Fight against diabetes ends with sweet success for Emirati children

Emirati children are learning to conquer type-2 diabetes through a healthy lifestyle and community support.

Khaled Alwaled, a 13-year-old living with type-2 diabetes, has added walks and football to his daily routine. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National

When 13-year-old Khaled Alwaled was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes four months ago, his family immediately jumped into action.

The Emirati family changed their diet and embraced a more active lifestyle: Alwaled’s dad now takes him out for a walk every evening, while his 11-year-old brother plays football with him.

“Now we eat salads, fruits, cornflakes, and fresh juices,” says Alwaled, who is hopeful that the lifestyle changes will eventually result in his type-2 diabetes going away. The signs have been good: Alwaled’s blood sugars are now more stable so he no longer needs insulin injections, but tablets.

The way the Alwaleds have confronted diabetes together as a family is exactly what Khaled’s doctor, the consultant paediatric diabetologist Amani Taha Osman, loves to see.

The family attended a Play for Life workshop in Al Ain on Thursday organised by Osman at Al Ain’s Imperial College London Diabetes Centre. The aim of the session was to help bring families of children with type-2 diabetes together and learn how to control symptoms through interactive game and activities.

Osman hopes such events can help take the stigma out of a disease which now affects one in five of the UAE’s population.

“I want children to understand diabetes and treat it in a fun way,” says the Sudanese Osman. “When the community is educated about diabetes, they will support each other and they’ll know what to do when a diabetic has low sugar.” Despite the alarming global rise in diabetes, Osman says most people still believe it will never happen to them. “This is a global epidemic. Previously type-2 used to occur in people aged 40 and above, but now I have patients as young as 10,” she says.

“This happens because of a genetic predisposition, but it is triggered by being overweight and inactive. Diets these days are full of carbs and sugar, and kids are not moving enough. Technology at homes has made it worse.”

Osman’s key message is to incorporate more activities into the life of children. “That can really turn their lives around. Schools are now starting to refer children to me who show signs that they are at risk of type-2 diabetes,” she says. “We call them pre-diabetic. They have physical signs such as darkening of the neck and underarms. At this stage, children can make a U-turn by eating healthily and avoiding foods packed with carbs such as rice which turns into sugar as soon as you eat it.”

Osman warns that children do feel a stigma attached to having diabetes, with some patients are reluctant to admit they have the disease. “It breaks my heart when I hear a child saying, ‘I don’t want to tell the nurse or my friends at school that I have diabetes,’” she says.

“This is where I feel that we really need to support them. We need awareness, and to get people to talk about it.” One of Osman’s type-1 diabetes patients is 16-year-old Alyazia Alrisi. Dr Osman says her young patient likes to treat everything lightly.

“I think its is her coping mechanism. I can’t get her to be serious,” she says. “She follows a healthy diet, but she should not be drinking soda pop – that’s her weakness.”

Alrisi always takes her insulin in private, but recently one of her younger cousins saw her injecting herself. My cousin said: ‘That looks painful, why would anyone do that to themselves?,” Alrisi says.

“I explained that I had to do it to control my sugar, so I don’t become ill. I am educating my cousin about diabetes.”