Finding out you have Type I diabetes is tough enough, but for kids, things get especially complicated.
“You have to let kids be kids first,” says Sean Busby, a former Steamboat Springs resident and professional snowboarder now based in central Utah. “A lot of parents make their kids be diabetics first, and that makes it hard for the kid to grow as a person.”
Busby was older when he was diagnosed with Type I diabetes — at age 19, he was already competing, and his first concern was that he wouldn’t be able to continue. But he decided to use his disease and his sport as a way to help others cope with the issues that at first overwhelmed him, in 2004 founding Riding on Insulin, an international nonprofit that offers skiing and snowboarding camps to kids with the disease.
According to the American Diabetes Association, Type 1 diabetes — which results from the body’s failure to produce insulin, the hormone that “unlocks” the cells of the body, allowing glucose to enter and provide fuel — is the second most common chronic disease in children (after asthma), with about 13,000 new cases diagnosed in the United States annually.
“My biggest piece of advice, and it may sound clichéd, is to always check my numbers,” Busby says. “I was already in the prime of my sport, and it’s demanding. By checking my numbers, I knew what my body was doing all the time, and I was able to help my body adapt. It’s the responsible thing to do, and it helps so much.”
Busby points out that a diabetic’s numbers — a reference to the percentage of sugar in the bloodstream — change due to a variety of factors, and while food, stress and exercise are well-known reasons, there are many others. “Even the switch to winter can change your blood sugar,” Busby says. “Altitude, humidity and climate also affect your numbers. If you think of how your metabolism works, you’re trying to take in more air, and there’s an extra load on your body when you’re in those environments, so traveling to places with differences in those will be factors, too.”
These are some of the things that Busby’s camps teach, although not in a sit-down, formal way. It’s why one of Busby’s recommendations for parents who have recently received a diagnosis of diabetes for their child is to seek out diabetes camps for kids as soon as possible.
“One of the hardest things for kids is fitting in, and that’s regardless of whether they have diabetes or not,” Busby says. “So when they do have it, they want to feel as normal as possible, and by normal, I mean like other kids. So putting them in an environment where they can be surrounded by other kids dealing with the same things, and there can be some depression and burnout with dealing with this, that’s huge.”
Busby adds that an added benefit of most camps for kids dealing with a chronic illness is that in addition to being fun and offering kids a support system of their peers, they also provide information on managing the disease in a way that’s more palatable than the clinical setup of a doctor’s office or the “because I said so” way kids hear it from their parents.
“I’m not down on the parents, but we’ve all had them,” he says, laughing. “A good camp can just be a way for kids to learn how to be an advocate for themselves and figure out how to help them take care of themselves and the disease as they grow older.”
“And, hopefully, they’ll make some friends, too,” he adds. “I believe that the next-best medicine besides insulin is support.”
Riding on Insulin, a program that teaches kids ages 7-17 how to manage Type I diabetes through winter sports, will be held April 14 at Breckenridge Resort and Mountain Thunder Lodge. Cost is $115 (equipment rentals are $10). Parents can attend a networking get-together 10-11:30 a.m. For more info and to register, visit .
Kyle Wagner
