our daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on october 27,2010. she was 11 at that time. she had been loosing weight & been thirsty for a few weeks, and because i was worried ( and was the only one worried) i asked her pediatrist for a complete blood test.we don't have type 1 in our family & extended family, so it was a shock for us.we had a very negative welcome at hospital, the diabetes specialist was on vacation, and the two doctors who saw my daughter (i don't even want to say "took care of") were awful. one said the unbearable (in a not nice way, sounded like punishing) : " do you realize your previous life is over and from now you will only live & have to deal with never ending frustrations. it is time for you to mourn". when we heard this, the tests & injections were all set so we signed forms to get her out of that place right away so they don't even hurt her more psychologically (we believe mind is just as important as body) and started a diet by ourselves with all the infos we could gather.later on, the specialist came back from his vacation and his approach to children diabetes was fortunately much different. he offered that she'll be put on a pump if she wanted which she accepted as she was obviously not keen on 5 injections a day.in France where we live, the rules are to let a kid for at least 3 months on injections, so they learn about diet and how insulin works. after that time they're usually offered to use a pump and stay in hospital for two days the time for them to really manage the settings. from the beginning we decided not to help her, so she manages pumping all by herself. and she does great !since it's been one year, we are still waiting to see if she's honeymooning or if her diabetes is stable, she doesn't have any mysterious lows or highs, no wake-ups at night either. it seems she's very sensitive to insulin, so fingers crossed....thank you for reading and thank you everyone for this supportive community. be well.