Diabetes And Your Child's School

If your child has diabetes, it is probably type 1 diabetes, which means that your child is insulin-dependent. Even if your child has type 2 diabetes, you will want to tell the school so that your child is supported during their learning process. You want your child to get the most of their education, and that means helping to make sure that your child gets the proper care at school.

1. Meet with the School

You will want to have a meeting with your child’s teacher, every year. This will probably take about 30 minutes to an hour to discuss the teacher’s questions and your child’s needs. Bring along information about diabetes. There are even pamphlets on diabetes aimed at teachers that you can bring with you.

Your child’s teacher is going to wonder, “Do I have to give insulin treatments?” The answer is that no, teachers are not responsible for giving injections. Many children manage their diabetes without ever getting insulin injections at school. Others get their injections at school, and are supervised by the teacher while they do this.

Help the teacher understand the blood glucose monitoring system that your child uses. It might be helpful to create a chart that explains what the different levels of blood glucose are, and what action should be taken for each one.

It is important to determine what policies the school has in place for diabetics. If there are no pre-existing policies, you can help your child’s school create thoughtful and inclusive policies.

2. Ally yourself with the Teacher

Especially with younger school-aged children, they might not understand the importance of eating their regular snacks. Ask the teacher to help remind your child to eat these snacks.

Your child’s teacher is the best person to observe your child during the day. A common occurrence for children with diabetes is that they develop low blood sugar before lunch. Have the teacher monitor your child to see if there are patterns of lethargy that should be noted and altered (possibly with an extra snack). The teacher can help remind the child to do blood testing as well.

3. Prepare your child

Before your child goes to school, be sure that they understand diabetes. You will want them to know what their responsibilities are.

Remember that as your child grows up, you are transferring the responsibility of monitoring and regulating their own blood sugar from your hands to their hands. During this transition period, you might find that your child makes a mistake, and occasionally misses snacks. This is a normal part of the growing up experience. Help your child overcome these mistakes, but allow your child to make these mistakes in the first place.

Consider getting a medic alert bracelet for your child, or similar piece of identification that explains that they have diabetes so that emergencies can be averted or cared for properly.

4. Help pack the lunch.

When your child is young, you will probably be the one packing their lunch to take to school. Be sure to pack extra snacks in case your child gets low blood sugar at school. Or leave some extra snacks with the teacher if you are worried that your child would eat them all at once. Pack some snacks that are quick to eat, such as carrot sticks instead of an apple, so that your child won’t have to

5. Know your rights.

Even though your child is diabetic, your child has a right to participate in every athletic event, field trip, and class outing that is planned. Your child has a right to monitor their blood sugar when necessary, and to eat snacks when they are needed. Your child also has a right to free access to water and to the bathroom. Your child will also be allowed to take as much time as necessary to eat the needed snacks. These rights are mandated by federal law in Canada, and by state law in the United States. If you feel these rights are being violated, begin by contacting your teacher to discuss how you can solve the situation. If this does not work, speak to your school principal, and take it further if necessary. Most times diabetes education will help the school meet your and your child’s needs.

The teachers, facilitators, and administration all want your child to succeed in school. Help them by giving them the salient information about diabetes. This can be an experience in ongoing education for you, your child, and the school staff. Let your child help in this education. If your child wants to do a presentation or project on diabetes, encourage them to share their knowledge. If your child prefers to keep quiet about diabetes, respect that right as well.

About The Author

Vivian Brennan is an editor of http://www.theguideto-diabetes.com/living_with_diabetes/. For tips on how to deal with diabetes at any age or stage, check out the The Guide to Diabetes.

Breastfeeding And Diabetes

If you are a diabetic and have a baby, there are certain things to keep in mind while you are breastfeeding. Firstly, studies have proven that breastfeeding a baby can help to prevent type 1 diabetes development. Babies who breastfeed until at least six months will be at a lower risk for type 1 diabetes. Doctors generally recommend that mothers breastfeed their children until nine to twelve months.

Doctors are unsure if the positive effects of nursing come from special nutrients in the colostrum (the special milk from mothers) or if it because babies who are breastfed often grow at a more regular pace than those who are fed from cow’s milk. Babies weaned on cow’s milk often experience growth spurts rather than the steady growth associated with mother’s milk. If you are a diabetic, consider breastfeeding to help lower your child’s chances of diabetes due to genetic predisposition.

