Isn't it amazing that even toddlers can operate computers and cell phones these days? Alex Merriam lives in Pleasanton, Texas. Alex is only two-years-old, but he helped save his dad's life recently. His father, William Merriam, has had type 1 diabetes since he was only four. Last Friday, William's blood sugar got dangerously low and and he fell unconscious in a chair. Alex was the only one in the house with him at the time.

Alex's mom, D'anna, was worried when she kept trying to call her husband. No one answered. In the end, aware that a hypoglycemic episode could have hit William, she had her father try calling too. Eventually, Alex - all of two-years-old, mind you - got the ringing cell phone out of his dad's bag and answered it. He told his grandpa that his dad was "asleep" and then hung up. Kids do the darndest things! The grandfather called back and, yet again, Alex picked up. This time the boy took the phone over to his father and it was clear that dad was not responding at all. Emergency services were alerted and an ambulance arrived not long after that.

After recovering, dad William said "It's nice he doesn't know what's wrong, but knew enough to tell the right person at the right time." Cute story.

Speaking of kids with T1DM, (click here for previous kid-related post) I was just browsing around Amazon's selections of books for parents of type 1 children. There are, of course, a bunch of books on the market. Maybe not quite as many as I'd expected though. (Perhaps T1 parents turn to the web for support these days?) Anyway, there were some clear favorites amongst readers. But be prepared. To get to the good stuff, you will have to sift through tons of Diabetes Cured-Overnight!-style "self-help" manuals.

A current bestseller seems to be The Everything Parent's Guide to Children with Juvenile Diabetes by Moira McCarthy and Jake Kushner. Bonus: it's part of the "Everything Guide" series of books, so it's packed with info, yet reasonably priced. A good buy. Having said that, there are tons of other general guides, like this one by physician Ragnar Hanas and this one by Victoria Peurrung.

I'm intrigued by this one: Growing Up with Diabetes: What Children Want their Parents to Know by Alicia McAuliffe. And here's one that got some very positive customer reviews: Real Life Parenting of Kids With Diabetes by Virginia Nasmyth Loy. I'm noticing a few specialty-topics popping up too. Example? Getting the Most out of Diabetes Camp. This book is all about..., um, diabetes camp. (File this book under "For parents who over-prepare!" LOL) Your kids grown up into teens? Never fear, there are books for parents of big kids too.

Best title, hands down? Janette Kirkham's Don't Put Test Strips in Christmas Stockings: And Other Ideas for Parents of Children with Diabetes. This book was published back in 2002 and it looks a little tougher to get a hold of.

Eight-year-old Sam Murray of Massachusetts has become an official face of type 1 diabetes for the Joslin Diabetes Center. Sam and one other child will appear on billboards throughout his home state. The billboards promote diabetes awareness and that ever-critical (yet never-ending!) task, fundraising.

The ad campaign is a year-long endeavor by Joslin, paid for using $500,000-worth of billboard space donated by ClearChannel. In one of the designs, Sam poses with a glucose monitor in his outstretched hand, a chalkboard in the background, with the slogan "Let's erase diabetes from his future."

Sam Murray was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes only last year. His parents say the diagnosis might have taken longer to secure if not for the fact that another local boy had been diagnosed with the disease not so long before, so Sam's mom and dad were already somewhat familiar with the symptoms.

And, no, he's not shy about taking such a public role: "I thought it would be pretty cool to have my picture all over the place," remarks Sam. Says dad Dan, "Sammy from the get-go has really adapted to this much better than we could have possibly imagined. He's kind of taken on this role as ambassador."

Click here to see a Boston Globe photo of the billboard image.

As Bev observed in a post yesterday, California schools will now be required to ensure that diabetic kids get their medical needs met during school hours. Parents are relieved by the settlement, which was reached between the California Department of Education and two school districts (on one side) and four families with diabetic children, working in conjunction with the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

It's a thorny issue. If you require by law that kids be in school during specified hours, you'd better make darn sure you can meet their needs while they're there. As Michelle Ferry, mom of a seven-year-old boy with diabetes, observed "If I had a child in a wheelchair, they wouldn't expect me to come in and take them out of a wheelchair" as necessary throughout the school day. Michelle, you see, was required to drop everything and come running to the school when her son needed a shot because there was no one at the school willing/qualified/permitted to administer it.

While she has a point, you could also argue that helping a (developmentally normal) child in and out of a wheelchair doesn't require special training. Helping a child monitor and adjust his or her blood sugar level most certainly does. Understandably, school administrators were, and remain, concerned about legal liability. Teachers also have a right to be concerned.

Juice manufacturer Old Orchard Brands is expanding its financial support for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). A press release issued by the company announced intentions to give up to one million dollars in new funding. The company hopes to raise money for the JDRF with its Healthy Balance Challenge, in which twenty cents from each sale of Old Orchard Brands Healthy Balance line of low-sugar fruit juices will be donated to the JDRF.

The JDRF accepted Old Orchard's support last year and, according to Old Orchard, the company has pledged $650,000 worth of cash and product donations through 2009. Money raised through the Healthy Balance Challenge will be in addition to that sum. Arnold Donald, CEO of the JDRF, says partners such as Old Orchard Brands "care deeply about the work we do in researching a cure for type 1 diabetes. They continue to support our organization with innovative retail-driven programs that increase funding for research, and that's a rare and valuable partner to have."

