Lotte's mother: Lotte started being thirsty all the time and was constantly tired so we suspected diabetes. My father and both my brothers have diabetes so I recognized the symptoms. Lotte learned to check her blood glucose levels and to inject herself with insulin at the hospital. People around her needed to learn how to deal with it, too; she was still at nursery school then.

Lotte is very independent with respect to her diabetes and her insulin pump. She is able to insert her own catheter, set a bolus and calculate carbohydrates. She is really great at doing it on her own. I'm not afraid of hypos. Lotte feels them coming and knows what to do. She usually checks her blood glucose levels before each meal and whenever she isn't feeling too well. Lotte isn't shy about it and she doesn't mind people asking questions.

Wearing the pump does bother her sometimes, because when she wears short clothes, the pump shows. Her grandmother sewed secret pockets into many of her clothes and that was a lot better. She is also happier now that she can change the look of her pump with decorative stickers called SKINS.

She checks her blood glucose five to six times a day.

Sometimes when she's having a bad day, it brings her down. That's when she feels that she's different from other children who can go through life feeling carefree. I've had to deal with diabetes all my life: as a child with my father and both my brothers, and now with my own child, too. It's very painful for a mother, even though I know that you can live well with diabetes. The condition is a real burden but I cannot take it away from my child. And sometimes that's really hard.

My advice to you: Parents of a child with diabetes also have to go through a process of coming to terms with it and have to learn some things...Time takes care of the rest.