Background

Type 1 diabetes is a chronically disease that often occurs in early life. In every year around 77.000 children in the world is estimated with type 1 diabetes. When a child gets a chronically disease it affects the whole family, specially the parents who will be the child's caregiver.

Aim

The aim of this study was to describe parents experiences of living with a child with type 1 diabetes.

Method

A literature review was carried trough based on 10 qualitative scientific articles. The articles were analyzed and two main themes and seven subthemes emerged.

Results

All parents experienced that they needed some kind of support particularly early in their illness. They felt it was a big responsibility to take care of their child with diabetes and parents often felt anxiety and fear associated with the disease. Not having constant control over their child the parents experienced as a pain. Increased knowledge and experience contributed the parents to feel security and found it easier to manage their child's illness.

Conclusion

It's normal for parents of children with a chronical illness to experience different emotions such as anxiety, fear, control needs and guilt. Therefore it's important that health care focuses on supporting and educates parents in caring for their child with diabetes.