telling little by little

how young is too young to know about diabetes? 

how young is too young to be able to give vital information in an emergency?

how young is too young to be able to use a meter on another person so they can get the correct treatment?

i have a 5yr old sister who i spend a lot of time with alone. over the last year i have been drip feeding her information about diabetes, about how to use my meter, about what to give me if i start being shaky or dizzy...... maybe its wrong to put a burden like that on someone so young? but her knowing things like that means that IF something happens, i know that i will be ok. i will get the treatment i need. 

at first it was little things, it was 'If I look like I'm sleeping and wont wake up you need to tell a grown up.....' which then moved to, 'if i look like I'm sleeping you need to tell someone i have diabetes....' she also can test my blood sugar levels for me. this isn't actually something i taught her, but something she has picked up when watching me do it to myself. first she used to just talk it through to me while i did it, but now, sometimes i let her do it..... its a game, she loves watching the numbers appear and reading them to me (she even asks me to test her sometimes)..... although the levels have absolutely no meaning to her yet, its a step in the right direction.... 

then over the last few months I've started telling her about how to dial 999 in an emergency. i think that its actually quite important not only if something happens to me, but if something happens anywhere with anyone.... i consider that a life skill, and she will learn it eventually, maybe shes just learnt it earlier than most.

thing is, at 5yrs its all just a game, its a bit of fun, nothing hugely serious. i don't feel that I've done the wrong thing in telling her and i just hope that she wont need to use the things I've taught her. but it might happen. that's the thing with diabetes, there are a lot of 'what if's' and because of that, i know that because i have taught her, I'm safe. i know that she will look out for me if the worst was to happen.