World Diabetes Day puts focus on children, teens

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• Keeping active helps manage diabetes
• World Diabetes Day

Almost every day of the week, Serena Harding has something to do.

After school the 12 year old is busy with dance and yoga. And during school time she keeps physically active with gym, basketball and swimming.

What may be surprising is that Harding does all this despite having Type 1 diabetes. Often times, parents of children with Type 1 diabetes, or the children themselves, shy away from a lot of physical activity fearing it would be too difficult to keep their blood sugar level steady.

Nov. 14 is World Diabetes Day, an annual event that hopes to bring more awareness about the disease. With both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes on the rise in children and teens, it's clear that more research needs to be done.

Michael Riddell, an associate professor at the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University, has been researching diabetes for several years. He himself was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as an adolescent and the issue of balancing physical activity and blood sugar levels has interested him ever since.

According to Riddell, a healthy lifestyle, including being active, is crucial to living and living well with diabetes. This summer, Riddell hosted the first-ever Diabetes Youth Sports Camp to help show that children and teens with Type 1 diabetes can have fun being active as long as they were doing so in a safe and monitored environment.

Ani Harding, Serena's mother, said although her daughter's diagnosis was initially a scary time for her family, she still wanted to make sure her daughter continued to be active.

"I was worried she may not want to be physically active anymore because she may worry her sugar level will go low, but now she knows how to manage it," she said.

The exercise, she said, actually helps to keep Serena's diabetes in line because the activity keeps her sugar levels from spiking. But she and her husband Owen closely monitor the situation.

"We don't leave her alone when she has her dance lessons, myself or my husband are always outside," Ani said.

She said if Serena eats well before she is physically active, she will burn it off during the activity and the more active she is, the less insulin she has to take.

"Activity, food and medicine, they all go hand in hand," she said.

Serena said while the adjustments of taking daily insulin shots and closely monitoring what she ate was initially hard on her, things have now gotten easier. She said at first, she was shocked and scared and didn't know how diabetes would impact her life. But after a few months, she decided she was going to face it head on.

"At first I thought I wasn't gong to continue on with my extra-curricular activities, but since I was already registered, I tried it out, the dancing, and I felt fine so I decided to continue," she said.

As time has gone on, Serena said she has adjusted to having diabetes and it doesn't bother her. In terms of her being active, she said she feels good afterwards, but when she feels low, she immediately tests her sugar and always has juice and snacks close by just in case.

Since August, Serena has used the diabetic pump, a cartridge, which contains the insulin and is attached to a plastic tube with a small needle at the end of it so the insulin can pass directly into the bloodstream.

This gives Serena more freedom in her decision making and controlling her sugar levels. Serena said she's happy about the pump because instead of having three needles a day, she has one every three days.

She also has more freedom with her eating.

Serena adds for any kids out there who are afraid to have fun with their extra-curricular activities because they have diabetes, don't let it stop you.

"If you want to do something you should go for it, don't let anything stop you," she said. "It's just a barrier, you have to just jump over it or go around it," she said.

For more information on World Diabetes day, visit www.worlddiabetesday.org