Sweet Talk for Parents of Kids with Type One Diabetes

Another listener wrote in with a question about drug use for their T1D kid so I asked Dr. Justin Altschuler, a T1D and addiction doc, back onto the show to provide answers.  In this episode, we tackle issues that come up around experimenting with “harder” drugs, like cocaine, hallucinogens, and opiates. Dr. Justin leans into his experience as a substance doctor to explain what he knows about how these substances can affect T1D. 

A few takeaways:

• While Dr. Justin discusses the various substance classes and their inherent risks to blood sugar and overall brain function, the main message is that drug use is trickier with T1D. How a specific drug will impact a diabetic teen will be individual. 
• Consider the overall mental health of kids with T1D and the context of their drug use.
• There’s a difference between drug use and drug abuse. While both are risky with T1D, parents and caregivers need to understand that T1D puts teens at higher risk for mental health issues, which also possibly is a link to a higher potential risk of substance abuse.
• The teenage years are a high-risk period overall and finding coping strategies for mental health challenges can pay off in the long run. 

For more on creating a balance with eating for your T1D kids, check out Sweet Talk’s free Sweet Talk Snack Course.

Stay tuned for our next episode of the Sweet Talk podcast!  Like, subscribe, and share!

Mentioned in this episode:

Need help getting your kid the right snacks?

That's why I've created the Sweet Talk Snack Course. It's a free mini-course to give you 6 snack sized lessons on making sure you're giving your kid the right foods to keep them nourished and their blood sugar in check. Get it at https://diabetessweettalk.com

Getting help and feeling misunderstood: the bane of a T1D parent’s existence.  But what happens when we feel misunderstood by the people who are supposed to be closest to us, like our own family?

Because I’ve heard these challenges from so many parents, I took this question from a listener who’s struggling with family misunderstanding about their child’s T1D.  It’s feeling so bad that they are thinking about walking away from the relationship altogether.

Annie and I discuss:

• The ways it can feel when family isn’t understanding our experience as T1D parents.  
• How important it is to recognize if people don’t have the capability to meet us in the struggles of a diabetes diagnosis. 
• Ways we might be able to get more support from people by asking for what we need as T1D parents.  

Stay tuned for our next episode of the Sweet Talk podcast!  Like, subscribe, and share!

Mentioned in this episode:

Need help getting your kid the right snacks?

That's why I've created the Sweet Talk Snack Course. It's a free mini-course to give you 6 snack sized lessons on making sure you're giving your kid the right foods to keep them nourished and their blood sugar in check. Get it at https://diabetessweettalk.com

This episode surprised me — it’s the first time I’ve had a couple come on the show together to help them navigate the stress and challenges that come up because they have a type 1 child.  It’s like a sneak-peak into a couples therapy session.  In Colleen and Wesley’s case, their disagreement centers around food and eating. Since we know that diabetes can make for more difficulties in our relationships, this episode is a must-listen for anyone trying to co-parent their T1D child.  

Some highlights:

• Wesley has a lot of real-world examples of people with severe complications from type 1.  We look at the actual data on those risks so he can feel less anxious about his son’s chance for living a long and healthy life.
• Colleen talks about wanting to cater to their son because she feels sorry that he has to grow up with T1D.  We explore the risks of being too permissive and how that can create a lack of safety for kids.
• We think about planning ahead when it comes to food and eating:  When our kids leave home to be on their own, what do we want eating to look like for them?  What kinds of food choices are we hoping they will be able to make?  Once parents have clarity, how do they take steps to help their kids get there?
• I recommend all parents check out the work of Ellyn Satter for some helpful insights on feeding dynamics.

Stay tuned for our next episode of the Sweet Talk podcast!  Like, subscribe, and share!

Mentioned in this episode:

Need help getting your kid the right snacks?

That's why I've created the Sweet Talk Snack Course. It's a free mini-course to give you 6 snack sized lessons on making sure you're giving your kid the right foods to keep them nourished and their blood sugar in check. Get it at https://diabetessweettalk.com

One of the ways so many of us manage our nighttime anxiety after our kids’ initial diagnosis is by pulling them into bed with us.  We have a magical belief that we will keep them safer if they are right next to us as they sleep.  And while that’s a reasonable strategy for a time — until we can get our own anxiety and shock under control — it’s not an answer for the long term.  In this episode, fellow T1D mom Annie and I think through a question from a mom who’s been sleeping with her T1D child since diagnosis over a year ago. 

Some highlights:

• We talk about how to start to distinguish when we should take our children seriously when they want something different than what we want around diabetes management.
• What happens to a marriage when our T1D kid takes center stage — and why it’s important to get relationships back on track.
• How we can combat beliefs we have about sleep to make it possible to break bad sleep habits around T1D? 

Stay tuned for our next episode of the Sweet Talk podcast!  Like, subscribe, and share!

Mentioned in this episode:

Need help getting your kid the right snacks?

