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Communication

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Open communication with your teenager is more important than ever now. He/she wants to be treated like an adult, and you must help him/her take charge of treatment. Teenagers want to be in charge and create their own identities. They also demand spontaneity, such as stopping for pizza with their friends after school. You must help your child understand that failing to manage his diabetes successfully will have both short-term and long-term consequences.

Expect rebellion and testing the limits as your teenager strives to achieve independence. Your concern and his diabetes may well become battlegrounds at this time. The best approach is to establish a partnership and take a team approach. Setting short-term goals and reinforcing positive achievements are more successful than setting unrealistic long-term goals that lead to failure. Teenagers live in the present; it’s hard for them to imagine the risks to their health later in life. Lectures about the dire consequences 20 years from now will not be particularly effective or helpful. The immediate focus must be on setting realistic and attainable short-term goals for blood glucose control.