You take over control and work to help your child feel as if she can make some changes. You talk to the social worker and get good tips. And yet, burnout keeps rearing its head. What's a family to do?

Punish or Protect?

Punishment is not the answer; protection is. It's tempting to set limits and dole out punishments to try to force your child into compliance. But most children already feel punished by diabetes; adding to that will only push them deeper into their state. However, setting limits with consequences is acceptable.

Let's say your son has been “forgetting” to bolus at morning snack at school every day. It's perfectly acceptable to set limits that have to do with his safety. In this case, you'd give him two choices: no more snack in the morning (if not medically needed), or an additional blood sugar check two hours after the snack so that a correction can be made before he has been high for too long without checking.

It's not okay to take that same situation and say, “You're off the Internet until you remember to bolus for a week.” It is okay to say, “Because you have forgotten to do your lunch blood sugar check three times, you have to go to the school nurse again to do it for the next month.” Agree that after that month, you'll let your child try to win his freedom again.