Customer Reviews

The Challenge of Childhood Diabetes: Family Strategies for Raising a Healthy Child

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book, I think, is intended for families with children newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and their friends. Having a child with Type 1, I have been through many of the ups and downs described in the book. The most valuable part of the book is Plunkett's demonstrating, through her family's story, how unpredictiable, inscrutable, and frustrating managing type 1 diabetes can be. Understanding that you don't just get your doses right and then sail through with even blood glucose is something it took me over a year to realize. This book could make you feel that you're not alone in this aspect of diabetes management. However, much of this book could be alarming to parents trying to manage a newly diagnosed child. For example, she describes at length her efforts to extend the honeymoon period of her son's disease. This part might sow seeds of doubt-- should readers also seek out an acupunturist, do reflexology? Most diabetes health care professionals would probably say no -- there has been no clear medical evidence that such terapies help-- but this book pretty clearly advocates for alternative medicine. Moreover, she conveys a sense that less insulin = good and more insulin = bad. Here's a typical quote: "The day before his first acupuncture treatment, Danny had had three shots and a total of fifteen units of insulin. A week after the treatment, he was on one shot of 6 units!" This is an unhealthy way to view the disease. Finally, most of this book concerns managing a child using multiple daily insulin injections, an approach that fewer families adopt now, as more and more children are using insulin pumps. Management changes considerably with insulin pumps, making many of the lessons learned/ challenges described in this book less valuable to someone looking to glean tips for managing thier own or thier child's condition. In the final chapter, Plunkett even admits that : "Our transition to the pump in the third year of Danny's illness transformed the rhythms of our family in so many ways that its hard to explain why we waited so long." The third part of the book consists of a "Survival Guide for parents", which contains lists very similar to what most health care providers or advocacy group give out for free -- e.g., supplies needed, tips for "self care", and meal suggestions. This might be useful for families who do not have a good medical team, but most of the content will likely already have been given to anyone newly diagnosed.

BOTTOM LINE:
Plunkett's portrays the whirlwind of managing type1 diabetes with honesty and warmth, however, her focus on extending the honeymoon period, using alternative medicine, and reducing the amount of insulin doses could cause even more anxiety in those new to diabetes and its management.

I am a twelve year old girl with diabetes, after my mother read the book and said that she loved it I read it and it made me realize that eating healthy is extreamly important and getting excersize after meals will help me control my diabetes. The hospital told me to eat whatever i want, just as long as i take the corespoding amount of insulin. Even though they said that was the best way to do it my blood sugars were out of control. After reading this book me and my family have changed our diet so we eat fairly low carb and take walks after dinner together. I feel better since we changed our ways and i cannot recommend this book more. On top of it being educational, it is also a great story.

The book does a great job of offering alternatives and while some may not be right for cetain folks, the open and honest approach to finding a personal path was great and well worth exploring. It stimulates thought and ideas and gives options to consider that aren't usually discussed in as much detail from a parent's perspective. While I don't pretend to know all of the most detailed clincal thinking on the subject, its common sense approach to eating healthier--not just for children with diabetes, but for all children--seems right on target given the epedemic in childhood obesity. I think the other reviewer's comments focusing heavily on the honeymoon period and insulin strategy miss the point--I didn't think that was the core point. And I also don't agree that the book is alarming--rather, it's reassuring because it opens so many doors for support not commonly known or understood. It's a fast read with much to digest! For parents looking to gather more information with a broader perspective on the disease, this is a great choice!

I had a really hard time when my 6-year old was diagnosed with diabetes. I spent most of my time wishing we could have our old life back and daydreaming about running away. My husband and I put a lot of energy into raising money for research, but I was too anxious to think about anything but finding a cure.

Because the author wrote this book as it was happening, I could really identify with her. I felt the same sense of disbelief at first and when she describes the chaos of those early dinners, it was like being at my own table. After seeing how overwhelmed she was at first, I felt like maybe I could arrive at the same place - a comfortable new normal - that she is in at the end of two years. It wasn't until I read this book that I was able to face the fact that this was the life we had and to decide to actually make something wonderful out of it.

It was tremendously reassuring to find out that the author very slowly changed her family's diet and figured out ways to get her husband and her children to co-operate. I have tried some of her strategies and they work. Lily's blood sugar readings have evened off and her first A1c came back almost a point lower. I'm confident that someday, like Danny, she'll be under 7.

This book is as engrossing as fiction, and if you are so caught up in the story that you miss the lessons that the experiences have to teach you, there is a survival guide at the end which tells you everything you need to know in just a few pages.

This book made me feel "I can do this!" and I truly believe now that the way I respond to Lily's illness can help my family become healthier, more co-operative, and closer than ever. This book is very practical and informative, but what made it really special is that it gave me hope.

The parent of a child newly diagnosed with diabetes can be overwhelmed, terrified, and desperate. Seeing the medical team infrequently, talking to a busy intern on the phone in moments of panic, and trying to make sense of a myriad of how-to books can cause the parent of the newly diagnosed child to struggle during the day and stay awake at night worrying.

This author has been there, hit the depths and emerged to write the tale. Her book offers advice for a new normal with family members closer than ever and the child achieving blood sugar levels below the national average in the range where later complications will be avoided.The book has practical advice to help deal with this difficult situation - about diet and exercise as well as a cooperative spirit of sharing the dailiness of life with those close. Certainly family can pull together. This book should be shared with teachers and the parents of friends of the child so that they can be supportive and understanding.

If you the parent of a child with diabetes and are struggling to keep it together, you can learn alot from this book and make your entire family healthier, emotionally and physically.

This book was written as a labor of love, and the author obviously loves her son without bound and would do anything to help him. The problem with this is that love can sometimes skew our realistic view of certain situations. As a person living with diabetes for 11 years, as well as a member of a family of multiple people living with diabetes, I definitely understand the trials and tribulations, the emotional, physical, and blood sugar ups and downs that can occur with this disease. I can also say that complete and utter control- meaning precise schedules, specific food and excersize plans, etc. are not neccessarily the best and most effective way to deal with diabetes. Of course this method works, but there comes a point in every diabetic's life when they are out of control for whatever reason. It is extremely important for a child with diabetes to learn how to deal with this aspect on his own, and as soon as possible, to prepare him for the inevitable independent adulthood which will come sooner than the parent expects. Yes, it is possible to be a healthy diabetic with controlled blood sugars as well as an independent person who makes his own decisions about his own body. Many parents cannot grasp this part of diabetes, and I worry about the repercussions for this type of life when this child is grown and living on his own.

This is an invaluable resource for anyone who has a child with juvenile diabetes, or know's someone with diabetes. Laura chronicles the first three years after her 7 year old son, Danny, was diagnosed. This book made me laugh and cry. The personal stories are so powerful. Laura's vast amount of research is amazing. Her honesty is refreshing. She has truly mapped out her own path. As a result, Danny's blood sugar levels stay below the suggested guidelines and they have discovered a new sense of "normal". While mainstream medicine has it's place, I don't think it's very good at preventing and treating disease. It was great to read about the alternative holistic health options that Danny has tried to treat his diabetes. Great book!

Nutrition (real food, not FDA corporate profit), family values (not of the fundamentalist disorientation), honest experience (drama, trauma, the ethos of survival) and love (the alternative solution-based commitment that created this book)--all combine to create this as a resource of significant value for any family dealing with the health challenge of diabetes.