New website for kids with juvenile diabetes

Main Category: Diabetes
Article Date: 01 Feb 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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http://kids.jdrf.org

You've just been diagnosed with juvenile (type 1) diabetes, a disease in which your pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone you need to stay alive. All of sudden, you are pushed into a painful world of finger pricks (to test your blood-sugar) and insulin injections (to keep your blood-sugar under control.)

Being a kid is hard enough without having to deal with a disease. But a disease such as diabetes, which needs constant attention and is difficult to manage, can make it much more complicated.

You wonder how your life will change.

Will your friends treat you differently?

Can you still play sports?

What about sleepovers?

Where can you get the answers to these and other questions?

Now there's a place on the web: JDRF Kids Online at http://kids.jdrf.org

JDRF Kids Online is a new website that has just been launched by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Designed with help from medical professionals and kids who have the disease, the site educates kids about diabetes and its complications by addressing the day-to-day concerns that children with diabetes often encounter and may find difficult to handle.

Since diabetes is a disease that never takes a break, it's important that children begin to learn how to deal with diabetes on their own.

Sections such as 'New to Diabetes?' and 'Your Life (with Diabetes)' give kids ideas and strategies on how to talk about diabetes with friends and teachers, check blood sugar and take insulin, and make smart decisions when it comes to eating and exercising.

The site also offers kids a support system where they can exchange advice with other kids on issues such as teasing, taking trips or meeting new people.

'The goal of the website is not only to give children with diabetes a realistic sense of what they're going to be dealing with every day but also to empower them and make them part of the cure,' said Kate Sands, Managing Editor Online Services for JDRF.

With help from JDRF Kids Online, kids can become actively involved in JDRF's search for a cure for diabetes. It provides kids with the most current information on diabetes research regarding islet (insulin-producing cells) transplantation as well as stem cell research.

It also helps kids to make a difference in their own community by helping them to educate others about the warning signs of diabetes and providing them with ways to raise money for research.

'I think the JDRF Kids Online website is helpful because it makes you feel like you're not alone,' said Lindsey, an 11 year old from Belle Mead, NJ and one of the kids who helped to design the website.

'You can find out what's happening with diabetes all over the world, and you can get helpful tips and ideas for how to deal with your diabetes.'

JDRF, the leading charitable funder and advocate of juvenile (type 1) diabetes research worldwide, was founded in 1970 by the parents of children with juvenile diabetes -- a disease which strikes children suddenly, makes them insulin-dependent for life, and carries the constant threat of devastating complications.

Since inception, JDRF has provided more than $680 million in direct funding to diabetes research.

More than 80 percent of JDRF's expenditures directly support research and research-related education. JDRF's mission is constant: to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. For more information, visit the JDRF web site at www.jdrf.org or call 800-533-CURE.

http://kids.jdrf.org

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