Dia-Beat-Us?

Many of my American friends will call me Wilfred Brimley because I am one of those weirdos who say "dia-bee-tus" and not "dia-beet-ez".  Of course, to me, my way makes much more sense but I am aware that when you break the pronunciation down it sound defeatist.   I have actually been pretty positive lately.  My son is slowly starting to take better care of himself.  As Reyna recently pointed out, he has been successfully honing his Macgyver skills.  We are coming up on 11 years of living with Diabetes and while I would still think an eviction order should be given, I am still able to count my blessings.

The top on my list of blessings remains the wonderful friends that living with Diabetes has brought us.  These amazing friends have raised equally amazing children.  This week I was given the privilege of seeing how incredible these kids can be. I was invited to be a part of a group called "CWD Teens for Change".  It is made up of teens who want to give back. They feel that  Children With Diabetes Conferences have given them so much that they want to share the experience.  They are donating their lunch money, Starbucks money, babysitting money and more so that they can the money required to bring a teen and their family to one of the Friends for Life Conferences.

The enthusiasm that this project has been met with has been overwhelming.  It truly makes you proud.  Maybe that is why when I first read an article a day or two later in the "Natural News" that I filed it as "not worth my breath".  The author tried to make me feel "beaten" as he suggested that feeding my young son milk and my own diet during pregnancy may have caused my son's illness. Its not enough that I have guilt about not recognizing the symptoms of diabetes and having my son come within hours of dying. Nope, I now need to question if I gave up on breast-feeding too early and re-examine what I did or did not eat while I was pregnant.  I don't have that kind of energy to waste dude. 

So I continued my week deciding not to even mention the article to friends or post it on my website.  Who needs this crap? I was happy to see teens doing such amazing things--including my own teen.  I would not let Diabetes "beat us".  Unfortunately a second moron gentleman, felt it necessary to add his two cents on why my son (and other children) had developed Type 1 diabetes.  According to this person, "Many researches are claiming that childhood diabetes type 1 and Type 2 could be related to excess sugar intake and poor quality diet.  Children are consuming sodas, juices, milkshakes and candy in excess, may be a big contributing fact to acquiring Type 1 and Type 2."  and on he goes to say that these children are inactive and poor parenting is also causing this problem.

WT???? Yeah, right bud! My son was diagnosed when he was two years old.  At that time yes he drank milk and juice.  I don't think he had ever had any pop (soda), he never had a milkshake (and I am not sure he even has at 13), and his candy intake was non-existent.  He was two and keeping up with his five year old brother.  Inactive was not in his vocabulary. I actually wonder if he was too active because he only stopped to sleep! 

This guy pushed me to the edge. I wanted to write. I wanted to scream a few choice words at him.  I looked at the 32 comments slamming him at the end of the article and felt a bit more vindicated so instead I posted it to a few friends on a Facebook page.  They were just as choked as I was.  Soon more emails and phone calls were hitting this poor fool and a retraction was quickly published. 

I know that there is no cure for stupid. I know that we can only keep working to educate and create awareness. We are succeeding in creating caring, generous, and amazing young people.  Hopefully we will also begin to succeed in creating more aware and responsible media outlets that allow such garbage to be published.