As a parent, dealing with your child's diabetes diagnosis can sometimes be a difficult thing. We all want our child to have a good life, free of pain, and worry. However, it sometimes seems that a type 1 diabetes diagnosis strips that from them. As a parent, we often wonder "Is this my fault?" "Did I give them bad genes?" The truth is, we don't know what causes Type 1 Diabetes. What we do know, is that in most cases, the bodies own immune system (that usually fights off bacteria and viruses) mistakenly destroys the insulin producing cells in the pancreas.
Insulin is produced by the body to allow sugar in the blood into your bodies cells. The amount of insulin being produced by your pancreas regulates the amount of blood sugar you have. When your blood sugar is high, a person produces more insulin to aid in the absorption of those sugars, when blood sugar is low, the insulin production is reduced.
People with Type 1 Diabetes aren't producing enough insulin on their own. Therefore, their blood sugar has to be monitored, and when the level of blood sugar is out of regular ranges, they must either take insulin to lower their blood sugar, or eat something to raise it.
Although as a parent, you can't blame yourself for your child's diabetes diagnosis, many still struggle with that guilt. Besides the guilt that many parents feel when dealing with your child's diabetes diagnosis, there is also the financial burden that must be dealt with.
According to the American Diabetes Association, people with diabetes average $13,700 per year in medical expenditures, of which about $7,900 is attributed to diabetes. This accounts for more than 1 in 5 health care dollars spent in the U.S. And this doesn't even begin to factor in the added expenses of needing to buy particular groceries to help in the regulation of blood sugar levels.
For many young parents, the financial burden of your child's diabetes diagnosis can be to much to bear. 50% of American families are living paycheck to paycheck, and 1 in 5 people have no money set aside for emergencies.
The average household income in America is about $50,000 per year. That works out to roughly $1,000 per week. For the average American family, dealing with your child's diabetes diagnosis means loosing one quarter of your income to medical expenses. This is a heavy burden. For many young families, having a child is already a larger financial burden then they anticipated, having a child with type 1 diabetes can be a devastating financial burden.
This is why Help A Diabetic Child Foundation is committed to helping families in need pay for their child's diabetes supplies. No child in America with type 1 diabetes should have to go without medicine or diabetes supplies. With your help, we can make sure that they get the supplies and medicine they need, and that parents dealing with their child's diabetes diagnosis, can rest a little easier knowing that things will be alright.