Interesting question Mike. I was diagnosed at age 12 or 13 (I am now 41) and remember that the hospital diabetologist I was under at the time was not happy when I started talking about the kind of “problems” that diabetics get. I can’t remember where I picked up all this information, bearing in mind that this was pre-Internet days. Posters, leaflets, booklets? I certainly wasn’t told anything by the medical profession, nurses or my family (Mum is T1 too), friends or teachers. Neither did I trawl through books in the public library to elucidate all these “secrets” – not that a public library would hold in-depth books on diabetes and its complications anyway. Today all this information – be it reliable or suspect – can be easily accessed on the Internet and not only that, the doctor-patient relationship has also changed immensely since I was diagnosed. When I was diagnosed my diabetologist would have received his medical training in the late 1950s early 1960s I guess and his teachers would have been practising medicine in the pre and post-war periods where doctors, like teachers, lawyers and policemen, were seen as semi-god like creatures.
What I do think is important is that you and your wife feel comfortable talking through issues with your daughter. If you’re not comfortable, your child will sense your discomfort and I imagine that this could put unwanted pressure on her: her worrying because Mum and Dad are worrying.