I hope this is okay to post: my boyfriend’s teenaged son was just diagnosed with T1D. The son, my boyfriend, and his ex-wife (son’s mom) are at the beginning of learning EVERYTHING.
I want to support in any way I can, to the son, his parents, his younger siblings. What was or would have been helpf
I think one of the most useful thing you can do is show understanding and asking how you can help. Often, people have the best intentions when giving advice but it can be a bit annoying.
Check out this bit of diabetes etiquette
EDIT: The link was broken for some people due to a misconfigured WAF, should be fine now. LMK if you still get 403's.
That page was removed, the side bar has been updated with the new link: https://behavioraldiabetes.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/BDI-Diabetes-etiquette.pdf
Both links seem to work for me and show the same file?
Cascer1's link is broken...
I've no idea why, I've asked multiple people if the link works and it goes to the correct pdf file for everyone, myself included?
We have been getting a 403 error, forbidden for the last 2 weeks from l.vobar.eu so we found another similar link. Maybe a US based issue (I am in the US).
If you can download it, we could compare the two or perhaps host the document here.
Oh yeah that was entirely my mistake! We chose to use a link shortener (in this case l.vobar.eu which I own) for the link in the sidebar because there were some caching issues where a link went dead and reddit kept on showing people the old one for days after we updated it.
My server was getting a lot of suspicious requests so I increased some security settings, and apparently that was generating a lot of false positives for people coming from reddit outside Europe for whatever reason.
It should be resolved now.
I'm also in the US and the link worked fine for me.
It works fine for me.
Work for me, thaanks very much
It works for me now! Thank you for posting!
Outside of what cascer posted for the diabetes etiquette, I think ensuring the son has a support network of other diabetics is the most vital part. Diabetes can be an exceptionally isolating disease to have, especially as a teenager who is already dealing with so much just from being a teen.
There are diabetes camps for kids of various ages. There is a Discord server with diabetics from all around the world (you can find it in the sidebar here) and all walks of life who provide support and guidance. I would avoid Facebook and similar platforms though, there tend to be a lot of misguided people with less than stellar mindsets and ideas about diabetes management that we consider to be more harmful than good.
Some things to keep in mind:
This is really helpful, thank you! I know they are all at the beginning of the learning experience and it will take time to find out how he responds in all situations. I thought about suggesting to God dad to help him find more teens/people also with diabetes so I appreciate the sources to do so.
I really like your points about highs/lows and how to act for them, and not to hover or overemphasize this new diagnosis. It’s a really good reminder.
Just don’t make a big deal out of it. I know you mentioned you guys are learning stuff but make sure you drill the information into your head, especially regarding highs and lows. Don’t panic when he’s high or low, just let him do what he needs to. It’s annoying when people panic and you know exactly what to do and get asked a million questions. Apart from that, Just reassure that he’ll be okay and that he really needs to look after himself and take it seriously.