How are a child’s development and well-being affected by type 1 diabetes? How is the child’s family affected?

I think diabetes can impact children and families very differently. Some children and families seem to have an easier time adjusting to the diagnosis of diabetes and managing diabetes, so that diabetes does not seem to have a major impact on the child’s development. In other cases, the child or the family may have a harder time adjusting to the diagnosis of diabetes and managing diabetes, in which case you may see an impact on the child’s development. For example, if a child’s or teen’s diabetes is out of control and the child is missing a lot of insulin, this may negatively impact their growth. Another example is that during adolescence, it is very common for teens to try and break away from their parents and try to be more independent, so the teen may try to manage their diabetes all by themselves. However, it is usually too much responsibility for most teens to manage their diabetes alone, so I recommend that parents stay involved and help their teen manage their diabetes even though, developmentally, the teen is trying to break away.

DB