AS Christmas decorations go up across the country and people begin to be full of Christmas cheer, some of your readers who have diabetes will realise that Christmas is not as straight-forward as they would like it to be. At Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust (IDDT) we recognise that for both adults and children, Christmas is often a lazy time of indulgence and over-eating. For most people these things are fine and simply lead to putting on a few pounds.

But for someone with diabetes Christmas is a time of temptation, unpredictable or delayed meals, extra nibbles, excitement and stress, all of which can lead to varying blood sugars. We know that Christmas can be a difficult time, especially the first Christmas with diabetes. People often worry about special’diabetic’ recipes but these are not essential, so we have compiled a fact sheet of tips and information that will help to make Christmas a bit easier.

We are happy to send this information free of charge to any of your readers to help them over Christmas. For this information, please contact IDDT on 01604 622837 or email bev@iddtinternational.org We do hope you will let your readers know how we can help.

BEV FREEMAN, Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust (IDDT), Northampton.