Comment by renka on January 15, 2013 at 8:59pm

I am not a mom of a teen but I was a teen when I was diagnosed (17) and my mom did not get very involved. I wish she had.i think it's very important for parents to be there for their kids when they are diagnosed with a life changing condition. It's not that my mom was a bad mom she jut wasn't a very close, nurturing person. I really needed help during that time. Someone to arrange my appointments and bring me to them and supportive while encouraging would be nice but not a "diabetes police" type person too. I can highly recommend a booked called Diabetes Burnout by dr.William Polonsky who I w very fortunate to have as my own psychologist when I was a teen. He has great advise for parents dealing with a teenage diabetic in his book. Good luck

Comment by MandiG on January 15, 2013 at 9:27pm

I was also diagnosed at 17, few months from my 18th b-day. My parents were and still are very involved! I think especially because he could be going away to college soon (I don't know him obviously but....) he's on his way to being a young adult and soon will be "on his own". Its important for you to be involved but not on his case 24/7. Let him be with his friend and learn his new ways of doing the old things. And it is important for his friends to know his situation, more than likely his friends will be very interested.

Renka- I just got the Burnout book for xmas and I've heard a lot of good things about it....sounds like I need to read this asap!

Comment by renka on January 16, 2013 at 2:27am

Mandi, yes it's a great book and I feel very lucky to have had him for my doc. He has a website. Diabetesbehavioralinstitute.com. Even though he moved away from where i lived 20 years ago we are still in communication and he asked me to write a story for his webpage. It's called "It's never to late". Check it out, it has lots of good info

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