A natural article that was grossly misinformed about type 1 diabetes

There was an article recently written in regards to American Girl recently adding a type 1 diabetes kit to their store.  Many of us have daughters that have type 1 diabetes and have American Girl Dolls.  American Girl Dolls have been selling dolls for years that are made to be like your daughter.  The child gets to pick the hair color, the eye color, the skin color, glasses, and many other choices to reflect the child.  This has been a fun way for a girl to be able to celebrate herself rather than just with a Barbie doll that inaccurately represents what girls grow up to look like.  American Girl even sells dolls with history and educates girls on different time periods and cultures.  There are movies and books that tell these stories featuring the girls that are then sold as dolls.  

But what if your daughter breaks her leg? or gets braces?  Do they still feel as lovable as the girls in their class?  American girl has been selling little wheelchairs and crutches and  headgear for dolls to again validate what our daughters may be going through.  

But what if your child is suddenly diagnosed with a disease?  What if your world is turned upside down one day at a doctor's office when the doctor tells you that your child will be taken by ambulance to their nearest hospital because they may die if not treated?  This has happened twice to us.

Our daughter was diagnosed at 3 and then two years later, our son was diagnosed also at age 3.  No connection except for coincidence that they both happened to be age 3.  Our daughter had been a healthy girl that suddenly stopped  running.  She was too tired to finish riding her bike around the block.  She couldn't go to the bathroom enough.  four times an hour.  And yet she was still thirsty.  What had we done to cause this?  Nothing.  It is an autoimmune disease.  Her pancreas was dying.  Therefore her body couldn't produce insulin for her anymore and her body was beginning to shut down.  We didn't know anything about type 1 diabetes.  I thought it must be a bladder infection.  The doctor routinely did a urine test among other tests and that is what prompted an immediate call to the endocrinologist and an immediate trip to the hospital.  I will never ever forgot the picture in my mind of her sitting listlessly on the floor of the doctor's office, playing with a nurse while I tried in shock to reach my husband by phone.  

The picture on top shows the young girl that started a campaign with her mother to get American Girl also carry a diabetes kit like she wears so that her doll could also be like her.  Because any child like her or my daughter once diagnosed, is burdened with a lot of equipment to stay alive.  She no longer wanted a perfect doll that looked like her.  She wanted a doll that also still smiled while wearing a pump that gave her body insulin, a meter to constantly check her glucose levels throughout the day.  glucose tablets(smarties)  to prevent passing out from too low blood sugar levels and a few other items.

The next photo shows a woman's son and his devices that he wears to stay alive and thrive.  He is wearing an insulin giving device on his arm and his watch actually shows his glucose levels that is being transmitted by a different device.  

The third photo shows a new device that is being developed through research that is actually leading towards a cure for type 1 diabetes.  This involves introducing new cells into the body that the body won't reject since type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease.

The last photo is my son's continuous glucose meter that he wears and woke me up at 5 am this morning alerting me that his glucose levels were going too low.  Thank goodness for these devices and alarms that keep him safe and healthy, yet a tired mom I am.  

And this leads us to an article recently published by a natural health website.  The author decided to critique American Girl's decision to sell type 1 diabetes kits for dolls.  The author then decided to write as much uninformed propaganda that they could about parents of kids with type 1 diabetes, children with type 1 diabetes, and even that type 1 diabetes is already curable and caused by bad diets and bad parents and how could American Girl support such an atrocious thing??

Well...here's my rebuttal for anyone that takes garbage for fondue.  Talk to a parent of a child with type 1 diabetes.  Pay attention to the tears rolling down our faces as you ask us what type 1 diabetes really is and how it has affected our lives.   We might even tell you about some kids we know about that actually have passed away from not being diagnosed properly or going too low in the night before they could be treated or ending up in the hospital sick with too high glucose levels and kidneys shutting down.  Then we might tell you how amazing our child is.  And that they are our heroes.  They have taken hundreds of shots, site changes, blood work, lots of times  pulled aside at school or in the middle of a soccer game to be checked.  They survive and thrive.  And so do we.  

