What should a parent, spouse, partner, or caregiver know about diabetes in order to provide support to a loved one?

What should a parent, spouse, partner, or caregiver know about diabetes in order to provide support to a loved one?

The more informed a spouse, partner, or caregiver is about diabetes, the better source of support he or she can be to the affected person in their lives. Thus, the answer can be very open-ended. To be practical, let us focus on a few key issues that are especially important. If you are the main food preparer for the loved one in question, knowledge of diabetic diets and nutrition is very helpful.

The appropriate type of diet for a person with diabetes is generally not complex, time-consuming, or expensive. Attending diabetes education with your loved one’s dietitian is probably the most useful and important thing you can do. Getting to know as much as you can about diabetic meal preparation is very important, especially when there may be special requirements relating to kidney complications or high blood pressure.

Knowing how to treat a low blood sugar reaction, whether moderate or severe, is very valuable. The mental alertness and coordination of the person with diabetes can be impaired with moderately severe low blood sugar reactions and he or she may not have insight into what is going on or how to treat it. In the case of severe low blood sugar, reactions, the affected loved one may be drowsy or unconscious and prompt action on your part is very important. Knowing how to check the blood sugar with their machine and how to treat a moderate low blood sugar, or how to use a glucagon kit to treat a severe low blood sugar, is very helpful indeed.

Finally, knowledge of how to manage sick days is very helpful. The body’s response to illness can be somewhat unpredictable. In the case of an infection such as gastroenteritis or influenza, blood sugars may be high or low, depending on whether the body’s stress reaction pushes the blood sugar higher or the failure to eat
pushes it lower. Either way, during anything other than a minor illness, it is important to monitor the blood sugar frequently, and treat low or high sugars (the latter with insulin if necessary) and to ensure that your loved one is well hydrated, as dehydration will rapidly make the situation worse.

Most important is to know when you are unable to keep pace, meaning that the blood sugar is rising in spite of your best efforts and your loved one is unable to take in fluids or is becoming drowsy. In this case, ensuring that he or she gets prompt medical attention is the most valuable thing you can do.

There are, of course, many other ways in which you can help by your knowledge of diabetes, but these are three of the most important.