vaccination trouble

chamki said:

Hi im a very stressed parent of a 6 year old. He was diagnosed with type1 diabetes in February. My son got diabetes because he had to have a bcg vaccination. He has been in his honeymoon period till now. Last week the gp gave him his flu vaccine and pneumonia vaccine. This reacted again causinghis pancreas to shut down completely. Now his blood sugars are so high he is getting stressed. Hes on 3 injections of novarapid and one of levemir. As a parent I feel extremely guilty as I was the one who took him for both the injections. Are there any parents who have been through this? Im having a very hard time getting over all this and seeing him going through all this is very hard. We are having a lot of trouble with his diet as literally anything he eats shoots his sugar levels up. Any advise from other parents will be really helpful.

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Re: R: vaccination trouble

chamki said:

Hi im a very stressed parent of a 6 year old. He was diagnosed with type1 diabetes in February. My son got diabetes because he had to have a bcg vaccination. He has been in his honeymoon period till now. Last week the gp gave him his flu vaccine and pneumonia vaccine. This reacted again causinghis pancreas to shut down completely. Now his blood sugars are so high he is getting stressed. Hes on 3 injections of novarapid and one of levemir. As a parent I feel extremely guilty as I was the one who took him for both the injections. Are there any parents who have been through this? Im having a very hard time getting over all this and seeing him going through all this is very hard. We are having a lot of trouble with his diet as literally anything he eats shoots his sugar levels up. Any advise from other parents will be really helpful.

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I am a mother of 2, with diabetes 1 and even if my children are "still" healthy, the odds that they will be diabetics themselves are higher than other kids, of course. So I can understand your concern.

1) try do not feel guilty. Diabetes, expecially type 1, has many concatenate causes. A vaccination can "help" the development but it's not the only cause. It's not your fault and apprehension won't help him

2) speak to a very good consultant qualified in children who works in a very good hospital.

3) talk with his consultant about the insulin pump. 1 single puncture every 3 days. Your son is very young but children are so smart nowadays he will learn how to manage the pump very quickly

4) be strong and optimist. I've caught diabetes when I was 7 and I had had, and still having, a wonderful life. I've travelled a lot (on my own!), I've studied whatever I wanted to study, I lived on my own for years, I had boyfriends, lovers and friends, I'm happily married with 2 healthy children I'm not different from your son and now it's your duty to be optimist for him and with him

~ Arianna ~

chamki said:

We are having a lot of trouble with his diet as literally anything he eats shoots his sugar levels up.

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That's normal! The key is to stop them being unhealthily high for unhealthily long. I have T1 and when I eat a starchy meal my sugar can go up to 14 or so within the first hour, but then with the help of insulin it comes back down. If it's above 9 for a few hours you should start being concerned.

The doctors may make you feel like it's vital to have the sugars "well controlled" all the time, but the occasional bad day, or a rough few months when you're still learning, will not do a lot of damage in the long run. Don't feel guilt, just learn and accommodate.

If I could give a piece of advice to parents of newly diagnosed kids, it would be this: you know your child better than the doctors, and if you learn enough about diabetes you will be able to make better decisions about insulin etc. than the doctors can. The worst situation is when a parent feels overwhelmed and has no confidence in their ability to make decisions about their child's diabetes management, and has to watch the child suffer until the next chance to talk to the doctor. So make sure that doesn't happen to you: read, listen, watch, learn like crazy until you are confident in what you are doing.

There was a time in my life when I thought diabetes brought a huge deal of bad and no good to me. Now I feel differently: diabetes has forced me to learn so much about life, emotions, people... and I'm grateful.

So look on the bright side, do your best, don't be hard on yourself, and aim not to control diabetes but to give yourself and your son a good life.