When Type 1 Diabetes Meets PDA: Surviving the Impossible Collision

Raising a child who has both Type 1 diabetes and PDA is one of the hardest, loneliest parenting situations there is — because the two pull in opposite directions. T1D demands constant compliance. PDA makes demands feel intolerable. And nothing out there speaks to the collision.

In this episode, Mae and Rowan sit with the honest truth: there is no fix for this. Not because you haven't tried hard enough, but because both are nervous-system conditions with no cure. The relief begins when you stop chasing a mastery that doesn't exist.

They talk through what success actually looks like — going in clear-eyed, staying co-regulated through the storm, and getting your child through safely. And the one real lever you do have: giving your child as much autonomy over how their care happens as you safely can.

If you're living this, you're not failing. Getting through it safely, while staying steady yourself, is the whole job — and you can do that.

When medical care and demand avoidance collide, the approaches that hold are rarely the ones you predicted. Logging what worked and when in LightMap is how you find them.

Sources: PDA Society (UK), JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).