Type 2 diabetes is a family disease. You may have just learned your child’s diagnosis, but other family members may already
have diabetes. Also, your other children may be at risk of developing it. For this reason, it’s important for everyone in
the family to learn about diabetes and start adopting a healthy lifestyle. This will support your child or teen with diabetes,
and it will lower the chances that any of your other children will get it.
Managing type 2 diabetes calls for living a healthy lifestyle. This can help delay or even prevent diabetes-related complications.
Here are some of the things your family needs to do to stay healthy:
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Follow a balanced meal plan.
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Be physically active.
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Keep weight in a healthy range.
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Keep blood
glucose levels in the
target range.
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Keep blood pressure close to the target level.
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Take any necessary medicines as directed.
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Manage stress.
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Don’t smoke.
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Take care of the feet.
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Keep in touch with your doctor or diabetes team.
All this may seem like a lot of work, but your child and family are not alone: your diabetes health care team can help. Your
team may also include a dietitian, a diabetes educator, a pharmacist, a social worker, a psychologist, a foot care specialist,
an endocrinologist, and an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) or optometrist (eye specialist). These people are all there to provide
the information and support to your child or teen.
Healthy eating
People with diabetes have the same nutritional needs as everyone else. However, nutrition is also very important for diabetes
control. Eating a well-balanced diet can help control your child or teen’s blood glucose level and keep it as close to normal
as possible. Sometimes a proper diet alone can be enough to control blood glucose levels. Healthy eating can also help him
feel better, stay healthy longer, and reduce the risk of complications.
Talk to your dietitian
If you have a dietitian as part of your health care team, she can help you design a personalized meal plan that suits your
family’s lifestyle. It may include foods from your culture, and some of your child or teen’s favourite foods. She can also
help you figure out how much your child should eat and how often.
Here are some tips for healthy eating:
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Eat 3 regular meals each day. Eating regularly helps the body keep up stable blood glucose levels. If your child or teen is
taking diabetes medications, she may also need to eat a bedtime snack.
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Include a variety of foods at each meal: vegetables and fruit, meats or alternatives, and whole-grain breads and cereals.
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Limit the amount of sugars and sweets (for example, limit regular pop, desserts, jam, and candy). These will raise blood sugar.
They are also high in “empty” calories.
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Don’t offer too much food high in fat (for example, chips and other fried foods). This can lead to weight gain, and maintaining
a healthy weight is an important part of managing diabetes. As well, people with diabetes already have a greater risk of developing
high levels of fats in their heart and
blood vessels. Eating less fat will help to keep the heart healthy.
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Limit the intake of salt. Eating too much salt can lead to high
blood pressure. This increases the risk of diabetes complications.
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Eat foods that are high in fibre. High-fibre food can help your child feel full longer, and may help lower blood glucose and
cholesterol.
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Encourage your child or teen to drink water when he is thirsty. Regular pop and fruit juice are very high in sugar, and can
raise the blood glucose. They are also high in calories.
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Discuss drinking moderate amounts of alcohol (1 or 2 drinks a day) with the health care team. If your teen chooses to drink
alcohol, he shouldn’t drink on an empty stomach. He should sip the drink slowly because alcohol can cause
hypoglycemia (low
blood glucose levels).
Exercise
One of the best things your child can do to stay healthy is stay active. Exercise is an important part of managing type 2
diabetes. Your child or teen should choose activities he likes to do, such as swimming, playing a sport, or riding his bicycle.
Picking activities that involve friends or other family members, such as going for walks, can help make the exercise fun.
Staying active can:
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help your child feel better
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make the heart, lungs, and muscles stronger
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lower blood glucose levels
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lower blood pressure levels
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help your child lose weight and keep it off
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help deal with stress
If your child is taking insulin or other medicines, talk to the diabetes team about how to prevent low blood glucose. Your
child may need to adjust the insulin dose to avoid low blood sugar. Also, your child should test his blood sugar before and
after exercising.
If your child starts to have symptoms of low blood sugar, such as feeling light-headed, shaky, irritable, hungry, or weak,
he needs to test again. Your child should keep some form of sugar and extra food on hand while exercising to treat low blood
sugar. It’s also a good idea to wear MedicAlert identification while exercising.
Weight loss
If your child or teen is overweight, weight loss is perhaps the most important part of managing the diabetes. This can be
hard, but your diabetes health care team can help you and your child work out a meal and exercise plan, and give lots of support.
Staying at a healthy body weight will help lower blood glucose and blood pressure levels. This will help delay or prevent
the complications of diabetes.
Avoid fad diets. Most of them don’t work and some are even dangerous. There are no short cuts to losing weight and keeping
it off. Your child must burn more calories than he consumes.
Teenagers are still growing and have high nutritional needs. The key is to keep the healthy foods in the diet and cut out
the empty calories, such as soft drinks and fried foods.
