“If you want to bring happiness to the whole world, go home and love your family.”

- Mother Teresa

Home is the most comfortable place for most people. It is a place where you can put all your stress away and relax completely.

Each home is beautifully unique and nurtured with the love of people living in it. A basic foundation of having a secure home is ensuring that you make your home in such a way that all the members of your family are completely safe and comfortable always. To achieve this, the needs of all family members should be kept as a priority.

Diabetes is a long-term medical condition that requires a lot of changes in routine life. Even if one member in your family has diabetes, all efforts should be made to make the home completely friendly for that member to ensure safety and motivation each day.

Here we share 8 simple ways in which you can make your home diabetes-friendly

1. Keep all information handy - People with diabetes have a lot of information that may be needed at any time like the phone numbers of the doctor, nutritionist, or caregiver, medicines and their schedule, or appointment with the doctor or regular checkup dates and other specific information based on their condition. This information should be readily available, and it is important for all family members to be aware of such information.

Some of the ways that can help you to keep all this information handy are:

Write in a notebook that is always accessible and updated routinely. It can be kept over the dining table, over the tv cabinet, on top of the fridge, or any other commonly decided area and every member of the family should be aware of it.
Make small sticky notes and put them on the fridge or any common area.
Keep the medicines properly highlighted and separate from other medicines or items in the fridge.
Note all the information in the phones of all the family members. All members should have important phone numbers added to their contact list for any emergency.
2. Regular blood sugar monitoring - Regular testing of blood sugar levels is important for people with diabetes to keep track of their blood sugar levels.

You can help your family member with diabetes by

Talking to them and motivating them about the importance of regular monitoring.
Learning yourself how to do the test so that you can measure their sugar levels if needed.
Helping them maintain a notebook where they can keep track of their blood sugar levels with time and date.
Ensuring the availability of supplies at home at all times so that blood sugar testing can be done regularly.
3. Managing meals - A major part of diabetes management is having healthy meals, as your food is the major factor that affects your blood sugar levels. People with diabetes mostly have proper diet guidelines advised by the doctor/nutritionist.

You can manage diabetes friendly healthy meals in many ways like:

All members should be informed and aware of the basic food requirements of a person with diabetes (for cases of both high and low blood sugars).
Promote healthy cooking in the family altogether. This will not only help the person with diabetes but will also ensure good health for everyone else. Healthy eating can become a part of the family.
Cook fun healthy recipes together as a great fun activity.
Serve all the food together, and everyone can take a serving from the diabetes friendly food so that the person with diabetes never feels left out.
Avoid getting unhealthy foods that are particularly loved by the person with diabetes so that they do not have to go through a hard time in trying to control their desire.
Always keep some carbohydrate snacks handy for any event of low blood sugars (hypoglycemia).
4. Help with alcohol habit - It is very important to know the limit of intake and the type of alcohol that suits the person with diabetes based on their condition.

For helping your family member, you can

Discuss with the doctor regarding the alcohol intake of the person with diabetes.
Motivate the person to stop taking alcohol as it can affect the blood sugar levels and their overall health also.
Be aware of their permissible alcohol limit as advised by their doctor.
Avoid too much alcohol drinking environment at home as once the person starts drinking, it often gets difficult to limit and stop.
5. Make physical activity an enjoyable routine - Remaining physically active is an important part of keeping blood sugar levels in control. However, at times it may become a tedious task to exercise every day.

You can try some fun activities with your family member with diabetes to keep them active like:

Dancing, swimming, playing some sport of their interest.
Playing with small children.
Doing yoga together.
Going for a walk together.
6. Ensure good sleep - A good quality sleep is important to remain relaxed and to have blood sugar levels in control.

To ensure good quality sleep for your family member with diabetes, you can

Take care of their sleep hygiene.
Fix an approximate time for sleep so that a routine is set.
Maintain a stress-free environment as far as possible as stress can cause blood sugar levels to rise and also difficulty in sleeping.
Ensure no loud noises when the person is sleeping.
Keep the lights in their room dimmed to promote a calm sleeping environment.
7. Prevent injuries and accidents by being safe - A common problem associated with high blood sugar levels is delayed wound healing. In people with diabetic nerve disease (neuropathy), there is a loss of sensation, that makes the person unaware of any injuries or wounds. This may lead to callus, ulcers and other severe infections, especially in the feet.

In a diabetes friendly home, it is important to

Keep the home uncluttered to allow a free area of movement without any unnecessary collisions and injuries.
Ensure there are no toys or objects scattered to avoid injuries.
Maintain cleanliness to ensure proper hygiene as dust may infect any present wounds and make the infection worse.
8. Promote a completely smoke-free environment - Smoke can make it more difficult to maintain blood sugar levels.

If you want your family member with diabetes not to smoke, you can

Support them emotionally and motivate them to stop.
Discuss the harmful effects of smoking and keep reminding them about the same.
Identify the triggering factors for smoking like stress, peer pressure and try to limit these factors as far as possible.
Seek professional help if you feel that the habit is beyond control.