With having diabetes does one do it???
What do you think???<br
interesting and important subject. The question is, does one
want to have children when it is known that the
diabetes problems can be passed on to them….. When we
had our two boys, in 1955 and 1957, it was just
before it became clear that I had diabetes. (1960) I
worried considerably about the possibility that they also
may become diabetic. As it worked out, sofar, it has
shown that they were not affected by it. Even our 6
grandchildren do not, sofar, show any signs. Except my
granddaughter who has been showing signs of possibly having
lupus which may have some connection, who knows for
sure? (age 18) Had I known I was diabetic before they
were manufactured, would we have not had them? I
suppose under the present circumstances I have to say
that it would have been a mistake not having them. If
they would have been affected by diabetes when I would
have had it before going for having children and
therefore, knowing that it was possible, I would have blamed
myself for doing so. It is therefore a difficult
question to answer as you can see from my experience. If I
was faced with the situation knowing I had it, we
probably would not have gone for it. But it remains a
difficult question to answer. One could try it with one
child first, but sometimes it doesn’t show til much
later. What to do????? <br
January 23rd, 2004 at 2:09 am
Because of the bad eyesight from birth, and lack
of work, I never felt compelled to have children
unless I could ‘butter my own bread’ so to speak…I
wasn’t going to have kids on SSI and never relly felt
that ‘Motherly’ anyhow to human babies. (Doggers, on
the other hand…weeeeellll).<br
have kids is to me, a compulsion so strong and in the
actual person that having diabetes isn’t a barrier.
Today, we have a lot more control over high risk
pregnancies, and many women would go for it. Others
won’t.<br
January 24th, 2004 at 3:44 am
yep… it is a really tough call. not that im
thinking of having children ANYTIME soon anyways (gosh, im
only 19) but i still think about it longterm, you
know? Diabetes is so awful, i’d never want to pass it
on to my children. not to mention the strain it
would have on your body which already has such a
careful balance.<br
first got diagnosed in the summer of ‘99, i asked the
doctor about it. her response to me was that women who
are diabetic today can in fact have children, but
they are automatically considered a high risk
pregnancy. The main problems assiciated of course are having
high blood sugars during your pregnancy and therefore
having big babies AND putting your body under enourmous
strain. for anyone who’s seen Steel Magnolias with Julia
Roberts, you can see the stigma against having children as
a diabetic even 10 years ago (if you rent it,buy
several boxes of tissues, its a REAL tear-jerker) BUT….
now there are much better ways to control your
diabetes, and diabetics on the whole seem to be a LOT more
informed about how to care for themselves (carb counting,
the insulin pump,and whatnot is a newer thing that
really helps you be in control, says my MD) She did say
that unplanned pregnancies are espeically not good for
diabetics (of course, this was during her “use a condom”
speech which i get every three months when visiting!!)
mainly bacuse they want you to be under the tightest
control possible…. they like to see your HbA1c around 5
or 6. and from diabetic women ive talked to on
another message board i go to, dealing with diabetes is a
whole extra dimension to pregnancy… but they all say
that the personal risks are SO worth it to be able to
bring a child into the world…<br
risk of your child getting the disease, there is no
absolute genetic connection for diabetes from parent to
child (i asked about this too… my poor doctor had her
hands full with me) She said that usually, with a
non-diabetic father, the chances are 1 in 4 (not that great,
but not terrible) and that chance goes up to 50% if
both parents are diabetics. im not sure if the odds
are the same with a diabetic father…. sorry
guys<br
are no people in my family AT ALL that i know of who
have diabetes… getting diagnosed was like a slap in
the face. theres lots of type 2’s but no type 1’s,
and the only other immune disorder is my grandmothers
rhumetoid arthritis. But, fate took a hand and i still got
it. so even non-diabetics have a risk of having a
diabetic child.<br
dissertation, i prommise…. sorry for the long post, but this
topic has been one ive thought about a LOT) id say that
ANY pregnancy is a big decision, but being a diabetic
makes you think extra hard about it. you do get a lot
more medical survaillance as a high risk pregnancy, so
in reality your child will be taken care of that
much better…. a doctor wont be apt to ignore
anything that may seem like a problem (as they sometimes
do in regular pregnancies) in general,I personally
would NEVER do it without a VERY supportive husband,
but thats true regardless of the disease…. and at
the same time i wouldnt rule the possibility out
altogether, some day WAY OFF in the future… because i dont
like the idea of diabetes ever limiting my
experience.<br
have to face… thanks =)<br
January 25th, 2004 at 5:20 am
Again I’m very impressed with Emily’s reply.