That's why I've created the Sweet Talk Snack Course. It's a free mini-course to give you 6 snack sized lessons on making sure you're giving your kid the right foods to keep them nourished and their blood sugar in check. Get it at https://diabetessweettalk.com

Parents know that mixing alcohol and type 1 brings extra challenges. Although we’ve tackled this topic before, Dr. Justin Altschuler is back to answer more listener questions about how to navigate the tricky territory of drinking with T1D. And just as a reminder: Not only does Dr. Justin have a private practice that specializes in addiction and T1D, but he serves as the medical director of Diabetes Youth Families (DYF), the organization in the Bay Area that hosts diabetes camp, and has T1D himself.

Some highlights:

• Dancing is a form of exercise, and when paired with drinking, there can be a huge demand on the body overall. The primary concerns are safety and preventing glucose levels from dropping too low. 
• Preventing lows can be done by reducing insulin while drinking (and through the night afterward) and also eating more carbs before, during, and after dancing. Better to eat the ice cream, and not worry about highs! 
• What happens when a T1D teen is vomiting from drinking? Keeping blood sugars up is the top concern.  If someone with type 1 is vomiting or too nauseated to eat or drink, better they should go to the ER to get support than try to manage on their own. 

For more on creating a balance with eating for your T1D kids, check out Sweet Talk’s free Sweet Talk Snack Course.

Stay tuned for our next episode of the Sweet Talk podcast!  Like, subscribe, and share!

Mentioned in this episode:

Need help getting your kid the right snacks?

That's why I've created the Sweet Talk Snack Course. It's a free mini-course to give you 6 snack sized lessons on making sure you're giving your kid the right foods to keep them nourished and their blood sugar in check. Get it at https://diabetessweettalk.com

Sending our T1D kids to school can be hard, but we know we have to find a way — after all, they need to be there and we know that the school needs to help us make that happen.  It can feel really different, though, when we need to lean into our community to ask friends to take care of our type 1 kiddos for something like a sleepover.  Sure, our kids deserve that social interaction, but how do we muster up the courage to ask for help?  

In this episode, fellow T1D parent Annie and I think through the challenges of how to make it comfortable for you to send your kid to that sleepover.  

Some highlights:

• Before you ask your T1D kid to manage themselves at a sleepover, it’s important to consider what’s developmentally appropriate for them. 
• Remember that it’s so good for our kids — with and without type 1 — to feel like they are part of a broader community and that they can get help and support from more than just us, their parents. After all, we’d like other parents and kids to feel comfortable turning to us in their times of need.
• Annie and I talk through different ways that we can think about overcoming the discomfort of asking for help from our friends to help manage our type 1 child. 
• The goal is to ask very specifically for what we need to feel safe so when we send our children on that sleepover that we don’t feel too anxious when they are there.

For more on creating a balance with eating for your T1D kids, check out Sweet Talk’s free Sweet Talk Snack Course.

Stay tuned for our next episode of the Sweet Talk podcast!  Like, subscribe, and share!

Mentioned in this episode:

Need help getting your kid the right snacks?

That's why I've created the Sweet Talk Snack Course. It's a free mini-course to give you 6 snack sized lessons on making sure you're giving your kid the right foods to keep them nourished and their blood sugar in check. Get it at https://diabetessweettalk.com

Camp!  If you’ve come to almost any event I’ve hosted or been part of, you know that I’m a big proponent of diabetes camp.  There are so many good reasons for this but the biggest is that our kids benefit from being in a community with other people who also have diabetes. 

So what to do when you tell your T1D child that you’re planning to send them to camp and they — firmly and adamantly — tell you that they don’t want to go?  In this episode, the caller is a program director at a diabetes camp.  She tells me that she fields this question all the time from parents who want their kids to go to camp but who are putting up big resistance.  I tackle the question and together we think through different kinds of scenarios and different kinds of kids, looking at ways to get our kids involved and ways to hold appropriate limits.  

Some highlights:

• Kids don’t know what they don’t know!
• Camp is a privilege:  Although many parents grapple with the idea of “forcing" their child to go to camp, it might be helpful to shift thinking to the idea that this is an opportunity for a child, rather than something that parents are making them do.  
• A good strategy can be to offer children choices inside the context of the limit you’re setting.
• Attending a family camp can be an excellent way to get past our kids’ resistance. 
• Ultimately, we may be pleasantly surprised about whether camp works or doesn’t work for our child.

For more on creating a balance with eating for your T1D kids, check out Sweet Talk’s free Sweet Talk Snack Course.

Stay tuned for our next episode of the Sweet Talk podcast!  Like, subscribe, and share!

Mentioned in this episode:

Need help getting your kid the right snacks?

That's why I've created the Sweet Talk Snack Course. It's a free mini-course to give you 6 snack sized lessons on making sure you're giving your kid the right foods to keep them nourished and their blood sugar in check. Get it at https://diabetessweettalk.com

We all know that how we experience our kid’s type 1 is very different from how the rest of the world sees us.  People on the outside might see us calmly dosing for a meal or picking up prescriptions at the pharmacy.  They have no idea that we’re up nights, checking the Dexcom through the day, or on the phone with insurance for hours on end. That said, sometimes people on the outside might have concerns about what they see.  Is their view accurate?  Hard to say.  But the question is how to address those concerns if you’re someone who wants to help.

