Background: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) has become a common occurrence in Sri Lanka and there have been a remarkable escalates in number of children suffering from T1DM. Parents whose children have been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (TIDM) undergo profound psychological distress.

Aim: To get a comprehensive understanding of parents´ experiences of having a child in Sri Lanka aged 0-14 years, with a newly diagnosed T1DM, in order to identify parental needs of support.

Method: Explorative and descriptive design based on an inductive qualitative approach. Seventeen parents were interviewed who visited the Endocrinology clinic at a paediatric Hospital in SriLanka. Data was analysed through manifest and latent content analysis.

Findings: The analysis consisted of one overriding theme “To lose one’s footing and striving to regain one’s balance” and four qualitative main categories of description “life is falling apart, changed life pattern, forced to cope and gaining control”, with respective sub categories, thus illustrating parental experiences of their child being diagnosed as T1DM.

Conclusion: Parents having a child with a newly diagnosed T1DM undergo a Psycho-social transition in which they experienced anxiety, depression, frustration and fear. Family focused nursing will be necessity in order to focus on the family as a unit as the illness of the child affects all members of the family from a system perspective.