When You're a Parent With Diabetes: A Real Life Guide to Staying Healthy While Raising a Family [Paperback]

Kathryn Gregorio Palmer (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 19, 2006

Finding the time and energy to maintain a healthy diet and exercise program is a challenge for any parent–but it can be a matter of life and death for parents with diabetes. Diabetes in pregnancy, if poorly controlled, can increase the risk of miscarriage, birth defects, and prematurity. Mood swings and personality changes during a parent’s spells of low blood sugar can frighten young children. And even on good days, it can be difficult for a parent to remember to check their glucose levels in the haste of getting the kids off to school.

From the psychological to the medical to the purely practical, Kathryn Gregorio Palmer guides parents with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes through the ups and downs of staying healthy while raising a family. Helpful for adoptive and stepparents as well as moms and dads, the book
answers questions such as:
• What are the risks of being pregnant with diabetes?
• Will I have the energy to handle a rambunctious child?
• Where can I hide my juice boxes so the kids don’t accidentally drink them all?
A mother of two, Palmer blends her own experience with expert advice and tips from other parents to create a compassionate and useful handbook that parents with diabetes will find indispensable.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book is at once personal and prescriptive, providing equal
measures of practical information, support, and inspiration."
–Peter Van Etten, President and CEO of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

About the Author

Kathryn Gregorio Palmer is the winner of the Bayer Ascensia Dream Fund Contest, which recognizes the achievements of people with diabetes. A mother of two who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 18, Palmer’s dream was to write this book to help other parents struggling with diabetes. The lead database developer for New England INDEX, a resource for people with disabilities, and previous Director of Programs for The Barton Center for Diabetes Education in North Oxford, Massachusetts, Palmer lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia with her husband and sons.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Healthy Living Books; 1 edition (September 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578262321
• ISBN-13: 978-1578262328
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #473,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have! October 2, 2006

By S. Florek

Format:Paperback

I'm a mom with T1 diabetes and this book covers just about all of the concerns when one is a parent with diabetes. The great thing about the book is that its filled with tips and advice from other parents with diabetes.

The book is a nice easy read too. Not too medical and Kathryn Gregorio Palmer's "voice" is like that of an old friend.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Must Have" September 21, 2006

By Meredith Carroll

Format:Paperback

As a mom with Type 1 diabetes, Kathryn Gregorio Palmer addresses so many of the concerns that I have as a mom of two small children and a person with Type 1. There are tons of practical hints and "been there" stories in the book that made sense to me and have helped me to be better to myself so that I can be better for my family.

An honestly helpful self-help book!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Debunking the myths of parenting with diabetes August 11, 2007

By Manny Hernandez HALL OF FAME

Format:Paperback

Kathryn Gregorio Palmer knows diabetes. She has lived with it since age 18. Her husband also has type 1 diabetes and they have two healthy young boys. So, when you read so much about the risks of parenting among diabetics, you can't help but think they may be on to something that all of us diabetics can learn from.

In writing "When You're a Parent With Diabetes: A Real Life Guide to Staying Healthy While Raising a Family" Palmer made her dream of helping other parents struggling with diabetes come true. Using a tone that never sounds condescending while still delivering very valuable pearls of wisdom from her own experience, Palmer takes the reader through the different stages of parenting in a very well structured and enjoyable way.

She doesn't stop at sharing her own experience. The book's 144 pages are also packed with anecdotes from female and male parents as they live through the struggles of parenting with diabetes.

Starting with the considerations leading up to parenthood, including thoughts about gestational diabetes, things to monitor throughout pregnancy and during labor and delivery, the book also even devotes space to adoption as an option for diabetics.

The first year of parenthood, the preschool years, while you still are your children's hero and the time when you can be a cause of serious embarrassment for them (think how teenage children may feel about having their diabetic parent shoot insulin or test blood glucose in public), all have a space in the book.

A whole chapter is devoted to some of the challenges diabetics want to forget about, such as how to talk with kids about diabetes complications, dealing with diabetes and depression, and a cause of much concern: the worries of one's own children developing diabetes.

The last pages are spent reminding us diabetics of the things we can and should do to stay healthy and avoid complications as much as possible, so we can live long to enjoy the lives of our children and grandchildren.

All in all, "When You're a Parent With Diabetes: A Real Life Guide to Staying Healthy While Raising a Family" is an excellent resource for diabetics, whether they are planning to raise a family or they already have kids and can use a little extra help. If you are diabetic or your partner is diabetic, whether you are male or female, you should definitely get yourself a copy.