Type 1 Diabetes Treatment
Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed between the ages of around 9 to 15 – and often even younger.
Type 1 diabetes is Juvenile diabetes also referred to as “insulin dependent” diabetes and currently there is no cure for this type of diabetes. With this type of diabetes, the body does not produce little or no insulin so sugar or glucose can not be metabolized.
The symptoms to look for in this form of diabetes include:
- Increased urination
- Increased thirst
- Abdominal pain
- Fatigue
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Weight loss despite increased appetite
If your child is having any of these symptoms, it is important to take him/her to you family doctor who can run lab test and check for high glucose in the blood.
If your child is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, your family doctor with sit down with you and your child to explain this disease and prepare a plan for treatment with a long term goal of reducing symptoms and preventing complications. The managing of this chronic disease can be done by careful monitoring of blood glucose levels, insulin therapy, education, diet and weight control, exercise and learning about all complications and what measures need to be taken to prevent them.
Patient education about diabetes is the first assignment that newly diagnosed children and their parents need to complete. The family needs to learn what causes diabetes as well as the complications that can occur when this disease is not managed correctly. Everyone will also need to learn the areas that will need to have self care responsibility for. The child and parents will also need to learn how to give insulin injections for daily insulin therapy.
Diabetics self care responsibility include changing eating habits, daily glucose monitoring, daily insulin injections, plenty of healthy exercise and knowing what needs to be done to cooperate with the members of your child’s healthcare team.
First and foremost in the self-care responsibilities is monitoring the disease. There are many glucose monitoring devices currently on the market and different companies which manufacture these monitoring devices. These companies normally will give any newly diagnosed diabetics their first monitor free. Your child will probably need several monitors for school, as well as home. The doctor’s nurse can teach the child (depending on age) and parents on using these devices as well as how to give insulin injections. Glucose daily monitoring is the best way to know how insulin therapy and diet changes are working and must be done accurately every day in order to confirm that the child’s diabetes is under control.
Diet and nutrition will need to be carefully monitored as well. It is also important that the child gets plenty of daily exercise and not try to use diabetes as an excuse to watch TV and play video games everyday which puts your child at risk of becoming a “couch potato”. Exercise is needed in order to maintain a healthy weight and is also extremely important in helping insulin therapy to work more affectedly.
Foot care is also important especially for children. Problem with the feet begin to happen with diabetics because of nerve damage in the legs and feet and also because of narrowing of blood vessels in the legs. These problems can combine to cause a very small cut to become a life-threatening infection and can even lead to a life-threatening complication of the foot known as gangrene. Gangrene is when tissue begins to die and can lead to amputation of the foot or leg. If a diabetic has nerve damage in a foot, he/she will not be able to tell when there a small cut or any damage to the skin and an infection can start before it is ever noticed. Add bad circulation when there is a cut or any skin damage, then there is inadequate blood flowing to the area to fight the infection.
The child’s feet need to be examined daily for breaks in the skin or small cuts. Walking around barefooted is not an option for a child or adolescent with diabetes.
