Am I being too controlling?

RyansMum said:

I am the parent of a 14 yr old boy diagnosed with type1 diabetes 8 weeks ago after months of losing weight but continually eating and drinking us out of house and home. At first we put it down to puberty but when we had to hide food at night to stop him finding it, we realised there was bigger issues and took him for a blood test. He spent 3 days in hospital when the results came back dangerously high and he seemed to except and adapt well to the condition, better than me at any rate, I cried alot that first week, especially when he asked the question "did I cause this by eating too much". The nurse obviously responded with "it's because of the diabetes you were doing it". Quilt then kicked in on my part for not realising sooner that there was a problem. His acceptance lasted until Xmas where he stopped testing and basically ate what he wanted all the while lying to us about it! Eventually caught him out when I said the diabetic nurse had phoned and wanted his testing machine to plug into her computer to review his readings (we had appointment at clinic that week) he then "lost" his machine, despite having used it an hour previous! To cut a long story short, he admitted what he'd been or not been doing as the case may be and "found" his machine! We agreed a new start from that day on, I promised to stop nagging him about testing and to put more trust in his judgement and he promised to test when he was supposed to and be more sensible with his choices of food outside the home. This only lasted a couple of weeks. To his credit he does test and he does give his insulin dose before meals but he is still eating things he shouldn't be and thinking he knows best! And he never washes his hands before testing despite the Diabetic Team and myself telling him how important it is to get accurate readings! Should I step back and let him get on with it or do I need to be constantly on his back given the severity of the condition. I'm fed up of the constant fighting, but I'm just so scared something will happen to him that could be avoided. I'm very lucky enough to have the support of my partner who is the voice of reason most days and who my son listens too when all I want to do is shout at him for not taking this seriously. Any advice from parents in the same boat would be gratefully received, many thanks.

Click to expand...

RyansMum said:

Thanks Anna29,
I appreciate your comments, I know I must irritate the hell out of him as I do go on and on, but it is because I'm so scared of something irreversible happening to him. I did back off this weekend and simply stopped asking and he does seem in a slightly better mood this morning lol, coincidence possibly!

I guess there's no great age to develops diabetes but being a teenager with the huge responsibility of it all must suck!

Click to expand...