Hello, and welcome.
If you’ve found yourself reading and interested in this page you likely have just had a child you love diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. You probably have just been given a crash course in how to count carbohydrates, calculate the appropriate insulin dose to ‘cover’ these carbs, give injections, what the signs of high and low blood sugar are and how to deal with both. If you’re like most of us you’ve absorbed an incredible amount of information in a very short amount of time and are now trying to come to grips with how you are ever going to do all that is required to keep your child healthy in addition to the ‘normal’ tasks of parenting.
Hopefully you’ve been assured that it will all work itself out, that you will be able to live a normal life and take care of your child’s needs along with the other responsibilities of parenting, running a household, working in and outside the home and attending to your other children/family members. You will learn to carb count with a glance at a plate, calculate boluses and figure out what signs and symptoms are unique to your child’s high and low blood sugars. You’ll manage sick days, adjust to play dates, soccer games, pre-test jitters and the hormonal swings of adolescence.
My hope is that you have an excellent medical team that you can access anytime you have a medically relevant question or need.
What may be lacking in your ‘tool kit’ is a place of emotional and practical support and relief. Mama I’m Low was created to address that need. The purpose of this organization is to provide support and help accessing resources for any of the emotional and practical needs that arise from having a child with Type 1 Diabetes.
In my experience the medical needs of my child were addressed and taken care of by a team of excellent, capable, kind, caring, available and compassionate professionals. What I didn’t have access to and have needed so desperately at times, is the emotional support of speaking with and bouncing ideas off of other families whose children were experiencing some of the same things mine was. At the same time I needed a place to grieve my child’s diagnosis, vent my anger and frustration and hear other’s reactions, feedback and supportive, understanding encouragement.
I’m so sorry you have found yourself in the position of needing this support, I am thrilled that you’ve found us and hope that we can provide for you the reassurance and sense of belonging that might help you get through the tougher parts of managing your child’s diagnosis.
Mama I’m Low is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Eugene, Oregon.
The mission of Mama I’m Low is to provide emotional and practical support for families of children living with Type 1 Diabetes.