Discipline.It is the best formula to keep type I diabetes at bay, insulin-dependent, suffering from the 44 children between 9 and 17 years old who participate in the camp for adolescent children with diabetes, coordinated by the Association of Diabetics of the Principality of Asturias(ASDIPAS) and the Central University Hospital of Asturias (HUCA).The goal is none other than educating these young people to make their lives normally."They learn to manage their illness becoming more autonomous," said Andrés García, president of Asdipas.
"It is very important that they learn to prevent late complications with good control and good diet and regular physical activity," emphasized the general director of Public Health, Antonio Molejón, who said that this disease affects about 200 Asturian minors, who debut between4 and 18 years."It is the expected rate, although in recent years there was a slight tendency to increase," he said.
To recreational activities, obligations are added as diabetics.For this they have the help of five endocrine and several nurses."They are taught to control their diet by rations to carry an adequate diet or how blood glucose measurement systems work," he added.A discipline that is easier to instill the smallest than adolescents, since they "reveal themselves against this little slavery," said Edelmiro Menéndez, head of huca endocrinology.
"When they return home, parents often tell us that they arrive changed," says Andrés García.That is precisely the objective of the educational classes and the reinforcements they receive daily during the ten days that the camp lasts, that the kids are more independent in the management of the disease and do not depend so much on their parents."They see that they can do the same as other children" and that the disease is not an impediment to, for example, go on the end of the course with their classmates.
Illán González is one of those teenagers who, these days in Ibias, learns to live with diabetes."The routine gets along, but you end up getting used to it," he acknowledges.For Adrián Moré, the most complicated diet is "not being able to eat a lot of pizza."Together with the rest of the companions, such as Sergio Hernández, they enjoy the camp, which combines fun activities with "other more roll," he confessed.The educational camps for diabetic children and adolescents have been celebrating uninterruptedly for 42 years.