You could also say that every dollar in support for the JDRF equals good publicity and increased sales for Old Orchard. Of course, I would never be so cynical.

While at school, children may need help with the management of their diabetes care programs. I remember those days in elementary school, sitting in the nurses office, dazed and confused, sipping on my little juice box. I don't recall ever checking my sugars while at school. But that was back in the 80s. Nowadays, those who are sanctioned to care for your child's diabetes at school must meet a few mandates. For the record, your principal or local board of education can tell you the diabetes care policies of your school.

A few question you may want to ask are: where they are permitted to test their blood sugar (classroom, gym or cafeteria), where are they permitted to administer injections (are needles allowed anywhere outside of the nurses office), location of storage areas for diabetes supplies, the level of diabetes management the school personnel may administer to your child (may they give injections or prick fingers for blood samples), and the rules regarding disposal of syringes and lancets.

The American Diabetes Association developed guidelines that schools and day care providers should enforce for adequate care for diabetics enrolled in their program. These guidelines include: personnel trained on the symptoms and treatment of hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia (including blood sugar and ketone testing), immediate access to testing supplies, privacy for diabetes management, permission for student to treat hypoglycemia anywhere it occurs, permission to miss school without consequences for required medical appointments, and access to fluids (such as water) when necessary.

A handbook (88 pages) is available for download from the BD Diabetes Learning Center. Parents and school personnel can educate themselves on Helping the Student with Diabetes Succeed. This is a definite A for effort, BD. Gold Star!

Diabetes researchers have for a while been kicking around the idea that Type 1 diabetes might develop following exposure to a virus. Experts in Finland have been looking into this issue and say that a vaccine for Type 1 diabetes is possible, but would probably take years to develop. If the vaccine is successfully developed, they say, it could prevent at least half of all cases of Type 1 diabetes. Wow - can you imagine?

The researchers in question are both Finnish university professors. In anticipation of a breakthrough, they have set themselves up in business as Vactech, and the company is charged with developing said vaccine. Vaccine manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur is also in on the project.

Anyway, here are the nitty gritty facts: one in five Finns face a hereditary risk of developing Type 1 diabetes. This rate is disproportionately high when compared with other populations. Why should this be? Our good experts say that both this hereditary risk and the results of other population-based research indicate that external factors could be the cause of this hereditary risk. It is thought that a common type of viruses, known as enteroviruses, could be to blame because they sometimes seek out and destroy insulin-producing cells. Also, it has been established that children with Type 1 diabetes have been infected with enteroviruses more than other, non-diabetic, kids.

A couple of days ago I reported the story of Camry Colon of Lansing, Michigan. The ten-year-old ran into problems with her school when the principal objected to her self-administering insulin injections at lunchtimes. You will recall it wasn't the shots that were upsetting the principal as much as liability issues. Anyway, the story looks like it's found a happy ending. Lansing Fire Chief Greg Martin found out about the situation and offered to send a paramedic over to the school every day to oversee Camry's injections and to help educate the school's staff. "We do make house calls," says Martin.

Ten-year-old Camry Colon of Lansing, Michigan, was diagnosed with diabetes in January. She now has to self-administer insulin injections every day at lunchtime. Problem is, there's a big problem...and it's her school, not the diabetes! According to an article in the Lansing State Journal, her mom prepared Camry well by taking time off work every day for the first month to go to Camry's school at lunchtimes to supervise. Also worth noting is that mom is a single mother of three. Anyway, after that month, when mom had to be back at work, the school objected to Camry giving herself the injections without mom there. Seems the school principal is uncomfortable having staff supervising the injections and apparently suggested Camry transfer to a different school that has a full-time nurse...even though at this point the poor kid has just a few more months to go at this school. "There were just too many contingencies," the principal's quoted as saying. The latest is the school is now working with Camry and her mom to ensure Camry can stay put, but isn't it sad the mom had to approach her local newspaper claiming discrimination in order to get things moving? Good grief.

When a friend's child is diagnosed with diabetes, I think we all would grapple with exactly how to support them. Our first two instincts -- to deliver a casserole then give them some space -- actually aren't recommended. Instead, here are some great ideas:

• DON'T take over a casserole. It's too hard to verify serving size and carb count. Instead, drop off a low-carb dinner or one clearly marked with nutrition labels. While they've probably been armed with carb counting handbooks, you can also direct them to www.carb-counter.org, a free database listing carb counts for more than 6,000 food and beverage items.
  
• DO offer to help organize the new diabetes medical supplies. You can do this either through clearing out a linen closet or buying your friend a large plastic storage container, binder, dividers, and hole punch for all the information they'll soon be collecting.
  
• DO get your circle of friends together with the parents for an information session. Prepare a sheet and contact names, numbers and instructions for recognizing signs of low blood sugar in your friend's child. A great idea would be to supply each set of parents with sweets like SweetTarts or a can of cake frosting to keep on hand at their homes in case of emergency when your friend's child is playing at their home.
  
• DO consider giving one of the books I listed in this post as a gift for the child and their parents to read together.

More than anything, just provide a compassionate ear. If you're either a parent of a diabetic child or you're a friend of one, what additional tips would you share?