Anyone who has diabetes knows that there are two types: type I and type II. This type is sometimes called "adult-onset diabetes," and more than 90% of people with diabetes have it.
So, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out that most people with diabetes are adults. But children can also have diabetes, and their problems are very different from those of their older diabetic counterparts.
For example, a child with diabetes will need to be closely watched and cared for by his or her parents all the time. This isn't a problem in and of itself, but it could mean that the child has never spent the night away from home. It's also not unusual for a child in this situation to have never met another child their own age who has diabetes. In practice, this is a very lonely time in the life of a child with diabetes.
Because of these problems, many countries are now making special camps for diabetic children. These camps aim to make the lives of diabetic children more normal. All of the kids at these camps are supervised and cared for by trained medical professionals 24 hours a day. They are a great way for young people with diabetes to be independent and learn about their condition with the help of their peers and trained health professionals.
They make camping fun and safe for kids in a supervised setting, and they often focus, at least to some degree, on helping kids learn how to take care of themselves. These camping conditions also make it possible for young people with diabetes to meet and talk to each other, which might not be possible if they lived in different places.
These camps for learning about diabetes and having fun are, of course, meant to be both educational and fun. Most of the time, they have a wide range of sports facilities that allow people to try out new sports and other activities, especially team-based ones, that they might not be able to do otherwise.
Nothing is left to chance when it comes to medicine. Before going to camp, each participant is usually asked to give a detailed medical history and an idea of how well they can handle themselves. Based on what the child knows, the camp can then give him or her the chance to learn more about self-management and how to interact with other young people with diabetes while being watched by a professional.
Even more, people are helped. Many of the "helpers" in these camps are volunteers who don't know much about diabetes, but they will learn a lot from being around the kids every day.
Even health care professionals can learn a lot from young people with diabetes about how to treat and live their lives that they can't learn from a book. Most of the time, these people say that they do learn a lot, and even the most experienced teachers say that living with these kids every day moves them.
And last but not least, the parents get a break from the daily routine of caring for a child with diabetes, and their child is likely to gain confidence and learn how to take care of themselves better.