Breastfeeding is not only positive for the babies, but also for the mothers. Breastfeeding can help maternal weight loss, and it is particularly important for diabetic women to maintain a healthy weight. Some breastfeeding mothers find it easier for them to manage their diabetes because their glucose levels stay more constant and they have a remission of some symptoms while breastfeeding.

Just like during pregnancy, breastfeeding requires much blood sugar level monitoring from the mother. You will probably find that your need for insulin is lower than before your pregnancy. Insulin will not enter your baby’s body because it is too large to be carried on the breast milk. However, if you have type 2 diabetes and are taking diabetes medication, talk with your doctor to make sure that you are on a type of medication that will be healthiest for both you and for your baby.

Breastfeeding means that you have to be extra careful of your nutrition, so be sure to see your doctor or dietitian to create a meal plan that will work for you. It is important to eat regular snacks when you are breastfeeding because you want to keep your blood glucose levels constant. You will need to increase your caloric intake by about 500 calories a day to meet your baby’s nutritional needs. You can do this simply by drinking a glass of milk each time you breastfeed, which will keep you both hydrated and full of vitamins.

In order to maintain a balanced diet, experts suggest that mothers eat 20% of calories from protein, 40-60% from carbohydrates, and 30-40% from fruits and vegetables. Keeping up with all of these food groups will ensure that your body has the nutrients to provide for the baby.

As a breastfeeding mother, low blood sugar is an increased risk. However, by eating a healthy diet full of legumes, whole grains, other healthy foods, you will be able to keep low blood sugar at bay. Drinking lots of fluids is also an important part of having a healthy blood sugar level. Most importantly, monitor your blood glucose levels and record the results frequently. Having a newborn baby around will mean that you are very busy, but it is also the time when it is most important to take care of yourself so that you will be able to care for your baby.

When the baby is born, often it is a good idea to immediately allow the baby to breastfeed, which will prevent low blood sugar. Some hospitals will try to take babies away for observation. You can ask politely, and firmly insist that you baby stays with you for the first feeding and for some initial bonding time. If you are hospitalized after the baby is born, ask to bring your baby with you so that you will still be able to breastfeed. Diabetic mothers are not often hospitalized, but since breastfeeding is even more important for diabetic mothers, it is important to keep this in mind.

Some diabetic mothers may find that their milk comes in late, between two days to two weeks. In the meantime, use a breastpump and speak to your doctor to establish the best solution for you and your baby. Even babies who are too weak to breastfeed can be fed breastmilk that has been pumped.

Breastfeeding is a bonding experience for mothers and babies. Diabetics can breastfeed and gain even more benefits than the emotional closeness, such as lowered diabetes risk for the baby, and improved diabetes control for the mother.

About The Author

Vivian Brennan is an expert on diabetes, and is currently an editor at http://www.theguideto-diabetes.com/living_with_diabetes/ She is also a mother of two. She believes in educating people about diabetes to help people improve their lives.

Need Help With Diabetes? Get Rid Of Toxins and Lose Weight Fast

Weight Loss Matters

Did you know that nearly 9 out of 10 people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes are overweight? If you are overweight, losing some weight could help you better manage your diabetes. Weight Loss Matters is an American Diabetes Association program that will help you lose weight and take care of your diabetes. You can lose weight and keep it off.

Your first step is to talk with your doctor about losing weight. It can be hard to talk about weight loss. But Weight Loss Matters will help you get started.

Diabetes and Metabolic Health

People with diabetes are more likely to be overweight and to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol. At least one out of every five overweight people has several metabolic problems at once, which can lead to serious complications like heart disease.

Are You at Risk for Obesity?

One way to find out if your weight puts you at risk for diabetes is to look at your body mass index, or BMI, which is based on a calculation of your height and weight. Use our BMI calculator to find out.

Getting Motivated

Getting motivated to lose weight can be hard, especially if you have tried to lose weight in the past. Find out whether you are ready to begin a weight loss plan and get inspired to take the first step.

Getting Started

Learn what you can do to lower your risk.

Small Steps for Your Health

Changing to a healthier lifestyle can be tough. Get ideas and tips for making small steps towards a healthier lifestyle. Also, find out what the ingredients are for success.

