Are you stressed about assembling an Easter Basket for your Type 1 Diabetic? Don’t be, it’s not as difficult as you think.

When our daughter was diagnosed Easter was months away and I had time to g

ather my thoughts concerning her basket. As the fourth of five children, she knew her basket would not match her siblings, but thankfully it was not an issue. It helped she was 13 at the time and old enough to understand the situation. I had a longstanding rule from the moment she was diagnosed: The world will not cater to her needs and, up to a point, neither would I.

Easter morning, as her brothers and sister tore through their baskets, she happily dug through hers to see what was different. Not much as it turned out. Sugar free candy plus ‘emergency’ sweets for those all too often sugar lows satisfied her completely. There was also the yearly package of fun socks, small toys, books, silly putty, goofy erasers and crayons. We seldom had all the baskets perfectly match but rather considered each child’s interest and age. It was no different for our new diabetic.

Today's internet is filled with blogs and articles giving great ideas for diabetic Easter baskets along with other sweet heavy holiday ideas. When our daughter was newly diagnosed in the late 90's the internet was basically new to most people. I heavily relied on the Children With Diabetes website and still recommend it to anyone with a diabetic child.

What would I do different today? Not much, actually, but it would have been nice to have access to the wider sources of information that are so readily available now. We have the ability to search for practically anything we can think of and that’s a great resource for families facing tough decisions.

So don’t stress about Easter candy. There’s a ton of choices and alternatives available to anyone who needs fresh ideas. If you're looking for a starting point here's what we did to take the focus off candy and sweets.

Small dollar bin items like silly putty, new erasers and pencils, crayons or markers

Coloring books

Fun socks or underwear

Books

Stickers or fake tattoos inside the plastic eggs instead of candy

Sidewalk chalk

Flower pot with seeds to grow

Spring themed crafting items

I want to give a final shout out to www.ChildrenWithDiabetes.com There are now many forums, blogs, and discussion boards for parents to share their experiences and gain insights regarding how to raise a diabetic child. But when we were initially faced with this life changing event the only online resource I felt I could rely on was this site. I will forever be grateful to the parents, children, and adult diabetics who taught us so much about living a full, healthy, and happy diabetic life.

#Type1 #Traditions #Easter #Easy