Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #738 Diabetes and Your Child

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#738 Diabetes and Your Child · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
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  Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers Now.
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  Speaker 2: Hello, this is doctor Justin Courson, the founder of Happy
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  Speaker 2: Families dot com dot iu and the author of a
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  Speaker 2: bunch of books about how to make your family happier.
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  Speaker 2: Hope you're enjoying your school holidays today I'm having a
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  Speaker 2: quick conversation about something that affects around about one hundred
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  Speaker 2: and fifty and every one hundred thousand Australian kids, diabetes,
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  Speaker 2: type one diabetes. Kylie Wilde is the mum to a
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  Speaker 2: child who has type one diabetes. Kylie's son his name
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  Speaker 2: is Lim, and Kylie joins me on the Happy Families
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  Speaker 2: Podcast today to I guess help us to understand Kylie.
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  Speaker 2: This is terrible of me, Like I've got a PhD
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  Speaker 2: in psychology, but I'm not a medical doctor. I have
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  Speaker 2: no idea, I know nothing about diabetes. Thanks for joining
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  Speaker 2: me on the podcast. Can you tell me what is
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  Speaker 2: type one diabetes?
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  Speaker 1: Type one diabetes is an autoimmune disease quite different to
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  Speaker 1: Grandma's type two diabetes. So it's an autoimmune disease that
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  Speaker 1: attacks the cells in the insulin in that the pancreas
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  Speaker 1: make so pretty much the kids have got a dodgy
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  Speaker 1: pancreas that's unable to produce that insulin. So we then
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  Speaker 1: have to make sure they get it on board via
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  Speaker 1: injections or a pump or whatever that may be.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So I want to go back a little bit
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  Speaker 2: on here, because I'm so non dietary and biochemically conversant.
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  Speaker 2: What is insulin and why do we need it?
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  Speaker 1: So our pancreas makes insulin is the hormone that controls
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  Speaker 1: our blood sugar levels in our body.
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  Speaker 2: So insulin is not actually blood sugar, it's a hormone
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  Speaker 2: and it makes sure that a blood sugar is right.
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  Speaker 2: What happens if we've got too much blood?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, too much, our blood sugars are going too high.
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  Speaker 1: That can put us into a coma as well, we
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  Speaker 1: can get some adk happenings. The key tones in our
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  Speaker 1: blood is too high to acidic and it's dangerous for
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  Speaker 1: our organs. Too low is also is dangerous as well.
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  Speaker 1: So it's just adjusting that to get that happy medium
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  Speaker 1: in the body.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, And so type one diabetes basically means and I'm
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  Speaker 2: restating to make sure I understand this. Maybe I'm the
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  Speaker 2: only person listening to this conversation who doesn't understand it,
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  Speaker 2: but I've been fortunate to never come across it before
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  Speaker 2: in anyone close to me, never had the opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: ask the questions. So type one diabetes means that we've
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  Speaker 2: got a child or an adult. I guess adults can
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  Speaker 2: have it as well as young adults. Ye, who's pancreas
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  Speaker 2: is not producing the insulin, which means that blood sugar
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  Speaker 2: is going to spike, peak or bottom out in dangerous ways.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, okay, it's correct, all.
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  Speaker 2: Right, And so therefore the needles the insulin is inserted
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  Speaker 2: into the bloodstream so that the body does what it's
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  Speaker 2: supposed to do with sugar.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, they need helped get the insulin on board
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  Speaker 1: so that they can process the carbohydrates as needed. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Cool, I appreciate that little primer on diabetes. You mentioned
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  Speaker 2: that it's not your grandmother's type two diabetes. How is
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  Speaker 2: that different?
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  Speaker 1: So when Liam was diagnosed, a lot of the people like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, he lives are quite a good diet, his healthy,
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  Speaker 1: active boy. But type two was later on in life,
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  Speaker 1: so it's same kind of thing. The insulin is breaking
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  Speaker 1: down and working as well, But it can be genetic
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  Speaker 1: and it's a like with lifestyle as well. Yeah, as
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  Speaker 1: we get older, I've.
