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Climbing, dancing, athletics – Michelle Reinhardt, a 14-year-old girl from Coswig, loves movement and sporting challenges. But she must be careful. For diabetic patients like her, the effort quickly causes hypoglycaemia. And that can be life-threatening. She knows the risk because she has been suffering from this disease for seven years. "Michelle can manage her life very well," says her mother Nadine Reinhardt.
If she feels that her blood sugar is low, she must rest and take glucose to stabilize her blood sugar. Peers who do not know the disease, she is already frowned upon. Not today. After all, the children and teenagers who are arguing with her at the Kamenzer Kletterhalle now belong to the "Zuckerkids" group. Here all have the type of diabetes 1.
"About every two months, parents and children meet for diabetes weekends, and fun is at the center of children's concerns," said Ralf Tetzner, who heads the group. "Donkey rides, Indian weekends – we always try to find something exciting for kids, something they do not live every day." Importantly, they form a community and are not alone in their destiny: injecting insulin and calculating carbohydrate units. But parents can also reinforce each other. They have the opportunity to exchange and train.
For this commitment, the Ersatzkbaden Association recently honored the "Zuckerkids" with the self-help prize. 3000 euros are attached to it, which the "Zuckerkids" can use. "At our diabetes weekends, we always take diabetic children to a children's home in Apolda so that you and our children can drive for free," says Ralf Tetzner.
Parents also aspire to the exchange, not to despair, as Nadine Reinhardt says. Every family has their own experiences. "Michelle had to change school because the parents of her clbadmates were opposed to the injection in the dining room, we were stunned and practically no one in the modern enclosures understood this," she said. she. But that did not help. Now, Michelle goes to a private school. Other parents also struggle to find a school or daycare for their children with diabetes. They even act for that. "A family was not allowed to register her child because she could not bring in an integration wizard to remind her to measure and inject products. so stopped working and sat next to her child all day. "
It is also impossible to obtain care services that measure children several times a day and inject. The few existing nurses are fully utilized. And the children 's gardens would have so much craze today that they would no longer have to worry about taking care of their children, said the group leader. . "These are huge discounts for parents." Medical care is the next controversial chapter. "There are so many great achievements, such as insulin pumps or gauges that constantly monitor blood glucose, that could really make life easier for children with diabetes, but you have to fight for everything," said Nadine Reinhardt .
For months, she used her health insurance to get an insulin pump. His daughter had to inject it seven times a day, usually at night. "Try to explain this to your children." And she does not want to complain, because Michelle wears her destiny with reason. But she also knows the parents of the group who have to hold their child together to inject it. It's a torture, and if there's some relief, kids should have it before, without a fight and without a lawyer, because they have to deal with it all their lives, "she says. .
"In the group, parents also talk about strategies for chests in the face and courage, but every family has to fight for itself," says Ralf Tetzner. He always shakes his head when he says that we can live well with type 1 diabetes today. "What it really means, only affected people know it." 78 members currently have "Zuckerkids". In the future, more and more children will develop type 1 diabetes. In this metabolic disease, the body attacks its own insulin-producing pancreatic cells and destroys them. "Especially in young children, the number of new cases is increasing dramatically," says Dr. Ralph Ziegler, president of the Association for Pediatric Diabetology. "At least four percent more each year," he says. Why? You can only speculate about it. Some viruses are suspected of disrupting the immune system. Genes have also played a role, but less than in type 2 diabetes. Only with one in two children with type 1 diabetes, there are other diseases in the family, "said Professor Rüdiger Landgraf of the Foundation. Munich Diabetes.
Michelle is also the only family in her family with diabetes. It started with her at the age of seven. She was always thirsty, sullen, thin, often had to go to the bathroom at night, and dark circles were growing deeper and deeper. "When the pediatrician made the diagnosis, it was a shock," said the mother. If these symptoms occur, the insulin-producing cells are already 80% destroyed, said his pediatrician. There is nothing left to do to reverse the process. "You can not prevent diabetes either, the disease is fatal, you must learn to cope," said diabetologist Ziegler.
Hope for those who have affected the successes of the University of Dresden. There, babies can be tested immediately after birth to see if they have a particular gene that may promote the onset of diabetes. Even a vaccine against diabetes does not seem so far. Children with this genetic modification may receive small doses of insulin to protect the pancreas. "It would make me happy for the many other children, who are no longer limited by the disease," said Nadine Reinhardt.
Unfortunately, the searches are too late for the "Zuckerkids" of today. When most of them get used to living with their illness, the career choice is finally opened. A boy wants to do the police. It has always been his dream, as his mother says. But as a diabetic, there could be problems. "There is usually only very healthy." However, she was aware of a verdict in which a young man with type 1 diabetes complained of his refusal and was right. His son then applied immediately for an internship. The struggle of diabetic parents will probably not stop for the rest of their lives. RNW
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