The Ten Keys to Helping Your Child Grow Up With Diabetes is an excellent guide for parents of children with diabetes, especially those with newly diagnosed adolescents. It is somewhat less helpful for parents of toddlers or younger kids with diabetes, who face a score of other issues not brought up in this book.

Dr. Wysocki has devised a scheme for coping with diabetes, beginning with a fundamental need for proper education of the parents. Once this basic knowledge has been provided, the child and parents inevitably cope with stress, the problem of adhering to the child’s diabetic regimen, school issues and social difficulties. He offers realistic techniques for parents to help cope with these developments as they occur.

The only problem with the book is its focus on newly diagnosed adolescents (at the expense of younger children) and family involvement. While it does seem important that other family members participate in the care of the child with diabetes, this is not always feasible. Dr. Wysocki does not explain how those with younger children can deal with this. He suggests a weekly family meeting to discuss diabetes and other issues, but this simply cannot be done when the diabetic child is two and his sibling is three months old, for example. Also, not every child with diabetes will face all the problems he mentions. For example, some children diagnosed at an early age seem to be perfectly comfortable with discussing their disease and do not have the social difficulties that Dr. Wysocki describes.

Overall, Dr. Wysocki’s book is an excellent resource for parents of newly diagnosed adolescents.