Welcome to a Place for Parents of Kids with Type 1 Diabetes to Share and Keep up to Date
If you are visiting us here, you have probably either recently found out your child has been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, or you are up the curve, but you are seeking a community of other parents that want to share information about bringing up a child with Type 1. In the early days post diagnosis, it is all too easy to become overwhelmed with information and it is not clear how life is going to work or ever be “normal”. The good news is that diabetes care has come a long way and day to day life can return to a normal rhythm, albeit with a new routine. Diabetes technology also continues to amaze us all, and we will try and post as much about relevant recent developments as possible. We hope that you find our website and blog helpful and we encourage sharing of information, feelings, questions or stories.
Since our son Kieran was diagnosed over seven years ago, we have become highly involved in the Type I community of parents, caregivers, medical staff, research teams and fund raising organizations. One of us now sits on the board of the regional JDRF in New Jersey, so we are working to constantly keep up to date on the latest developments with respect to Type I and we also lead an annual team called TEAM WHATEVER for the annual JDRF walks to raise money and awareness for Type I diabetes.
Kieran has learned a lot about himself, how to handle a life challenge such as Type 1 Diabetes and shared the following advice to the child of a family friend recently diagnosed with T1D, “Diabetes is hard when you first get it. But I’ve been doing this since I was three so you actually grow into it. It’s getting a lot easier now that there are pumps and sensors. I am glad that you are getting it now instead of then. So stay strong and try not to cry when you get blood checks. I know I did, if it makes you feel any better. The main rule is that you can’t sneak food, but you can eat whatever you want. It’s not a diet, or Type II diabetes. All you need to do is get insulin. I know it will hurt, but you will get used to it after a while. Be a kid, live life and someday, I know there will be a cure for diabetes and you can be a normal kid again.”
TEAM WHATEVER READY TO WALK IN THE 2017 JDRF WALK ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 8, 2017! COME JOIN US!
Join on us on the Avon Boardwalk in Avon, NJ to Walk for the Cure! You can donate or join the team by going to our team page: http://www2.jdrf.org/goto/WHATEVER, or you can mail your contribution to either of the addresses listed below. Please make checks payable to JDRF.
See our 2017 TEAM WHATEVER Walk Letter Here: JDRF Letter 2017
TEAM WHATEVER BRAVED THE WEATHER FOR THE 2016 JDRF WALK!
Thank you so much for supporting our team on a great, but rainy day to support Type I Diabetes.
Despite the weather, Team Whatever had a tremendous turnout – (with many that didn’t make it into the team picture!) and literally hundreds of you walked with Team Whatever in spirit. The team raised approximately $16,000 for the JDRF to support research to cure Type 1 Diabetes, bringint the total Team Whatever funds raised to over $60,000.
Kieran Collins and Lindsay Berliner, our team leaders, participated in th
e ribbon cutting ceremony as representatives for the close to 200,000 youths that rise to the challenge every day of living with Type 1 Diabetes. Team Whatever was one of the top two teams in terms of overall fund raising for the walk and with close to 70 participants, Team Whatever’s Purple Shirts (most worn over rain gear!) were seen everywhere in the long line of supporters that came out to walk for the JDRF. The walk is an annual event that not only raises 
money for the JDRF, but we found that it was a great venue for our type 1 kids to be with and talk to other kids with diabetes. Words cannot adequately express how thankful we are for your love, generosity, encouragement and community spirit. As we all walked with what seemed to be thousands of participants from other teams, it was hard not to have faith that one day there will be a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
Please click on the following link to see the Team’s 2016 Letter jdrf-letter-2016 . See you in October 2017 for the 2017 walk !
FDA APPROVES THE FIRST ARTIFICIAL PANCREAS!
Progress! The FDA has approved the first Artificial Pancreas for Diabetes. The device is a significant leap forward for the daily regimen of keeping blood sugar levels under control.
Although the device does not eliminate counting carbs and administering insulin manually for meals or checking blood sugar manually a number of times a day to ensure accuracy, it does provide a critical link between a continuous glucose monitoring system and an insulin delivery system. Insulin delivery will essentially shut off if blood sugar levels are too low, and will administer insulin automatically if blood sugar levels are too high. With the dual path of science and technology progressing, one path being the technology driven Artificial Pancreas and the other the science driven encapsulated beta cells, the lives of Type I Diabetics will continue to improve until there is a cure.
We use the OmniPod
We use the Omnipod! We have had good success with the Omnipod. We do go through more “pods” than normal during the summer when our boy is doing normal seven year old things like going to the beach (the pods can come off), but overall we are happy with it. Glucose monitoring will be a great addition to the next iteration of the unit. Let us know your experiences with the pod, or feel free to ask us any questions!
Team Whatever Has Raised Over $60,000 for the JDRF
Team Whatever, our JDRF walk team for the Monmouth-Ocean County NJ JDRF, has raised over $60,000 as a dedicated team to help find a cure for Type I Diabetes. We live at the Jersey Shore and hope to see everyone each year to join us for the walk and thanks for the incredible support!
Make Excel Your Friend in the Kitchen
We use a laptop in the kitchen to help easily calculate carbs for every meal and every snack. To make it all easier, we have gone through the painful process (but you only have to do it
once), of converting all the food that will typically go into your child’s mouth into units that make sense (because the typical “Serving Size” listed on packages make no sense).
A Peppridge Farm Milano “Serving Size” is three cookies…. not helpful. We entered in the equivalent of how many carbs are in one cookie, so we can easily just enter in how many cookies he is going to have. Voila.. much easier.
We set up a tab for each meal, here is an example of a part of the “Breakfast Tab”