{"id":43891,"date":"2016-01-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/dont-call-my-kid-a-diabetic\/"},"modified":"2016-09-13T08:54:25","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T12:54:25","slug":"dont-call-my-kid-a-diabetic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=43891","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Call My Kid A Diabetic"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 2016 version of its annual Standards of Medical Care report<\/a>, the American Diabetes Association made the following change: \u201cIn alignment with the ADA\u2019s position that diabetes does not define people, the word \u2018diabetic\u2019 will no longer be used when referring to individuals with diabetes\u2026 The ADA will continue to use the term \u2018diabetic\u2019 as an adjective for complications related to diabetes (e.g., diabetic retinopathy).\u201d<\/p>\n

The ADA\u2019s announcement got me thinking. Since my nine year old daughter, Bisi, was diagnosed three and a half years ago, I\u2019ve never referred to her as diabetic, and I don\u2019t like it when others do either. \u00a0But I hadn\u2019t stopped to examine why, or to think about whether this was just personal preference, or part of a larger aversion that others shared.<\/p>\n

What is it that I don\u2019t like? Along the same lines as the ADA\u2019s statement, saying Bisi is diabetic makes it sound like that\u2019s the thing that defines her, like that\u2019s who she is. For this same reason, I think, you\u2019d never say, \u201cI am cancerous.\u201d And you\u2019re less likely to say I\u2019m asthmatic or I\u2019m hypertensive than I have asthma or high blood pressure. (I should add, though, that Bisi says she doesn\u2019t care if people call her diabetic. So I guess that\u2019s another question for myself: why does it bother me if it doesn\u2019t bother her?)<\/p>\n

The thing is, type 1 diabetes is a disease that will<\/em> define you if you let it, because its long reach affects every aspect of your life\u2014eating, sleeping, walking, thinking, feeling.<\/p>\n

Not too long ago, Bisi and I dropped off a JDRF \u201cbag of hope\u201d for a little girl, only a year and a half, who had been diagnosed with type 1. As we talked, Bisi told the mother all the activities she does\u2014gymnastics, acting, lacrosse, soccer, piano, skiing, slumber parties, and more. The mother told me how good this was to hear, and I realized that she feared her daughter wouldn\u2019t be able to have a normal life where she got to do all the things kids do. I\u2019d never thought about it that way before\u2014it never occurred to us to let diabetes stop Bisi from anything she wanted to do, and it wouldn\u2019t occur to Bisi either. But in this way of thinking, each activity is a small victory over the disease, a way of saying that the disease is not what defines you.<\/p>\n

Along these same lines, just last night Bisi picked up a mailing from JDRF saying, \u201cTell us what type<\/strong> you are,\u201d with 42 fill-in-the blanks. She quickly filled it out, and then proudly read me the results. I\u2019ll quote it in full here, because I loved what she wrote. It made it clear that while diabetes is necessarily a pretty big part of her life, in her own mind there are so many other things that define her.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the awesome<\/em> type; I\u2019m the skiing<\/em> type; I\u2019m the cool<\/em> type; I\u2019m the animal<\/em> type; I\u2019m the funny<\/em> type; I\u2019m the 4th<\/sup> grade<\/em> type; I\u2019m the ?<\/em> type; I\u2019m the best<\/em> type; I\u2019m the food<\/em> type; I\u2019m the weirdo<\/em> type; I\u2019m the sports<\/em> type; I\u2019m the fun<\/em> type; I\u2019m the kind<\/em> type; I\u2019m the acting<\/em> type; I\u2019m the jiberish<\/em> type; I\u2019m the Omnipod<\/em> type; I\u2019m the CGM<\/em> type; I\u2019m the swimming<\/em> type; I\u2019m the dog<\/em> type; I\u2019m the horse<\/em> type; I\u2019m the turtle<\/em> type; I\u2019m the dolphin<\/em> type; I\u2019m the singing<\/em> type; I\u2019m the cooking<\/em> type; I\u2019m the friends<\/em> type; I\u2019m the Cinny<\/em> [our dog] type; I\u2019m the Hope<\/em> [her fish] type; I\u2019m the fish<\/em> type; I\u2019m the hugging<\/em> type; I\u2019m the snuggling<\/em> type; I\u2019m the loving<\/em> type; I\u2019m the creative<\/em> type; I\u2019m the original<\/em> type; I\u2019m the candy<\/em> type; I\u2019m the I hate Donald Trump<\/em> type; I\u2019m the chillaxing<\/em> type; I\u2019m the art<\/em> type; I\u2019m the reading<\/em> type; I\u2019m the elephant<\/em> type; I\u2019m the 1<\/em> type; I\u2019m the Bisi<\/em> type.<\/p>\n

So no, don\u2019t call Bisi diabetic. But if you want to say she\u2019s a funny, creative, loving girl who loves animals and sports and also has diabetes, that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn alignment with the ADA\u2019s position that diabetes does not define people, the word \u2018diabetic\u2019 will no longer be used when referring to individuals with diabetes\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":43892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1429,1430],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDon\u2019t Call My Kid A Diabetic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cIn alignment with the ADA\u2019s position that diabetes does not define people, the word \u2018diabetic\u2019 will no longer be used when referring to individuals with diabetes\u2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=43891\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katie Bacon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=43891\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=43891\",\"name\":\"Don\u2019t Call My Kid A Diabetic\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=43891#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=43891#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Diabetic-Noapersonwithdiabetes-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-21T05:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-13T12:54:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/d9db494b4a0cbf28744f6c4a9c73329e\"},\"description\":\"\u201cIn alignment with the ADA\u2019s position that diabetes does not define people, the word \u2018diabetic\u2019 will no longer be used when referring to individuals with diabetes\u2026\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=43891#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=43891\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=43891#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Diabetic-Noapersonwithdiabetes-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Diabetic-Noapersonwithdiabetes-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Don't call my kid a diabetic\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=43891#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Don\u2019t Call My Kid A Diabetic\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/\",\"name\":\"ASweetLife\",\"description\":\"The Diabetes Magazine\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/d9db494b4a0cbf28744f6c4a9c73329e\",\"name\":\"Katie Bacon\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cc124bd5d3d2d03be80239ba09df7cc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cc124bd5d3d2d03be80239ba09df7cc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Katie Bacon\"},\"description\":\"Katie Bacon is a writer and editor based in Boston. 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