Managing diabetes in college

Pediatrician Jamie Wood, MD Clinical Diabestes, shares advice for parents on what to teach your child about managing their diabetes when they are in college on their own
Advice For Helping Your Child Manage Diabetes In College
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Managing diabetes in college

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The transition to college for a young adult with diabetes is a very exciting transition, but a transition that requires a lot of planning. At Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, I host an annual college prep day where the families come in and we spend the entire day talking about what needs to happen to get that young person ready for college. So the list includes a packing list. What do they need to have in their dorm room? Often times their parents have taken cared of that. So now, it's going to be up to the young person. So, supplies: how to get prescriptions refilled, and a review of how to manage diabetes. A child or a young adult often so relies on their parents to help them through the ups and downs of diabetes. And now, they're going to be independent. So making sure that they know how to handle their sick day when they have diabetes. How do they handle low blood sugar when they have diabetes at college. They also need to be told to talk to their professors and their, for example, their dorm advisers or their resident advisers about their diabetes so that they have people that can them them in emergency. So making sure that there are a, for example, knows how to treat a severe low blood sugar and knows what to do. The most important topic for a person with diabetes heading off to college is the topic of alcohol which of course, they're not 21 so they should not be drinking. But I also have to give them realistic advice and advanced knowledge about how diabetes interacts with alcohol. It's about combination so they need to know. If they chose to drink, which I don't advice, but if they choose to drink, they need to drink in moderation, and they need to know how to do it safely with diabetes.

Pediatrician Jamie Wood, MD Clinical Diabestes, shares advice for parents on what to teach your child about managing their diabetes when they are in college on their own

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Jamie R. Wood, MD

Pediatrician, Clinical Diabetes, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Dr. Jamie Wood was born and raised in Vermont, where she also attended medical school. She completed her pediatric residency at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, and her endocrine fellowship at Children’s Hospital Boston and the Joslin Diabetes Center of Harvard University. She moved to the Los Angeles area in 2008 and is now the Director of Clinical Diabetes Programs at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Wood’s specialty is the care of youth with type 1 and type 2 diabetes—a field she fell in love with during a medical student rotation at a summer camp for youth with diabetes.  She also enjoys gardening, cooking, hiking, and playing with her husband and two children, Jackson and Olivia.

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