how do you take care of a child with diabetes?

[taebaby14]

My name is Zion (http://www.facebook.com/ZionYL22) and Im working on another book. In my book, I have a couple who has an 8 year old daughter who suffers from diabetes which leads to Systematic Kidney disease. I just would like to know IN DETAIL how the everyday life works of a mother with a child with diabetes. How do the mornings start and nights end? What would be a case where the school nurse calls and you have to come to the school? What would be a case when you have to go to the hospital? How often do you go see a doctor? What do you guys talk about? Is your child average build or plus size? How old were they when they were diagnosed? Is 8 too young of an age? Please help in any way you can

[menykats]

If you are working on "another book", then you know you have to do your own research and face-to-face interviews.

[Jonah]

8 is too young for diabetic kidney disease. Diabetic kidney disease almost never develops until puberty, and even then it takes a while before it has symptoms. Also there's no such thing as systemic kidney disease.
8 is on the young side to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, but not too young- about a quarter of people with type 1 diabetes are diagnosed at that age or younger.
You seem to be imagining diabetes as being a little more crisis to crisis than it is. Most eight year olds with diabetes have been hospitalized when they were diagnosed, but that's it.
Most 8 year old diabetics' mother test their children's blood sugar when the kid gets up, and either give a shot (or two) of insulin, or else tell the child how much to bolus through an insulin pump (about a third of diabetic children in the US wear insulin pumps- in some European countries most diabetic children wear insulin pumps and in other places very few pump). Most the day is pretty normal. Depending on the mother and the nurse, the nurse might call as much as every day, and/or with things like "there is going to be a birthday party tomorrow what do you want me to do", or might never call unless they run low on supplies like test strips for the blood sugar meter.
Blood sugar probably gets tested before every meal, before and probably after exercise (including gym class) before bedtime, any time the kid feels funny, and some parents also test in the middle of the night. In kids without an insulin pump, shots could be given on any of a bunch of different plans, the most common being before breakfast, before supper, and bedtime, although another reasonably common scheme would be before any time the kid eats anything, any time the blood sugar reading is high, plus one scheduled shot that could be any chosen time of day. On a pump, there would rarely be any shots, but the infusion set would have to changed every 2-3 days, and insulin would be bolused through the pump before every meal and whenever the blood sugar reading is high.

It is recommended that diabetic children see a pediatric endocrinologist 2-4 times per year, and many also see a diabetes educator. Some may also see a family psychologist, and a of nutritionist or dietician, as needed.
Most diabetic 8 year olds are normal weight and are tired of people expecting them to be fat. Those who happen to be overweight are especially sick of people who think the weight is the reason that they are diabetic. Diabetic children are very slightly more likely to be overweight, and considerably more likely to be underweight (because very poorly controlled diabetes causes the body to be unable to use food), compared to nondiabetic children, but the majority are normal weight.

Type 1 diabetes can be diagnosed at any age from about 6 months to really elderly. Depending on the country and ethnic group, average age at diagnosis ranges from about age 12 to age 18. About 1 in 8 kids with diabetes has a parent or sibling with type 1 diabetes, and another 1 in 8 has a grandparent or uncle or aunt with type 1 diabetes.

Eight year olds with diabetes are not likely to even get tested for kidney disease, because they are not considered to be at risk yet. Those who do have kidney disease typically have it from something that's not diabetes- for instance, lupus or IGA nephropathy.
The disease most commonly found in eight year olds with diabetes is celiac (which isn't caused by the diabetes, it's just caused by the same thing that causes type 1 diabetes- autoimmunity).

Most kids with diabetes think mostly about the same things non-diabetic kids think about. They talk about their pets, their friends, their sports heroes, the cartoon characters that are really funny, they make fart jokes... they're kids.
Their mothers make a little more sure that the kids are carrying a source of sugar on them in case of a low blood sugar.