REDFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — She may be small, but her voice is powerful. 4-year-old Skye Blue was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes before she even started preschool.
Watch Meghan Daniels' full story in the video below
Now, she's one of the youngest delegates at this year's Children's Congress in Washington, D.C.
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"You hate to see your child hurting and you know you're like, come here, let me prick your finger every couple of hours. I just, you know, I just didn't. It was to save her life, but also it hurts," Skye's mom Shanna Blue said.
About one in every 350 kids in the United States will develop Type 1 diabetes. For 4-year-old Skye, that statistic is now her reality.
"Can you tell me a little bit about what you have on your arms?" I asked.
"My insulin pump," Skye explained.
Watch our extended interview with Shanna and Skye in the video below
Her mom tells me Type 1 diabetes isn't something that runs in their family, so when Skye started acting unlike herself after Thanksgiving two years ago, they had no idea what was wrong.
"Thanksgiving, she really didn't eat much, but that night she started requesting water, waking up, requesting water, drinking a lot of water in the middle of the night," Shanna said.
When they took her to get some answers, the situation quickly became serious.
"They did a urine test, the nurse didn't say much. She came back in and pricked her finger. Her finger prick came back at 480," Shanna said.
Shanna says it was a shock for the whole family and completely changed the course of her family's life.
"A drastic change and it's a quick and fast change that you have to get on board immediately or you know it's your child's life, so it's, you know, do or die basically at that point," she said.
She says that moment marked the beginning of their journey - learning how to manage Skye's diabetes now, so they can guide her through it as she grows.
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"Learning about Type 1 diabetes, learning how to give her insulin, how to count her carbs, and it was just a family change instantly," Shanna said.
That was just the beginning of the changes the Blue family would go through.
"We became a little bit isolated, I guess in the beginning, from our family because no one was used to it, you know, everyone was scared to give her insulin," she said.
All of this led Skye and her mom to Capitol Hill to share Skye's story in support of the Special Diabetes Program, making her the youngest delegate to represent the state of Michigan.
"We want that funding to continue so we can, so you know, manufacturers like Omnipod can continue to make advancements in their pumps and you know Dexcoms in their monitors," Shanna said.
The hope is that one day, no other family will have to go through what the Blues have to manage Type 1 diabetes.
"It hurts to see sometimes her childhood on pause," Shanna said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