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  Speaker 2: Always understood type two diabetes to be related to just
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  Speaker 2: eating too much junk food and not exercising enough.
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  Speaker 1: Again, not a great, great idea if you want to
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  Speaker 1: prolong your life without contracting type two diabetes, that's for sure,
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  Speaker 1: But there is some genetic cases as well type two diabetes.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So let's go back to Liam and type one diabetes, Like,
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  Speaker 2: where does type one diabetes come from?
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  Speaker 1: It?
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  Speaker 2: Are you literally just born with it? Does it just develop?
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  Speaker 2: It's not lifestyle related?
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  Speaker 1: No, not lifestyle related. Liam was five when we found
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  Speaker 1: out he had type one diabetes after a few short
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  Speaker 1: weeks of symptoms. That was sort of of telling us
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  Speaker 1: something's not quite right here.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Okay, So you've got a kid who's not not
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  Speaker 2: thriving at all, taking to the doctor, and the doctor says,
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  Speaker 2: let's run some tests. We've got a problem here. Obviously,
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  Speaker 2: there's the needles, which I mean nobody, even I'm sure
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  Speaker 2: diabetics still don't like needles, even though they're having them
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  Speaker 2: all the time. So you've got the needles. But how
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  Speaker 2: does diabetes type one diabetes specifically affect kids.
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot that can go on with the child
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  Speaker 1: with type one diabetes, especially if they're busy, they're active,
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  Speaker 1: they want to get on and live life. So that
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  Speaker 1: you've got a constant juggle of numbers. You need to
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  Speaker 1: make sure you're allowing for all the carbohydrates that they're eating,
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  Speaker 1: even proteins, fat sugars going into the body, to allow
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  Speaker 1: the correct insulin dose to go on board with that,
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  Speaker 1: so that you know their levels can go up high,
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  Speaker 1: they can come down low. There's fatigue, there's burnout because
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  Speaker 1: it's exhausting that they're always looking at numbers. You can
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  Speaker 1: feel pretty crappy when your levels are going up and
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  Speaker 1: going down. From a small age. There's things like you know,
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  Speaker 1: playdates or sleepovers, and there's a whole, a whole world
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  Speaker 1: of things that come with the diagnosis. And it is
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  Speaker 1: it's quite overwhelming, but it's it's constant. You're constantly got
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  Speaker 1: numbers going around in your head and thinking ahead like
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't doesn't just take a break when you're on holidays,
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  Speaker 1: doesn't take a break when you're sleeping. It doesn't take
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  Speaker 1: a break so exhaustion as well as is a big
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  Speaker 1: thing too, and teaching healthy habits from a young age,
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  Speaker 1: which would.
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  Speaker 2: Be so frustrating because you've got this kid who probably
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  Speaker 2: wants to be able to go and live their life
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  Speaker 2: like all the other kids, and they don't have that
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  Speaker 2: opportunity In too many cases.
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  Speaker 1: I presume we've never really made diabetes a crutch so
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  Speaker 1: to speak for Leam, he is such an active, out
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  Speaker 1: there boy, and we just have to learn fast to
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  Speaker 1: make his life as a youngster as easy as as
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  Speaker 1: we can. They don't really understand why understanding exactly why either,
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  Speaker 1: so we just have to go along the best we
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  Speaker 1: can keep up with him so that he can live
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  Speaker 1: a busy, active life style in all sports that you
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  Speaker 1: can imagine. Nothing stops him. So as parents, you just
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  Speaker 1: need to get on board and be the thinkers and
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  Speaker 1: teach them along the way.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah okay, so let me ask you this, then, how
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  Speaker 2: do you manage Limb's diabetes? How do you how do
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  Speaker 2: you work with this kid when you're trying to not
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  Speaker 2: let it interfere? But yeah, the reality is it's going
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  Speaker 2: to interfere. It requires so much of you, like it
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  Speaker 2: just has to.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, it does well. We've had a few different approaches
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  Speaker 1: to managing Liamb's diabetes. We started out when Limb's first diagnosed.