To: Natural News that thinks they know more than us; I hope you don't find yourself with a diagnosed child one day and have to join our club.  Your ignorance may cost them their lives.  The good news is that we would be there for you.  we are far more educated and we are more gracious too.  We would welcome you and support you as its not a fun club to have to join.  But in our club, we don't condemn, we share coffee and wipe each other's tears.   We keep each other going.  Because we know how serious this disease is and yet have to keep strong for our kids.  And this is why we love that American Girl has included a kit for our daughter's for their dolls.  It's just one small thing that a company can do to help our daughter's still smile in a tough world with an unfair diagnosis.  If you ever find yourself in this situation and across the table from us, drinking a coffee, we might even offer to  buy you a type 1 diabetes kit to go with your child's American girl doll.  

Because isn't that what it's all about?  Helping kids and families to grow and thrive?  

It easy to think that you have all of the answers until you are suddenly asked to live it.  

dollar donations for juvenile diabetes

I went into the store Marshall's, tonight. I was shopping for my sweeties upcoming birthday. September 20, she will be four. I haven't thought about the title of this blog...for now she will stay indefinitely three. Just as I am indefinitely 29. But I don't walk around with a title. Just tired.

When I walked upto the register to pay for my items, I noticed that they had balloons tied at the registers. They were all stamped JDRF. Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Marshall's is currently asking their customers to donate money to help further research for Juvenile Diabetes.

That moment of realization seemed so surreal to me. Almost a trip into a vortex. The 17 year old girl ringing me up probably taped the signs at her register as she was told to do. Somebody blew up balloons with helium and tied them to the stations at the counter. A manager probably told every young employee that a new procedure that they had to follow now was to ask each customer if they would like to donate a dollar to help cure Juvenile Diabetes.

Every dollar being collected now suddenly was coming back to me. This campaign is for my family. But will it really benefit us? We are the real thing standing in the middle of all of these customers and amongst all of these inflated balloons, but how does their dollar change my life? Most of these people don't even know that we are a living example of this campaign and what living with diabetes even means. Or even how people become diabetic or how serious it is and how even a little three year old can suddenly find herself in a hospital bed with an IV and not hear the whispered conversations of the doctors deciding how close to death she really was at diagnosis.

Just like at Babies R Us, you can add a dollar to your purchase to help research Autism. Or at the pet store, you can add a dollar to help animal shelters.

This prepackaged marketing campaign that shows up in kits to be displayed for a set time actually represented us. It was like walking into a store that had strung photos of us all over the store. Like walking down a maternity aisle pregnant. Like watching a film about a cancer survivor while lying in a hospital bed with cancer. It was real. It was no longer just a marketing campaign to help us all feel better about spending our money in a store on extraneous items. Suddenly the JDRF letters came into focus and meant something.

Very convenient and yet does anyone even know what Juvenile Diabetes is? or where their money really goes? People just dutifully give a dollar or don't. Then take their purchases and leave. Do they feel good about giving a dollar? Or do they feel good that they didn't give a dollar?

Before my 17 year old attendant, could ask me if I would like to convienently add a dollar to my purchase. (ironically for my diabetic daughter's birthday!). I pointed to the sign taped to her counter. I said, "my daughter has diabetes." Then I just looked at her. She responded with a very sad look and a response of "ohhhh." and then proceeded to ask if I would like to give a dollar. I pulled out a photo of my daughter and said "here she is...she has diabetes...we live with it everyday." Again she responded with a sad face and "ohhhhh". (imagine sad pucker and downward expression)

She asked me if we participate in the JDRF walks. I said, not yet. She was only recently diagnosed. Insert here, another sad pouty face. She proceeded to tell me how some people are happy to donate money and some people get angry and don't want to donate. I said, "I think a lot of people just don't understand what diabetes is." She agreed.

and with that, I said thank you and left yet another uneducated person about diabetes. It wasn't the time to start teaching her about what it is. But I did tell her before I left that she just met a real mother of a real person living with diabetes. So the next customer she asks for a dollar, she can tell them about me and my sweetie.

and ironically, a store can hang signs and validate a worthy cause and encourage you to donate money and yet we mother's still run into people that just don't understand what diabetes is and what needs our children have and make our paths even harder.

tell people to read my blog. Money is nice, but education is always cheaper in the long run.