I's not just parents who worry!

hanadr

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My daughter is a primary school teacher. Team leader[ :? ] for keystage 1. thus she has responsibility for the welfare of all those children. She's just had a diabetic girl join her charges. A couple of days ago, she invited the local paediatric diabetes clinic nurse in to talk to staff. The general opinion apparently was that this exercise was useless. The staff are being asked to help monitor the child,[with training from the nurse] whose control isn't very good.
My daughter has, been asking me a lot of questions. Of course her dad is a lifelong T1, so she has some understanding.
Anyway today I got a text from her. What should a blood sugar be for the child? Apparently it was 16.2 and had been above 16 since this morning. My daughter was told by the mother that she varies the insulin according to the carbs she's eating.
I advised my daughter to check the child's breath for "nail varnish" smell and if she detects it to call 999. There was no smell and the child seems OK. Still I think a whole morning of Bg over 16 isn't good. The mother is apparently not worried.
I will talk through diabetes and insulin use with my daughter when I see her tomorrow.
However if the nurse and the mother aren't worried about consistently high sugars. what can a teacher do?
 

sunday

Active Member
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30
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
Pump
Your daughter seems to be a good teacher who takes care of "their" children and not thinking only about grades. We need more of those in the world.
But I think there´s not a lot she can do. There are a lot of people who think that high bloodsugar doesn´t matter. We made a mother child cure years ago and the diabetes doctor there told my daughter that it doesn´t matter if the bloodsugar goes up to 25 mmol/l (500mg/dl) for a short time. :evil: You can imagine how difficult it was for me and our doctor here to tell her that this is not the right way to handle her diabetes.
She only can tell the mother about the long-term consequences and show her some books about this. If the nurse tells her it´s o.k. to have this high level the mother would always believe the nurse because she´s the nurse...
There are a lot of good books.
Good luck for your daughter and for the young girl

Vera
 

hale710

Well-Known Member
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2,903
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I obviously hope that no future children of mine have T1, but if they do I hope they have a teacher who cares as much as that!
 

hanadr

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Yes Vera
my daughter was graded "outstanding" in her last assessment. She's a gifted teacher and has her management role as well as her classroom work and her own 2 children. She works in a fairly deprived area and would do anything to benefit a child. As a result most children [and parents!] adore her. This is a pretty good record for a young woman in her 30s
Hana
 

CambridgeLass

Well-Known Member
Messages
148
What should a child's BG be - well we are told it should ideally be between 4-8. But is it always? Such is the nature of diabetes, especially in a growing child. Bearing in mind that 85% of T1 kids don't have ideal control. There are many reasons why it could be 16. The question is whether it's a regular occurrence that could signal ratios need changing. When you start the day on a high number it can take ages to come back down again. I don't think it's the case that the parent or nurse don't care, but its great that your daughter does. Levels can fluctuate a lot in children, as she will see. In any case there should be a care plan in place on what to do.


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hanadr

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Given that children's blood glucose will fluctuate, I'd still prefer to see levels round 5. 16 for half a day is far too high!
Hana
 

jayne15

Well-Known Member
Messages
115
Hi My daughter has a Care plan with actions what to do if Blood Glucose level hits a certain point for example if she spikes the teachers know to give water ect there is also a very good document from DUK which is called something like Managing diabetes in school which is very easy to follow with actions what to do when blood sugars drop or go too high. She could also enlist the support of the school nurse, ours rings me and the school occasionally checking everything is ok.
 
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I think it depends how long they've been diagnosed and what their levels have been. To start with my son's diabetic nurse said "as long as he's below 20". He was in the 30's but no significant keytones when he first came home from hospital and was back at school within 4 days. Then she dropped it to below 15 as a target, now our target is below 10 which most T1's would say is too high but you can't get right down to 7's too quickly as you are more likely to get hypo's.

PS. I'm by no means an expert as my son was only diagnosed at the beginning of April so I'm just guessing based on my very limited experience.