It can feel overwhelming to hear that your child has been diagnosed with diabetes. The diagnosis generally marks the beginning of many changes needed to keep your child healthy. Fortunately, once you know the key areas that you need to take care of, it can make their care easier to manage.
5 Key Areas Of Diabetic Care For Children
1. Regularly Checking Blood Sugar Levels
It’s imperative to ensure that you have a schedule for checking your child’s blood sugar levels. You should work with the doctor to determine when this should be and what the signs are that the blood sugar levels are outside of the normal range.
Depending on your child’s age, you should also teach them how to check their blood sugar. If your child is old enough to be in school, you need to communicate your child’s needs as well.
2. Maintaining The Medical Regimen
Your child’s doctor will develop a treatment plan based on their needs. This may or may not include daily insulin shots. As with the blood sugar checks, you may need to teach your child how to administer their medication.
It’s a good idea to talk to your doctor about insulin pumps or other devices that can automatically dispense medication when needed. You should also have an emergency plan in place to immediately handle low or high blood sugar issues.
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3. Planning Meals
Carb counting is an integral part of taking care of a child with diabetes. That often comes in the form of planning all their meals, including their snacks. Your child will need to eat at the same time every day while taking into account how these meals might affect their blood sugar.
4. Keeping Them Active
Doctors often recommend exercise if your child needs to maintain a healthy weight. Even without that, being physically active can be essential to your child’s overall health.
However, if your child is active, you’ll need to monitor their blood sugar levels before and after exercise. Your meal plan and medical regimen will also need to take the effects of physical activity into account.
5. Taking Them To The Doctor
Even when you do a commendable job of keeping your child’s blood sugar levels in check, diabetes can still affect their health. People with diabetes are more prone to heart issues, kidney problems, and nerve damage.
The best way to stay on top of it is to take them to the doctor regularly. You should also ask the doctor about a