Experiences from Parents to Children with Diabetes Type 1 - Abstract
Introduction: When a child is diagnosed with a long-term illness such as diabetes type 1(DT1) parents often find it stressful to give optimum support to the child and to manage the situation especially when the child is in school. Parents experience that the stress to manage life with Diabetes Type 1, means to constant monitor blood glucose, to assist with insulin injections, food intake and physical activity, in order to optimum disease management.
Aim: To explore how parents’ of children with Diabetes Type 1 experienced their role as a parent.
Material and method: A qualitative design was used and individual interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 13 parents (10 mothers and 3 fathers) of children with Diabetes Type 1. The interviews were analyzes using qualitative content analysis.
Results and conclusions: The analysis resulted in one theme A life change revealing new needs with four subthemes; Struggling with fear and searching for explanations, Learning to manage and getting control of a lifelong illness, Collaboration with school as an important support and Managing the illness influenced work and family finances. Parents in this study struggled for their children at all times, to be the child’s caregiver and to take care of the child’s life in the best possible way. They asked for flexible and continue diabetes education for themselves and for school staff efficient communication and cooperation between parents/families, healthcare and school.