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Keeping tabs on what children eat is a challenge for most parents at the best of times but having three children with diabetes, the food issues are the tip of the ice berg.

I would like to share with you our journey and take you back to May 1996. "The day the rules changed forever."

It was at this point that the world came crashing down. Our baby girl was diagnosed with type1 diabetes. Samantha was being treated for burns, we had been travelling to Westmead Children's Hospital for daily dressings. I mentioned to one of the nurses that Samantha was drinking large amounts of water and loosing weight. I put it down to being dehydrated from the burns. Samantha was given a blood test and thought nothing else of it. But I will never forget the moment we were told.

The next few weeks were a blur I spent a lot of time crying and exhausting myself with anything I could get my hands on to read.

We quickly learnt all we could in a few days and took our baby girl home. I describe the feeling like coming home with a new born baby, instead of the nightly feeds it became nightly sugar testing and daily injections any where from 2-4 a day. All this was the tip of the ice berg.

 

Nine Years Later

 

 

Along came Ryan and Jacob. Life was extremely busy, with twice the nappies, double the feeds and we rarely slept. Our boys were premature along came more complications that went with having 'premmie babies'. The first 12months were a little blurry, but through this time Samantha remained my hero. She would lie on the floor at the hospital to inject herself, do her homework and kept herself occupied. When I think of a hero I think of my daughter, Samantha is the one who inspirers me.

It was at this time Samantha was diagnosed with rare complication with her diabetes. We were told it was rare and once again there was no cure. We were told it was so rare that it was normally found in elderly patients. It was not going to go away and we felt totally out of control.

Time moved quickly and it was not long before the boys were 18months old. That's when I noticed Ryan was wetting a lot more nappies than his twin brother. I am no Einstein but I knew what this meant. This time we were well equipped, we knew what our baby boy was in for.

Finally our hopes and dreams of having one healthy child were shattered. On Christmas Day Jacob was showing signs. It was at this point my soul was crying out for help. There had to be a better life for our children, we knew that we had to do something. This was not living, we were just existing. Diabetes was in control.

Diabetes From

                               A Mother’s Eyes

PHOTO TAKEN FROM ILLAWARRA MERCURY