by Sabrina Garibian posted in Parenting

Leah, a beautiful little girl I call my niece, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) this summer. She had been napping multiple times a day, soaking through diapers in an hour. She was begging for water all day long. Her parents knew something was wrong, but they had no idea it would be this serious.
When the doctor called with Leah's urine test results, they told her parents to rush to the hospital, where they spent the next three days having their lives flipped upside down and all around. Leah is 2 years old. The first time I saw her after her diagnosis, I got a picture of just what this family is dealing with.
We were out to eat and were all deciding what to order. Leah's mother googled the carb counts for Leah's favorite lunch: mozzarella sticks. Then they tested her sugar, which meant pricking her for a few drops of blood. Then they calculated how much insulin she needed. Finally, they gave her insulin, pricking her again, just so she could eat her lunch. Our server took a long time to bring the food. With that came the worrying they might have given her the insulin too early and her sugar would drop too low before the food arrived.
The whole thing was a long, stressful, exhausting process. Leah's parents made it seem like no big deal. It's just what they have to do now before Leah eats anything with carbs.
Leah's Type 1 diabetes is hard on her
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is nothing like Type 2. T1D can't be prevented. It is unr...