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  Speaker 1: The simple and most easiest way to get our heads
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  Speaker 1: around it was injections, Even though that seems so unnatural
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  Speaker 1: to be injecting your child with a needle device, that
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  Speaker 1: was just the easiest part to learn. And then, after
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  Speaker 1: a couple of years and a lot of Lamb hiding
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  Speaker 1: under the table because he just could not do injections anymore.
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  Speaker 1: It gave him anxiety and it was hurting all of us,
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  Speaker 1: we decided to take have a of the pump, an
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  Speaker 1: insulin pump that is a little he was trying the medtronic.
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  Speaker 1: It's a little one that sits on him and there's
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  Speaker 1: cords attached and there's insulin a little trips Finchlin going
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  Speaker 1: in all the time, and then you dose up when
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  Speaker 1: you're eating a bit extra. That's something that has to
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  Speaker 1: go on and off when they're showering, playing active sport
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  Speaker 1: as well. And early last year we were introduced to omnipods,
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  Speaker 1: so we decided that was a no brainer for Liam
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  Speaker 1: to take part in a trial. It's a little device
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  Speaker 1: that delivers the insulin and it sticks on you a
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  Speaker 1: bit like your gluecose monitoring system that sticks on you.
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  Speaker 1: And it just meant that he could shower. He could
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  Speaker 1: he's an adventurer, so he could go hunting yubbies and
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  Speaker 1: guppies and the pond and not have to worry, take
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  Speaker 1: on off, he boxing, rugby league, everything. He can keep
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  Speaker 1: it on and it's great. And it is recyclable. You know,
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  Speaker 1: often in this disposable world, it's a lot of rubbish,
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  Speaker 1: but it's it's recyclable. And that was that was great
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  Speaker 1: fast too. Yeah, it's it's a wonderful device. And I
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  Speaker 1: encourage anyone that can have to have a.
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  Speaker 2: Go maybe a question to wrap up our conversation and
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  Speaker 2: thank you for sharing that is there is there any
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  Speaker 2: way that Lim and other others with type one diabetes
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  Speaker 2: can never get beyond the need to have insulin supplied,
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  Speaker 2: Like does the body ever get it together? And do
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  Speaker 2: you ever get a quote unquote cure from type one diabetes?
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  Speaker 1: No? I think that's been research going on for more
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  Speaker 1: than fifty years as to when when can we find
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  Speaker 1: a cure? And I hope that they don't give up
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  Speaker 1: finding a cure. Fundraising all the time, Limb takes part
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  Speaker 1: in the in the JDRF one Walk every year to
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  Speaker 1: do his bit for fundraising. Yeah, I don't know of anything.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, there's lots of stuff happening, lots of research
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  Speaker 1: and in the works, but if it will be in
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  Speaker 1: Liam's lifetime, I'm really not sure.
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  Speaker 2: Well think Kylie. It has been a real pleasure to
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  Speaker 2: be able to talk with you, and I appreciate you
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  Speaker 2: sharing what you've shared. I'm sure that there will be
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  Speaker 2: parents who have kids with type one diabetes who are
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  Speaker 2: going to find value in what you've shared. And even
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  Speaker 2: if parents don't have their own children who are experiencing
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  Speaker 2: this challenge, I'm sure that there are plenty of parents
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  Speaker 2: out there who have friends, relatives, people in there or
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  Speaker 2: but who certainly do so. It's been really informative and
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  Speaker 2: so grateful of your time.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you very much, Justin.
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  Speaker 2: That's Kylie Wilde, she's mum to a Type one diabetic
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  Speaker 2: by the name of Liam, and hopefully some hints and
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  Speaker 2: tips for any parent who is battling the same challenges
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  Speaker 2: with their kids with diabetes. The Happy Family's podcast is
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  Speaker 2: produced by Justin Roland from Bridge Media. Craig Bruce is
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  Speaker 2: our executive producer. For more information about making your family happy,
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  Speaker 2: please visit us at happy families dot com. Dot au
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Let's don't