Should I send my child to diabetes summer camp?
Unless your child is the kind who would be miserably homesick and suffer psychological damage in any summer camp, we think it's a good idea especially for younger and newly diagnosed children. We've had reports from young people who consider their camp experience as a breakthrough in understanding their diabetes and in learning new practical techniques of management. Even more important to them was the realization that they're not oddballs and that the world is full of other diabetics who are successfully coping with the condition. It's a genuine comfort for a diabetic to be in a situation in which virtually everyone is a diabetic and the nondiabetic is the one who's peculiar. Barbara had this latter experience one day at the Sugarfree Center. June and Ron, both diabetic, were on the scene, as was our cleaning woman, another diabetic. (We practice reverse discrimination and only hire diabetics!) Everyone who dropped by that day was diabetic. Even the mail was all ...