In the summer of 2011 Lilly Diabetes and Disney partnered up to introduced a new character named Coco. Coco is a monkey (see below) and she has type I diabetes. Coco's backpack holds her D-Supplies, she wears an ID bracelet, hangs out, plays and checks her blood glucose while attending Goofy's birthday party. Arden really enjoyed seeing a character in a book that was so closely modelled after herself, sans the monkey thing of course.
Coco
This year Lilly introduced four new books that are written for the tween in your life. Allie is a soccer player, Justin the captain of his basketball team, Tim plays corner for his high school football team and Oliver is a friend of Hannah Montana. Each book is centered on a person with diabetes and the situations that type I brings to their lives.
They also introduced a cookbook called 'Dishing It Up Disney Style'. The book calls itself a "cookbook for families with type I diabetes". The recipes are not ultra low carb and the ones that we've made so far have been very flavorful. The book considers itself diabetes friendly because each recipe comes complete with an accurate carb count to help make insulin calculations easier. The goal of the cookbook is to offer meals that your kids will actually like while keeping the carbs per serving at a manageable level. I find this idea attractive as many 'diabetes friendly' recipes can often taste like wet cardboard.
I was given each of these books at the recent Lilly Blogger Summit. The books are sadly not available online or even in bookstores. The only way to currently get them is by asking your endocrinologist. Your doc has access to these books through their Lilly rep, they are free to the doctor and free to you. I know this isn't the greatest delivery system, time will tell if they are able to find other avenues to get these books into your hands. For now you'll have to ask your doc if you're interested.
Titles:
Up for the Challenge
Power Forward
Running Interference
Uptight (Oliver's All Right)
Coco and Goofy's Goofy Day
Dishing it up Disney Style
Disclosure: I attended an event hosted by Lilly Diabetes, who paid for my airfare, travel, hotel and meals while I was in Indianapolis.