Usually 3 of those is enough to treat a hypo for me. The DAFNE method is what I have used since being a teenager to calculate my carbs and give the right doses according to my personal ‘ratio’. My healthcare team provide me with DAFNE training. The most challenging thing for me is working out what my ratios are as these always seem to change with me at various points in my life and a lot of factors influence this. For instance, I always need less insulin if travelling to a hot climate.

I won’t give you information overload as I’m not sure if any of this is helpful, but hope some of that is :)
 

Juicyj

Expert
Retired Moderator
Messages
9,018
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
Hypos, rude people, ignorance and grey days.
Hi @JustLucky

His parents will need to agree a plan with his school to help them to help him manage his condition, Diabetes UK has some useful advice here: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/your-child-and-diabetes/schools/school-staff

Regardless of his diagnosis the plan should be that he leads a 'normal' life and should not need to avoid/give up any sport activity, however he and his parents will need to learn as they go along as it's a pretty dynamic condition to start with and changes all the time, particularly with honeymoon phase - but a key priority will be to get a libre 2 or Dexcom as it will help him to see what's going on more easily and use this to learn about foods/insulin/patterns etc etc.

Yes there's a lot to learn and we are all very different with t1, but be there and hold their hands as it will be invaluable to have your support through the months and years ahead.