REAL life DIABETES

COPING WITH At just 12 months old Jessica Brown was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Little did her parents know just how difficult the road ahead would be in managing their daughter’s condition

Jessica Brown was a healthy baby in every respect. She grew consistently, hit all the baby milestones at the appropriate ages and ate a healthy and well balanced diet, which was age appropriate. It was only when she approached her first birthday that she started to show signs and symptoms of

diabetes, which doctors, at the time, failed to recognise. “Jessica had just recovered from a viral infection and she didn’t seem to enjoy her milk bottles as she previously had,” says mom Anne. “I assumed she was teething again and wasn’t too alarmed. A few days passed and she seemed to be quite thirsty, so much so that she would cry when the bottle was finished. I started giving her a full water bottle straight after she finished her milk and she gladly drank it. It didn’t seem right that she would be that thirsty so I took her to the GP who told me not to panic as I was a first time mom and sent me home again. He didn’t examine her at all. As she was drinking so much, I was now having to change her nappy a lot more. Instead of one nappy change during the night, it was as much as three or four times. My husband and I knew something was wrong, but there were no symptoms other than tiredness. I felt embarrassed to go back to the GP so my husband did some research on the Internet and looked up her symptoms. Every article indicated that it might be diabetes. We decided to keep an eye on her, and if things got worse I would be able to ask the GP to do a specific test for diabetes based on the fact that there was a history in the family (Jessica’s grandfather had developed Type 1 diabetes in his mid-30s).”