How to acknowledge your T1Ds feelings…

Your 8 yr old suddenly doesn’t want to change their pump site….

Your 11 yr old refuses to talk about diabetes, storms off to their room, etc. 

Your 14 yr old refuses to share their data with you. Rips off the cgms you just spent hours fighting insurance companies to cover. 

I get it. This is normal. I snuck food, overtreated my lows, and lied to my parents. I hate to say it, but is a crappy hard phase.

Desperate to figure out what they actually ate at lunch because you’re like “how the heck did the blood sugar randomly get to 350 an hour after recess?”

Diabetes just stinks, end of story. AND there are ways to approach a situation so you leave confident and caring.

First off, blame the ‘betes, not the person. That is always the root of the problem, right? 

AND acknowledge acknowledge acknowledge when your kids do say something. Take this as an opportunity. It will prompt them to open up more. The goal in any conversation around diabetes is for it not to end in more confusion, storming off, or you the parent feeling like you’re even more disconnected from your kid. 

If we accuse, or nag, or try and pry out info, it will likely result in the kiddo to go in to “shut down mode” and create more distance. We are looking for connection here, not avoidance.  The common denominator is that we both think diabetes stinks-you and your child just have different approaches to the thoughts and the meanings behind those thoughts.

Try using suuuuuper simple statements like…

 “Seems like there is a pattern here-I know we both don’t like it when your blood sugar goes up, let’s figure it out together.” 

In addition, a few other sentence openers that are so easy to pull out of your mental toolbox include….

• Thank you for telling me. 

• That is SO important. 

• I believe you. 

• Interesting, tell me more about that. 

• Help me understand….

Make sure you focus on the strengths and “what’s going well” MORE often than you are talking about the negative aspects of T1D. It is SO easy to complain and nag about something that can be so isolating, frustrating, and uncertain. 

AND-if you are still struggling, I got you-book your first 15 min call, it is always free.