Friday, October 18, 2013

Cake or No Cake

Often on my Facebook newsfeed, posts from diabetes related pages pop up. Usually, I don't respond to them unless I have some good input, and usually the posts that seem to pop up the most are questions posted by parents of type 1 diabetic children.   However, just now a question popped up from a diabetes page that said something along the lines of, 'it's my child's birthday tomorrow, should I have cake or no cake?' At first I wanted to write something like, 'why is this even a question?' but that isn't something I'd actually say to someone in person (which I think is important to think about before you post your opinion online)  So I decided to really think about it.

Old Photo, but hey! I am eating cake.
It makes me wonder how many children with diabetes are being neglected their birthday cake? There has to be parents that do not ask these questions online before acting on them.  So, I can only imagine that there are parents not allowing their children to ever eat their own birthday cake, sleepover at someone's house, or trick or treat.   It's hard for me to put myself in the shoes of caregivers, but I am type 1 and do take care of myself.

Now, I did notice that most of the people replying were responded with, 'CAKE!' which is incredibly reassuring because I instantly put myself in the shoes of a type 1 diabetic child, knowing that at birthday parties there is cake, but noticing that at YOUR birthday party, there isn't.   I feel as though that would give that child a notion that having diabetes means being different from everyone else.

We are incredibly lucky to have access to insulin, and even more technology including CGM's and insulin pumps. Raising a child with type 1 diabetes is not a cake walk - totally understandable, but I think as a type 1 diabetic myself, who sometimes can discourage herself, it can be truly hard to feel 'normal' in a world full of non-diabetics.   So, something as simple as a cupcake at a birthday party, shouldn't be the reminder that you're not like everyone else.

Kayla

1 comment:

  1. When I was growing in with juvenile onset (type 1) in the late 60's and early 70's) there weren't a lot of type 2' running around. I was the only diabetic in my town period. Having cake was something EVERYONE said I shouldn't have. Having sugar was something the medical community said a juvenile onset diabetic wasn't suppose to have, even though we were on insulin.

    I always had a cake on my birthday. I just had more insulin to cover it. I was always allowed to go to friends homes for sleep-overs and to their birthday parties. The care of my diabetes was put into my hands at the age of 9, my parents stopped doing anything except buying my supplies. That's a lot to dump on a kid.

    But I had no CGM, just my urine testing supplies and my syringe of either beef U-40 or u-80 insulin.

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