Type 1 Diabetes: Resources for Parents, Teenagers and Children
Diabetes can be a difficult condition for children and teenagers to understand. They will want to make sense of why they have to do things differently to their friends and come to terms with its impact on their lives.
There are a number of practical aspects to managing Type 1 diabetes that means it is essential that they know about their diabetes and how it affects their body. It is also an extremely complicated area for parents to negotiate and get the support and information they need. Thankfully, there are a number of fantastic resources available to parents, helping you to know the condition, how to manage it and talk to your children about it. There are also some excellent interactive sites aimed specifically at children and teenagers. At Your Life Protected, we specialise in diabetes life insurance and constantly interact with the charities doing amazing work to improve understanding of the condition. We decided to bring together all of these resources in one convenient PDF so that you can easily select the most relevant information and resources on Type 1 Diabetes.
If you don’t fancy viewing the complete guide, you can choose the area that’s of interest to you below, or scroll down to view our list of useful resources for all.
Diabetes Resources for All
1. Diabetes and Parenting from Diabetes.co.uk
Full of fantastic resources covering the essentials like how to manage your child’s diabetes and a guide to negotiating the emotional aspects of the condition. It also has free recipe books, diet guides and advice on how to test your blood glucose. Their forum is a great place to ask questions to other parents that have experienced many of the things that you are going through. There are over 74,000 users.
Broken down into logical sections, this site covers everything you need to know about diabetes and your child. The support message board is a great place to get in depth practical information and support from those who know best and also ask any questions you may have.
The NHS site has tools on how to plan meals and is useful for helping you plan daily routines with your child.
6. Guide to Type 1 Diabetes from NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence)
A Facebook group set-up to connect parents with babysitters experienced with looking after children with Type 1 diabetes.
Reddit is a social media platform where you can ask questions, post useful links and interact with specific communities in what are called SubReddits. The Diabetes Subreddit is a very active section of the site – you can ask questions about any aspect of the condition and get answers from people living with diabetes or with diabetic children. There is also a Diabetes Chat Room based on the Diabetes subreddit.
Diabetes Resources for Teenagers
1. Diabetes.co.uk – Teenagers & Diabetes
A series of guides covering everything from University life, going on nights out and insulin pumps.
2. Diabetes.org – My Life Teens
Full of information and others sharing their stories. There is also a section that allows you to ask a nurse any questions you may have. It has tips on injecting, testing, exams and relationships.
3. JDRF Type 1 Charity – JDRF Teens
It includes a Student Card you can give to your teacher to bring them up to speed on your condition along with a number of other excellent resources and tips.
There is a useful section on managing Type-1 in schools.
4. Just Duk It
A refreshingly direct and no-nonsense website that looks at all issues surrounding young people and diabetes including drink, drugs and sex.
Diabetes Resources for Children
Below are a list of resources we have pulled together specifically for children with Type 1 Diabetes.
1. Diabetes.org.uk – Homepage for Kids Resources featuring:
- Tadpole Times Magazine – A magazine for children covering all of the topics around Type 1 Diabetes with lots of fun features including Joke of the Day.
- Ask Libby – Problem Page – Simple form to fill out with any questions your son or daughter might have on any aspect of diabetes.
- Fun Platform Game – A game where you collect healthy snacks and participate in sports.
2. Diabetes.co.uk Homepage for Kids Resources
The site features an interesting section on staying safe at school and an addictive cowboy shooting game. It also has a section all about sport and diabetes.
3. JDRF Type 1 Charity:
4. UpBete.co.uk – A young person’s Diabetes Support System
UpBete’s lunchbox game allows you to drop items into a lunch box and see how they register on the Carb Counter.
5. YouTube videos for children relating to type 1 Diabetes
View our Complete Resources PDF
Go back to view our Resources for All
View Resources for Teenagers