Teenager lying about taking BG Levels

I have a 17 year old that has been diabetic for 2 years and has been pumping for 1 year. He has on 4 or 5 occasions not taken his BG levels for a period of time (maybe a week). We have tried to be understanding as suggested by his Endo.
We bought a new meter and he has been downloading his levels off his meter straight to the computer and printing me out a log about once a week. I have asked on occasion if he could enter the numbers in manually and he said no so I thought the readings were true. Last night I discovered by watching him download that yes you can enter in manual and he has gone at least a month without taking actual levels.
First of all I am so dissapointed that he felt he had to lie that I want to just take every previlage away from him. What should I do? I want him to tell me the truth but at the same time shouldn't he be held responsible for his health? Should I monitor him on a daily basis?

[JDRF-Team-LRS]

Hello pgl,
We're all volunteers here; no one is a medical professional.

What you're going thru with your son is quite common among teens.  Teen years include rebellion and lots of self-doubt.  Diabetes is one great weapon/tool in that journey.

Your son is not "unaware" of the danger.  He is scared, frustrated, angry, and sad at the burden he must shoulder while others look (to him) to have it easy.  My suggestion is to open the conversation with him about just how it feels to have DM now.  I've heard even munchkins speak eloquently.  Pls excuse my language here, as I quote what a little guy said to a room full of adults "It sucks!"

It does & there is no vacation.

Sometimes family counseling can help you all deal with it.  It's not just him who is affected.  Everythign in the family dynamic changes when one person is diagnosed.  Attentions shift, other things seem less relevant important, siblings can act out, and the DMer can feel increasing resentment.

I also highly recommend that you check your phone book for a local branch of JDRF (Juvenile DIabetes Research FOunation), tho organization that we all volunteer for.  There are hundreds of families who are involved and many have teens or have 'used-to-be-teens' and will help you (and your son) at a peer level, too.

Good luck.  This rebellion/denial can last years, so please keep that in mind as you work thru your own expectations.

[cmdeans]

I was diagnosed with type 1 when I was 11 and did the same thing for a little while when I was a teenager.  I didn't ever go for a week or a month without testing, but I would often not test at times when I thought my BG would be high.  Sometimes I would forget and other times I had just not been as religious about keeping my BG good.  

I didn't want my parents to see the high BG and then get upset and tell me that I'm not taking care of myself and whatnot.  It's hard enough dealing with the maintenence and the worry of long-term complications without the added stress of accusatory parents.

What my parents did was to check my BG with me every day until I moved out.  It seems a bit extreme, but it worked.  And it only seemed extreme at first.  After a little while, checking my BG with my dad was just a habit and I was used to it.  My dad had to wake up several hours early to do this with me and I hated it at the time, but I'm glad now that he did.  

Obviously, if your kid is at school, you can't do that, but I would make a habit of testing with him every single morning, evening, bedtime, whenever you're home and he needs to test.  Set up a schedule of testing times if he doesn't have one already and do it with him religiously every single day for a very long time - like a year or two or until he moves out.  If you do it for a couple months and then quit, he'll probably just go back to not testing.

Then, the other thing (and this is important) is to not be accusatory when his BG is high.  It will happen and, while it may be his fault, it's just part of life.  Think of it this way:  If his BG is high and he can explain why it's high (maybe he just ate too much candy or whatever), that's a *good* thing because you know what caused the high BG and you can just treat it and everything will be fine.  The time when it's a problem is if you are noticing high BG at the same time every day with no explanation.  

Also, quit reminding him of the long-term complications.  Trust me, he has spent plenty of time thinking of the fact that he may one day go blind or have a foot amputated.  He may be avoiding his diabetes, because it's such a huge, overwhelming, scary thing.  It may help if the diabetes care could be no big deal.

Hope this helps,
Carol

[TonyAlmeida]

He's 17 - there's no excuse.  Tell him what my parents told me when I was getting stubborn.  They said either do what I was supposed to do and live or don't do it and die miserably from the complications.  This new way of life was forever for me, so I'd better get used to it because there was nothing else that I or they or anyone could do.  They told me that the only one I was hurting was myself, so grow up.  They also warned me, that if I continued acting like an immature child and I wound up in the hospital because of my own stupidity, they would not visit me there after dropping me off at the Emergency Room.  I would be on my own.  It was enough to get my head straight.

[luna_azul]

im 13 years old and was diagnosed @ 6. when i was 11 or 12 i went around 3 months without checking my blood sugar, even now. but i learned my lesson ever since i went to decayA.