When You’re a Parent With Diabetes: Book Review

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

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. 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.

This is a great book! So helpful, I keep it nearby. Thanks for adding a link. I’ve talked with Kassie about contributing to our Dreaming About Water anthology as a parenting expert!

definately an awesome book!