My sister was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 18 months. There's only a few years between us, so I don't remember a lot. I remember Mum and Dad had to go to Diabetes Education Classes, and they were shown how to take her blood sugar twice a day and inject her with insulin. The insulin amount isn't preset, it depended on what her blood sugar was, so they were taught how to work out how much she needed. They were taught what kind of foods she should eat/avoid, and how to recognise a high/low blood sugar without a tester.

Every year when she started a new grade, they would take pamphlets in to the teacher to show them the basics of diabetes, especially the signs they needed to watch for to tell them if she was having a high/low blood sugar. When she was first in school, I remember Mum gave the preschool teacher a jar of liquid glucose fir if B ever went low.

Ah, I oughta stop there, it sounds scary! It didn't effect our lives much, I know B was a bit embarrassed about it as she got older, because she was different to everyone else. She learned how to do her own blood sugars and needles at around 10. She had a few hospital stays, but nothing huge.

I know it seems scary, but if your son does have diabetes, you will get a lot of education and support. It's not as scary as it sounds