Parenting Children with Diabetes

October 1, 2019
Parents will feel that they are in expert hands with LeBow, who was diagnosed with type I (aka juvenile) diabetes at age six and then became a psychotherapist and certified diabetes educator. By sharing stories from his clients' lives and his own, he will comfort families who worry that their kids are the only ones to binge on candy and feel alone, different, and anxious. How do parents learn that their kids have diabetes? One boy, whose babysitter had baked him birthday chocolate-chip cookies, later excitedly told his mom that he peed 40 times that day. (Frequent urination, increased thirst, weight loss, and fatigue are symptoms of this autoimmune disorder, believed to be caused by white blood cells that destroy insulin-producing cells that they mistake for foreign bodies.) LeBow reassuringly reminds parents that they didn't cause the diabetes. His tips include figuring out a plan of action with school officials. LeBow ends with helpful do's and don'ts and links to resources like the Joslin Diabetes Center and Think Like a Pancreas. A reassuring and empowering medical guidebook.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)