Explaining Diabetes to Young Children!!

Something you may not know about me is that I have over thirty cousins! Something else you may not know about me is that most of my cousins are younger than me.

With that said, being a diabetic and have all of my fun devices (pump, Dexcom, meter, pumpsite, shots, etc etc.), many of my younger cousins either 1) get curious and ask my many questions or 2) act like they know exactly what it is and try to explain it to me.

Some of my cousins from the Bay Area and me!

Let's address the first reaction - they ask me sooo many questions. Most of my cousins are more than five years younger than me, meaning right now, most are still in elementary school. When I was in elementary school none of my classmates really knew what diabetes was, heck, I didn't really know what exactly diabetes was!

So when my cousins ask me what it is, sometimes it gets a little difficult to explain it to them. So the truth is, I often just joke around and tell them that my pump is a little game machine or something like that. However, eventually I just explain to them that I have diabetes which means I have to give myself medicine (insulin) when I eat!

When my cousins first started asking, I would show them my pump and let them touch the bottons, help me bolus, or turn on the light button on the pump. Little things like that!

 

Now let's talk about the second reaction - when they act like they know what it is. One of my aunts always telling my cousin (her son) that if he keeps eating junk food, he will get diabetes like "Megan." That causes my cousin to think he knows what diabetes is - a disease that you get if you are unhealthy. This is one of my biggest pet peeves, not only with my cousins, but with anyone!

I try to explain to him, that's not what it is. There are different diabetes. But because my aunt has enforced it into his brain, he doesn't think differently.

 

In addition, when my other little cousins try to tell me about what diabetes is, I just listen and make sure they know all the facts.

Sorry, this wasn't that exciting of interesting of a blog post, but I thought I'd just share with you all a little about my and my cousins!