Brooke Shields felt 'helpless' after daughter Rowan, 21, received life-changing diagnosis

Brooke Shields felt ‘helpless’ after daughter Rowan, 21, received life-changing diagnosis

Last updated: 2024/09/01 at 5:08 AM

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Brooke Shields’ daughter Rowan has been open about her Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis, normalizing the condition by posting pictures with her Dexcom patch visible.

But for Brooke, she has now revealed that at the time she was left “feeling helpless” because she had no clue what the future would hold.

“We didn’t know what to do and then she became completely autonomous with it. She was old enough to administer the insulin to herself. And as a 14-year-old, giving yourself shots multiple times a day is a very quick maturation process. She became very competent. She had to grow up quickly,” Brooke has now told People magazine.

Rowan, 21, is now a senior at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, but was diagnosed when she was 14 after she lost a lot of weight “rapidly”.

“Another thing is you’re constantly peeing. And then my eyesight started to go and then I got a really bad toe infection. So these are blaring, red flags for undiagnosed Type 1 diabetes,” she added.

Brooke Shields' daughter Rowan sits at a swim-up bar — Rowan has been normalizing the use of a patch

She admitted that she sometimes wishes she had been diagnosed at a younger age so that she would have never known a life without it, but now, although it is a “24/7 job and I’m never off duty” she has recalibrated her life around it and now it’s “just about managing”.

The Dexcom patch sends readings to a smartphone app, which allows her mom and other close family to also have the readings, something which also gives Brooke peace of mind so she doesn’t have to “bug” Rowan.

What is Type 1 Diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic condition in which the pancreas makes little or no insulin; insulin is a hormone the body uses to allow sugar (also known as glucose) to enter cells to produce energy.

Glucose, the main source of energy for cells that make up muscles and other tissues, is absorbed into the bloodstream with the help of insulin, and when a person’s glucose levels are low, such as when they haven’t eaten in a while, the liver will break down stored glycogen into glucose.

This keeps glucose levels within a typical range.

However, a person with type 1 diabetes has little to no insulin in their system to let glucose into the cells, which causes sugar to build up in the bloodstream and this can lead to life-threatening complications.

Type 1 diabetes has no cure, and treatment is directed toward managing the amount of sugar in the blood using insulin, diet and lifestyle to prevent complications.

Brooke is also mom to 18-year-old Grier, who has entered Wake Forest as a freshman this semester. Grier graduated earlier in the year and paid a deep and sentimental tribute to her mom as she wore the same dress that Brooke wore when she married tennis legend Andre Agassi in 1997.

The dress was a classic summer yellow silk A-line gown, with a square neckline and thick straps, and visible boning on the corset.

Rowan and Grier are Brooke’s daughters with husband, Chris Henchy, a successful television writer and producer.

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