Working at the Children’s Diabetes Foundation, we talk to T1D patients and their families all day, and it’s amazing how similar some of their stories are. Before they are directly affected by it, most people don’t know what type 1 diabetes really is, what the symptoms are, or how it can really affect a person’s life.

Pre-diagnosis, most parents recognize that there is something physically wrong with their child, but they don’t know what. Sometimes that can lead to a child not being properly diagnosed for a week, a month, a year. When diagnosis is delayed, long-term complications are more likely to occur. Even worse, a child could have a seizure, go into a coma, or die if a diagnosis isn’t made. This is downright frightening.