Doing very good there Emily. What is that other board
you also watch.??<br
concerned I disagree with her opinion that genetics are not
involved with diabetes. Maybe she ment type1 but type2 I
feel is certainly genetically involved. It will be a
very long time before we are able to use the genetic
map to our advantage. You can compare it to a map of
the USA. All the cities and villages on there have to
be investigated. Not only the people living there
but every living being like cows, pigs, ants, spiders
ect. In short anything that lives. Can you amagine how
long that will take.???
January 26th, 2004 at 6:55 am
Watching that “Steel Magnolias” it seemed to be
set back in the seventies as all the cars and even
the hospital scene showed much older equipment. I
never saw J. Roberts’ character do a test or
anything.<br
movie at all if I could’ve stopped them. VERY poor
representation of diabetics.<br
January 28th, 2004 at 10:06 am
I have to agree, I really do not want to be to
blame for my children maybe having diabetes later in
life but neither do I want to imagine my great life
without them in it to make it even greater!!! Debbie C
January 29th, 2004 at 11:42 am
I am the only one with Type I diabetes out of 40
grandchildren (My dad’s parents both developed Type-II as
elders). I was diagnosed at age one with this annoying
disease and the only one among 3 children to have it, (my
brother and sister are just fine, including their kids).
Also my parents do not have it. So basically, I was
the “unlucky one” to get it. And for that I had been
very angry about it.<br
of feeling angry and like I will never have children
of my own, I am now optimistic. My husband (of 4
years) and I are looking forward to having children of
our own to love and share our lives with. And knowing
my circumstance I am being responsible about it. I
am now on a pump (4 months now) to get more control,
I am reading and learning about the conditions I
would be dealing with and will try my hardest not to do
anything to jeopardize the health of my child (during,
before and after conception). I understand the
difficulties, but I am ready to deal with them.<br
start to believe that because of heredity chances, we
as diabetics can’t have children, then we might as
well should not pursue any other goal because of
DIABETES. 50 years ago was different, now its possible to
have healthy children. Plus passing on and getting
Type I diabetes its like the lottery. You don’t know
for sure when or if you’ll get it. (Type II it’s
another issue). <br
in getting educated on the disease and doing the
best you can to make the best out of the situations we
as diabetics face. And if one knows its in our
family genes, then its more important to be responsible
in how one eats, exercises and enjoys<br
general.<br
this. I have gone from “I CAN’T OR I WILL NEVER BE ABLE
TO” to “I WILL TRY MY BEST”.<br
listening,<br
February 1st, 2004 at 4:28 pm
Sometimes I wonder if I might be in the last
generation born with this condition, if somewhere in some
laboratory somewhere there isn’t a geneticist working out
just where in that little fragment of DNA that makes
human that one tiny little pair of proteins are that
got screwed up. And will he figure out how to take
genetic material and introduce it into a living organism
and correct the defect? And when they find that
magical cure, will they say “yes, it works for all new
cases, but you’re too old; you’ve lived too long with
diabetes?” Will my distinctiveness be something to celebrate
as I fade like the last of the buffalo or the condor
or the California gray whale? or will it be one more
thing pushing me aside, separating me, making me
prisoner? I’m pretty sure I already know the answer.
February 12th, 2004 at 8:23 am
Hi everyone,<br
several complications, ever since I had the beginnings of
kidney damage I’ve been afraid of having a child. I
never really thought about “what if my child would get
diabetes”.<br
for the worse in the past 16 to 17 years since I was
told about the problem. I’ve tried very hard since
then to control my sugars.<br
at this point about having a child is whether or not
my comlications would get worse with pregnancy. If I
didn’t have certain complications I would definitely try
having a child. I wouldn’t be concerned about my child
getting diabetes. If I had a child and he/she would get
diabetes, I think that he/she would have a better chance at
living a good life with all the advances that have
occured since I was diagnosed.<br
have diabetes, the only one that I know that had type
2 diabetes was my grandmother from father’s side,
she passed away years ago. My mother had two kids and
we both have type 1 diabetes. My mom decided not to
have any more kids, she was afraid that she would have
more kids that would develop diabetes. I was diagnosed
at age 1 and my brother was about 8 or 9 years old
when he was diagnosed. Raising two diabetic kids was
very hard on my mom.<br
high, and start of complications she was there for us
all the way, I love her dearly and admire her so very
much for all that she’s done for us through out our
lives.<br
will be amputating more than we thought from my
brother’s leg. I feel very sad and angry over this whole
situation.
February 15th, 2004 at 11:04 pm
Oh dear, Taty, sorry about this further bad news.<br
positive energy is coming his way.<br