September is the start of a new school year. It’s time to discuss what worries many parents who will send their children to school. It’s about harassment from classmates. According to statistics, every third child becomes a victim of bullying at school. Diabetes may be one of the reasons for such aggression.
WHAT IS HURT?
When we talk about bullying, we are talking about aggressive physical, verbal, and psychological harassment. Insults, pushing, teasing and stigmatization are not a complete list of unpleasant situations that children and adolescents can find themselves in. Although it may seem at first that such behavior can be ignored, the consequences of bullying can be very serious and have a detrimental effect on a child’s self-esteem and daily life.
WHY DOES A CHILD WITH DIABETES BE HALTED?
Despite the lack of official statistics on this issue, it is well known that aggressive harassment usually occurs in cases of dissimilarity. Diabetes may be one of those cases. Integrating a child with type 1 diabetes into the classroom, as well as classmates understanding their illness, is critical to adequate diabetes management. Many dia -children are firmly convinced that diabetic procedures interfere with their social life and make them different from their peers, as well as distract from current affairs.
Findings from the 2012 Type 1 Diabetic Child and Friends1 study showed that depression associated with school bullying can directly affect a child’s adherence to doctor’s orders, which in turn has a detrimental effect. on the child’s self-esteem and can lead to long-term complications.
WE ALL HAVE TO THINK
Ending the bullying of children with diabetes is a global challenge for
the entire education community. The main reason for the possible stigmatization
of children with diabetes at school is the ignorance of this problem by
society. Parents, administrators, teachers, school staff and peers should work
together to resolve this issue.
A child or adolescent with diabetes must communicate the necessary knowledge
about their disease to others so that their behavior does not cause confusion.
Despite the fact that the need to perform certain dia -rituals distinguishes
the child from others, this dissimilarity should not be perceived in a negative
way. A child with diabetes can do everything that other children can do.
Experts strongly encourage the child, teacher, or parent to have a small educational conversation with other children about diabetes. You can also hold an open lesson with elements of the game, so that the children are informative and interesting. This will allow the classmates of the child with diabetes to be involved and prevent unethical comments or inappropriate behavior that may arise out of ignorance.
In a recent interview with teacher, family therapist and coordinator of the Modiaj project , which aims to create parent groups to share knowledge and experience about diabetes, Rosa Maria de Prado Gonzalez stated that “children are looking for reasons not to take insulin or a glucose meter with them, which can arouse curiosity among peers; there is always a risk that peers will take insulin or a glucometer, start playing with it, try to inject insulin. To avoid this, complete and accurate information about diabetes must be provided.
TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP
Modern technologies help reduce the distraction of diabetic procedures. Sensors that constantly measure glucose levels make life easier for children with diabetes, because they can easily and discreetly check sugar at any time. Insulin pumps allow you to administer insulin comfortably without the need for painful injections.