In this episode, we hear from a concerned aunt who wrote in with a question.  She worries about her 12-year-old T1D nephew. From her outside perspective, she doesn’t see that her sister is managing his diabetes well enough.  With guest and fellow T1D-mom Annie, I talk through both the possibility that this aunt doesn’t have the whole picture and the likelihood that the boy’s mom lacks support and struggles with mental health.

Here are some takeaways: 

• Diabetes is hard, and all families struggle at some point. Getting family support (and offering that support) can make a difference in helping manage what is – ultimately – a family disease.  
• Mothers – or the lead T1D parent  – deserve help. Partners, other family members, and even therapists can hugely lift the burden. And, of course, I can’t pitch camp enough:  Family camp, in particular. Camp is a fantastic way to connect to a community that fully gets what you are experiencing. 
• When eager to support from the outside, show curiosity without judgment or anxiety. It’s okay to have some fear but drop criticism at the door.  Maybe you have some preconceptions about diabetes – but learn what you need to before bringing up your concerns about someone else’s situation. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Need help getting your kid the right snacks?

That's why I've created the Sweet Talk Snack Course. It's a free mini-course to give you 6 snack sized lessons on making sure you're giving your kid the right foods to keep them nourished and their blood sugar in check. Get it at https://diabetessweettalk.com

Another mother coming on the show, concerned because she’s finding food wrappers and feels like her child is “sneaking food”?  Yes! But food and eating is such an important topic that I wanted to let you listen to lots of different ways you can think about and approach the issues if (and when) they come up with your T1D child.    

In this episode, we meet a mom who has struggled with her own relationship with food and eating and hear about the ways she’s tried to create the conditions for her daughter to have a positive connection to food and eating.  Instead, this mom reports that her daughter is lying about the (likely and obvious) cause of her high blood sugars, and is pretty avoidant about talking about food with her mom in general. 

How can this mom right the ship?  Listen in to hear all the nuances of how I suggest this mom can create a shift – both in her daughter’s relationship with food and eating and their relationship with each other.

A few highlights:

• One big reason kids lie to their parents is that they’re feeling worried about creating conflict.  The bottom line is that they want to preserve their relationship with their parents.  They care about us and don’t want to be seen as getting it wrong or making bad choices.
• As a parent, it’s critical to remember that we don’t have ultimate control over our children’s actions and choices.  Of course, we can think deeply about how we want to interact with our kids and important ways we can support them, but if things go off the rails, it doesn’t mean that it’s our fault or that we’re bad parents.  Plus, holding on to the guilt that likely comes up when you feel like you’ve worked hard and the kids (still!) aren’t getting it right doesn’t help you get a clear picture of how to course correct or decide what to do next.  
• Taking baby steps at encouraging a child to interact with things that are hard for them – in this case,  talking about food, is the best way forward.  You help them to build some thicker skin about topics that they feel like they can’t talk about without becoming overwhelmed.  
• As a parent, don’t forget that sometimes change happens slowly:  The problem didn’t arise overnight and it takes some patience, love, and good strategy to shift long-standing challenges with food.   

For more on creating a balance with eating for your T1D kids, check out Sweet Talk’s free Sweet Talk Snack Course.

Stay tuned for our next episode of the Sweet Talk podcast!  Like, subscribe, and share!

Mentioned in this episode:

Need help getting your kid the right snacks?

That's why I've created the Sweet Talk Snack Course. It's a free mini-course to give you 6 snack sized lessons on making sure you're giving your kid the right foods to keep them nourished and their blood sugar in check. Get it at https://diabetessweettalk.com

It’s so hard to stay level when you’re parenting – and adding type 1 to the mix can really turn up the temperature on feeling out of control.  In this week’s podcast, Annie and I talk together about a question from “Feeling out of control in Albuquerque” who is struggling with the anger that can sweep over her when something goes sideways with diabetes.  

Annie and I both relate to this mom. We know what it’s like to feel like you’ve got the hang of this disease – that you can handle what it throws at you – only to find yourself yelling and distressed.  Being more seasoned as a T1D caregiver can trick you into thinking that the problems have gone away and that it will all be smooth sailing.  

A few highlights; 

• It’s super normal to feel angry when there’s a big pump failure or when diabetes side-swipes you.  What’s important is to separate your feelings from the behavior that comes next.  Yelling is probably not your next best move.  ; 
• But to handle the anger and not start yelling, it’s also important to practice making more room for your feelings.  That anger may be telling you that you need (and deserve) more support and connection around the problems that come up.  It might also indicate that you need to give yourself permission for these tough feelings – even as you’re putting the brakes on some of the behaviors.  
• It’s okay to talk to your kids about being angry, as long as you’re being age appropriate.  Even better is to show them ways to manage that anger appropriately.  We go into this more in the show!

Sign up for my free The T1D Partner Toolbox webinar on May 17 at 5:30PT/8:30 ET. 

Stay tuned for our next episode of the Sweet Talk podcast!  Like, subscribe, and share!