Dad Life with Diabetes

^{Omnipod® Ambassador, David Van der Vloet, shares their experience taking on fatherhood while living with a type 1 diabetes diagnosis and how his daughters are sharing what they’ve learned about life with diabetes... Read on for more...}

^{*David has been paid a fee to create this content}

As a father of two young daughters, life is anything but quiet. Add in a demanding job and semi-professional racing ambitions, and things get even more intense. Between work, training, volunteering, and ferrying the girls to school and their activities, diabetes sometimes slips into the background.

Still, it’s always there. Some days, my glucose levels throw me off — too high or too low — and I retreat to the bedroom to reset. I try not to be around the girls during those moments. I don’t want them to experience my glucose level-related grumpiness. I also never leave the house without sweets in my pocket. Of course, they know that, and they’re usually pretty persuasive when it comes to sharing. Let’s just say I restock often.

Thankfully, now that my continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and Omnipod 5 System communicate with each other, my diabetes management feels more intuitive. I can glance at my CGM data on my watch, and with the Omnipod 5 insulin pump, I often don’t even need to intervene — it just works in the background. It’s amazing how much that kind of tech improves your sleep, your training, and just your ability to keep up with dad life.

This automation gives me peace of mind. Sometimes diabetes feels so small it’s nearly invisible. My daughters rarely see me doing anything diabetes related. They know about pump and CGM changes, of course, but I usually do those in the evenings when they’re asleep. And I’m lucky that bad highs or lows are rare these days.

But kids are more observant than we think.

Diabetes Education Matters

A few weeks ago, my eldest daughter Laura (9) had a school assignment to present an invention that changed the world. That evening she came up to me and said, “Daddy, I want to talk about insulin, because that’s saving your life. So it’s changed the world. Can you tell me more about it?”

Of course, I was thrilled to help. It turned into a great conversation — a chance to talk about what type 1 diabetes is, and what insulin really does. We went over the basics of how glucose works in the body, how diabetes used to be incurable, and the incredible story of Dr. Frederick Banting - groundbreaking research led to the isolation and purification of insulin, he and his colleagues revolutionised diabetes treatment, saving countless lives. I realized how much I enjoyed that moment, and honestly, I wondered why we hadn’t had that talk sooner.

Research for a Better Future

My daughters have actually been part of my diabetes journey from early on. Both were screened for antibodies at birth through a hospital research program, and we’ve kept up annual checks. When tests showed that my younger daughter had a higher risk of developing diabetes, we enrolled her in a clinical trial looking at ways to delay or prevent its onset. 

It felt meaningful to contribute to research in that way.

Watching them get their blood drawn took me back to my own childhood diagnosis and the long hospital stay that followed. Back then, I had to inject insulin with syringes twice a day and plan meals hours in advance. I remember the awful night-time hypos — waking up ravenous, raiding the cupboards, and then watching my sugars skyrocket. It was rough. And of course, being a parent now, I can’t help but hope they never have to go through the same thing.

But if they did, I know things are different today. The technology is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was when I was a kid. If they were ever diagnosed, they’d have access to tools like hybrid closed loop systems and real-time glucose monitoring — and that thought gives me some comfort.

But I’m getting ahead of myself — I haven’t even told you how the presentation went.

A Proud Dad Moment

Laura came home beaming. Her classmates were really engaged, asked lots of questions, and loved seeing the insulin vial and sample pump I’d given her to show. They passed them around, curious and wide-eyed.

So, I had a lot to be proud of. My daughter gave a fantastic presentation, and in doing so, helped a whole class of kids understand a bit more about type 1 diabetes. Maybe next time they see someone wearing a pump or checking their CGM, they’ll think twice — and understand a little more.

That felt like a perfect dad moment. One for the memory books.