Two Best Friends Help Each Other With Diabetes

Diabetes is on the rise in young children. For those who have this life threatening disease.... the challenges are many. Dr. Bruce Hensel reported that two little girls are overcoming it by leaning on each other.

In type 1 diabetes, the body no longer makes insulin. Every day is a struggle to control blood glucose. This can very taxing on anybody, especially young kids. But these two girls have found a way to make it better.

They have a special friendship. 7-year-old Brayden Koff and Quinn Rohrbach are inseparable. They dance together, do hula hoops together; And, they have type 1 diabetes together. They met in kindergarten, when they both had to check their blood sugar at school every three hours.

"We both know what we're going through, and we know what we can both do together and we can do it together," Quinn said.

"Brayden wasn't poking her own fingers, but quinn was, so it helped brayden to be able to do her own," Quinn's mother, Polly Rohrbach said. Their parents... worried constantly that they will go into life threatening seizures... say it's a blessing that they have found support in each other.

And when Quinn got an omnipod... an insulin pump that works by remote control... and eliminates the need for needles.... Brayden had to get one too.

"She would be watching quinn on the omnipod and all of sudden she became aware that through the use of the pod she could elminate those daily injections," Ricky Koff, Braydon's father, said.

In the process, these little girls have brought two families together... This year, the Rohrbach's and the Koff's are spending Thanksgiving with each other.

"The families have just bonded together. So it's just like this little thing that we have created just because these two little girls found each other," mother Heather Koff said.

"The omnipod is just one type of insulin pump -- there are a number of others on the market. and puimps are not the answer for every kid or adult; there are different insulins as well. ask your doctor what's right for you. Braydon and Quinn recently participated in the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk for a Cure," Dr. Hensel said.