Product Description

Finding the time and energy to maintain a healthy diet and exercise program is a challenge for any parent–but it can be a matter of life and death for parents with diabetes. Diabetes in pregnancy, if poorly controlled, can increase the risk of miscarriage, birth defects, and prematurity. Mood swings and personality changes during a parent’s spells of low blood sugar can frighten young children. And even on good days, it can be difficult for a parent to remember to check their glucose levels in the haste of getting the kids off to school.

From the psychological to the medical to the purely practical, Kathryn Gregorio Palmer guides parents with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes through the ups and downs of staying healthy while raising a family. Helpful for adoptive and stepparents as well as moms and dads, the book
answers questions such as:
• What are the risks of being pregnant with diabetes?
• Will I have the energy to handle a rambunctious child?
• Where can I hide my juice boxes so the kids don’t accidentally drink them all?
A mother of two, Palmer blends her own experience with expert advice and tips from other parents to create a compassionate and useful handbook that parents with diabetes will find indispensable.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #325887 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-19
• Released on: 2006-09-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .50" h x 6.00" w x 9.00" l, .41 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Review
"The book is at once personal and prescriptive, providing equal
measures of practical information, support, and inspiration."
–Peter Van Etten, President and CEO of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

About the Author
Kathryn Gregorio Palmer is the winner of the Bayer Ascensia Dream Fund Contest, which recognizes the achievements of people with diabetes. A mother of two who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 18, Palmer’s dream was to write this book to help other parents struggling with diabetes. The lead database developer for New England INDEX, a resource for people with disabilities, and previous Director of Programs for The Barton Center for Diabetes Education in North Oxford, Massachusetts, Palmer lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia with her husband and sons.

Customer Reviews

Debunking the myths of parenting with diabetes
Kathryn Gregorio Palmer knows diabetes. She has lived with it since age 18. Her husband also has type 1 diabetes and they have two healthy young boys. So, when you read so much about the risks of parenting among diabetics, you can't help but think they may be on to something that all of us diabetics can learn from.

In writing "When You're a Parent With Diabetes: A Real Life Guide to Staying Healthy While Raising a Family" Palmer made her dream of helping other parents struggling with diabetes come true. Using a tone that never sounds condescending while still delivering very valuable pearls of wisdom from her own experience, Palmer takes the reader through the different stages of parenting in a very well structured and enjoyable way.

She doesn't stop at sharing her own experience. The book's 144 pages are also packed with anecdotes from female and male parents as they live through the struggles of parenting with diabetes.

Starting with the considerations leading up to parenthood, including thoughts about gestational diabetes, things to monitor throughout pregnancy and during labor and delivery, the book also even devotes space to adoption as an option for diabetics.

The first year of parenthood, the preschool years, while you still are your children's hero and the time when you can be a cause of serious embarrassment for them (think how teenage children may feel about having their diabetic parent shoot insulin or test blood glucose in public), all have a space in the book.

A whole chapter is devoted to some of the challenges diabetics want to forget about, such as how to talk with kids about diabetes complications, dealing with diabetes and depression, and a cause of much concern: the worries of one's own children developing diabetes.

The last pages are spent reminding us diabetics of the things we can and should do to stay healthy and avoid complications as much as possible, so we can live long to enjoy the lives of our children and grandchildren.

All in all, "When You're a Parent With Diabetes: A Real Life Guide to Staying Healthy While Raising a Family" is an excellent resource for diabetics, whether they are planning to raise a family or they already have kids and can use a little extra help. If you are diabetic or your partner is diabetic, whether you are male or female, you should definitely get yourself a copy.

Fantastic book!
I have been a type 1 diabetic for the last twenty years. Now approaching my late twenties, I'm thinking about starting a family and preparing my body for that adventure. Doctors tell me about what my A1c should be and how my numbers should ring in, but no one could tell me about what it would be like once the kid actually arrived. How was I going to manage my diabetes daily duties and the daily doodies of a baby? Was it possible? I was unsure and overwhelmed and no one could give me an honest answer.

Finding Kassie Palmer's book, "When You're a Parent with Diabetes," was exactly what I needed. She didn't gloss over her answers and offer platitudes and cliches about dealing with parenting - she gave Real Life situations and actually eased some of my anxieties about parenting.

I feel that I'm at least semi-ready to think about a family now. And that's saying an awful lot.

I would urge any diabetics who are thinking about starting a family to pick up this book. It's a must-read for anyone who wants both insulin bottles and formula bottles in their homes. :)

A real-life account of diabetes
This book is a must read for anyone who has diabetes or knows someone with it. I am Type 1, and I can't tell you how difficult it was to constantly explain that yes, I can have children, yes, they will be fine, etc...and this book goes into detail about issues like that.
Kathryn did a great with this book, and I encourage everyone to read it!!!!