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20 month old son - newly diagnosed

A

annettekp

Well-Known Member
Messages
153
Location
Orkney
Hello

My 20 month old son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 2 and a half weeks ago. After a stay in hospital complicated by him going down with slapcheek, we're home now. I feel a bit overwhelmed although the support from our local diabetes team has been great.

His blood sugar is still high so we've altered his insulin. He's just not himself yet I'm assuming because high blood sugar makes you feel pretty grim?

We're busy counting carbs so much so I'm dreaming about food!

Annette
 
Hi Annette and welcome to the forum. :)

I am so sorry to hear of the problems that your little one has and your worries about it all too. :(

I have no experience myself in this line but am sure some other parents will be along soon to offer help and advice.

Hang on in there, you will manage and things will get better. (((Big hugs)))
 
Hi Annett,
Welcome to the forum, you'll find plenty of support, help, advise and ((hugs)) here. I'm Mum to Andrew whos 11yrs old and diagnosed T1 4 yrs ago, believe me when i say it does get easier.
We have a fantastic Mum on line, Jen has a 3yr old son Khaleb who was diagnosed T1 at 8 mths old.
Take care,
Suzi x
 
Hi Annette, Sorry to hear about your little one. I have 3 children, 2 of which were diagnosed with type 1 in May 09. It is hard at first, but i promise you that things do get easier and it sort of becomes a way of life. It's great that you are carb counting as this is the best way to achieve better control. I can't tell you the number of scales I've gone through since they were diagnosed and my maths has improved too! I hope you find this site as useful as I do, there are plenty of mums/dads on here to offer advice and support all the time. Leggott.
 
Hi Annette
You will need to be tough and strong to guide your little one through all this. It will obviously be a long while before he can take control for himself . I've never been in your position, but a number of people on here have. They can give you advice based on experience.
I do hope your little boy feels better soon.
Hana
 
Hi there,

Sorry to hear you've had an extended stay in hospital and are feeling a bit out of your depth.

Khaleb was diagnosed young so I know how hard it is and the sleepless nights that follow diagnosis. I don't think I have been either strong or tough. In the first year of Khaleb's life I think my tears could of filled the Thames. Somewhere along the line I did become very accepting of the situation and I also got pretty good at keeping those blood sugars under control. This made life a lot easier to get on with.

There is so much to learn and the doses of insulin are so small there isn't a lot of flexibility in what or when meals come.

Funnily enough Khaleb got croup when he was in hospital at diagnosis. He caught it off the kid in the next bed. I try to avoid hospital admissions, if possible, so we don't bring home more than we went with.

I find glucose powder a really good hypo treatment. I can mix it on top of food or in Khaleb's bottle as the gels and syrups are just messy and don't taste that good.

In the early days I often had the glucose meter reading "HI" but gradually got less and less of these as I worked out what foods did what.

A lot is just trial and error. My biggest error was dialing up the long acting dose on the short acting pen. Apparantly most people do this at least once. I now have stickers of rocket ships on the Novorapid pen and always do the long acting injection first.

Hope I can be of help as I have learnt a lot from other parents.

Jen
 
Annette,

It will take your little fellow time to adapt, having previously had high blood glucose will undoubtedly make him feel unwell. Sounds like you have a excellent care team there, hope all goes well and things settle down soon.

Nigel
 
Hi there,

Sorry to hear that your little one has be so unwell. My daughter Grace was diagnosed almost a year ago T1 just 2 weeks after her 2nd birthday.

I stumbled upon this site whilst searching for information late one night not long after dioagnosis needing some information, answers and support, you will find all this and more on here. I won't lie and say even 1 year down the line it is all a bed of roses for our family, but it does get easier and you all learn to adapt and cope. Grace adapted well to her new circumstances and now willingly has her finger prick done with no fuss and no crying (she calls it her 'achoo').

As the youngest of 5 it's hard, for the whole family from carb friendly meals to what to have at birthday parties so I don't faint at the sight of an unreadable blood glucose test at the end of it! Carb counting does become a bit all consuming to start with but as time goes on you will remember more of what has how many carbs in it. When I first went shopping after Grace's diagnosis it took me twice as long to do the shopping because I was reading all the labels because I wasn't sure if it was suitable for her, made worse by the fact that we are stationed in Germany and sometimes it was hard to find the information you wanted on the label!

I hope all goes well for you and that your little one continues to go from strength to strength. Take care Helena and the Gracie x
 
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