Last week when I was home, one of the most important things that I wanted to do was spend time with my 4 “nieces” and also my niece. Let me explain that in detail quickly. My “nieces” are actually my cousins, but my aunt was more like a sister to me because of our closeness in age so her 4 daughters have always called me uncle. My actual niece is almost 6 months and she is my brother’s daughter. Ok, that is clarified. My “nieces” are 10, 8 and the twins are 4. The 10 year old knows that I have diabetes, but doesn’t totally get it (but I’m 25 and I don’t either). The 8 year old knows I have something, but not really sure, she used to just say that “Uncle Chris is sick.”
Well one day that I was there I took my pump out to bolus and one of the twins saw it and she said, “what is that?” So I thought, should I say, “it’s an insulin pump” or should I say something that it is medication for me. I decided to tell her that it was an insulin pump for my diabetes and that it keeps me healthy. I didn’t know exactly how to explain it that it would make sense. I thought about coming up with a way to use a Disney movie or something that she liked to have it make more sense for her, but the question never came back up again while I was home.
How do you explain it? I know there are mothers out there that read the blog, and fathers as well. How are you able to explain diabetes to small children, especially your children that are not diabetic.
Thank you in advance.