Healthy Weight Loss

Reality is that losing weight in a healthy way and learning how to to keep it off for years is not easy. It takes a new way of thinking. Are you ready?

Be Active! But How?

Being active is a big part of living a healthy lifestyle.

Check out the benefits of being active, how much activity is best for you, and get a few tips to be more active now.

Copied from the American Diabetes Association web site

As you can see 9 out of 10 of people are overweight when suffering from type 2 diabetes, therefore, it is imperative that body weight must be controlled.

One must look at the percentage of people overweight on this continent today; it wasn’t like that 40 years ago was it? A person doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know why this is so, we live in a different world today.

Our whole atmosphere, soil conditions, eating habits, are so different. The toxins we collect in our bodies which effect our organs do not allow our systems to work as the should.

I recall, a couple of years ago a show on Oprah Winfrey. Oprah had as a guest some sort of specialist, what he was doing was cutting up cadavers. Not the best subject for a show I think you will agree. The whole thing wasn’t very pleasant.

The specialist opened the subjects stomach and took out I would suggest about 10 lbs of pure fat. Right in the middle of the fat was the liver.

We have to ask ourselves how apart from the man carrying all this extra weight around all his life, how ever did his liver or his kidneys work to full efficiency.

You can well understand, Oprah had a lot to say about this as you can well understand.

They went into a long discussion as to why this was happening way more than it ever did.

They brought things up how thousands and thousands of people were suffering with so many different illnesses, which included diabetes due mainly to the toxins.

I quote from another article I wrote, “Why we have to get rid of toxins”

Victims of a Toxic Colon

Have you ever considered this simple question: Are you clean inside? We shower, brush our teeth and wash our hair on a daily basis, but we tend to ignore cleansing our insides until some form of disease sends us a wake-up call. Believe it or not, our insides, especially the colon which functions as the “sewer system” of our body, also requires regular cleaning.

Constipation, parasites, IBS, gas, bloating, stomach pain, chronic fatigue, digestive problems can all be signs of a toxic colon. Don’t be a victim, suffering silently from these painful and often embarrassing health conditions. Find out the truth about colon cleansing and how it can help you.

Why Is Colon Cleansing So Crucial?

We are all exposed to thousands of toxins and chemicals on a daily basis at work, in the home, through the air we breathe, our food and water supply, and through the use of pharmaceutical drugs. In addition, we are eating more sugar and processed foods than ever before in human history and regularly abuse our bodies with various stimulants and sedatives.

"Death Begins in the Colon"

These toxins and “dead” foods lead to poor digestion, constipation, toxic colon build-up, weight gain and low energy.

These common symptoms are more than just an inconvenience – they can lead to long-term health problems and serious disease.

The combination of environmental toxins, an unhealthy diet and parasites poses a grave danger to humans. “In fact, parasites have killed more humans than all the wars in history”, reported National Geographic in its award-winning documentary, The Body Snatchers.

In order to rid ourselves of these toxins it was required someone came up with a body cleanse which would be able to clean out the fat particles, and the toxins from the colon, liver, kidneys and lungs,plus all the other organs. I am happy to say I used John Anderson's natural cleanse, after I used it I felt 100% better.

Hear what the experts are saying. visit http://theteam.isagenix.com Please click on the ISAVIDEOS on the left, listen to Dr Becky Natrajan, M.D.For full information why we have to get rid of Toxins.You can also take the opportunity to see what ABC and FOX television thought of this cleanse.

These Television giants felt that Isagenix was so far ahead in their thinking and their results, and were impressed enough to give this company the best advertising anyone could ever receive and that is free advertising.

For further information Ralph Morton 604-536-6813 or email noviorbis@telus.net

About The Author

Ralph Morton is the author of"Need Help With Diabetes? Get Rid Of Toxins and Lose Weight Fast" he has helped thousands of individuals to lose a lot of weight. Visit his site to find out how you can do a cleanse plus you will be able to listen to to the Gastroenterologist, the good Doctor Becky Natrajan will explain the toxins, and why they must be removed from your system, Visit http://theteam.isagenix.com ,after it loads, on the top left click on ISAVIDEOs, and hear what she has to say. Next to that video are one each from ABC and FOX news, explaining the ISAGENIX cleanse. Don't miss these.Any Questions Call 604-536-6813 or Email: noviorbis@telus.net