Our 5y old son refuses the injections

My granddaughter was given a Rufus bear, with colourful injection sites sewn on.

 

This actually looks very sensible- maybe if you keep to this, things will normalize after a while

 

I fear the people that are saying ‘just do it!’ don’t have a 5 year old son. I have a son who is 4 and getting him to wash his hair in the bath can cause uncontrollable tears, so image how inserting a needle into you, after previous experiences of pain would go down!
After speaking to my mother, she told me that I was the same and that as soon as I could do it myself it all went away! I was 5 when I started injecting myself.
I’m sure the thought of a 5 year old using a needle may be a bit much, but if if understands it and can control it, that could really help. As I mentioned before, if the needle starts to go in a causes pain, then he can withdraw it and try somewhen else...

 

I was diagnosed at exactly the same age, but luckily my mother splashed out and bought disposable plastic syringes instead of the NHS glass reusable ones that she had been using. I remember being very proud that the hospital did not even get me to practice on oranges first but I was able to go straight to injecting myself. But 8 is very different to 5 in terms of rationality and understanding.

However, back on topic.
@Eddie12 has a point that injecting yourself is less painful, as you can move the needle if you hit a bad spot. Even after 50 years of self injections, I have to look away if a nurse gives me a flu jab or takes blood.
Have you tried using a freestyle libre? Not sure whether this is advisable for young children, but it could cut down the need for finger pricking significantly.

There are usually a few children every year who die of diabetic ketoacidis before they get a diabetic diagnosis and life saving insulin. I sadly suspect that during the COVID crisis this figure will go up. (This is not a criticism of your understandable desire to not traumatise your son, just an observation to try to keep things in perspective.)

I'm afraid I think that @lucylocket61 's friend is right, you can't negotiate on insulin injections, but agree that the rufus bear (supplied by JDRF) might help. They have a phone number, though I don't know whether it'll be manned in these covid times.
https://jdrf.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/

Good luck again. I cannot imagine how awful it must be to nurse a child through the very early years of diabetes. Things really should get better when he is older.

 

Read the @lucylocket61 advice. You're searching for the easiest solution that suits you and your 5 year old, but perhaps not the hardest that suits your son when it's called for if the other plans fall through.

 

My friend I quoted has two type 1 diabetic sons, she said thats what she did with them at that age.

 

@Adrisr, don’t forget to remind yourselves you are doing a great job and it will eventually sort itself ! This is hard enough in normal times never mind the strange world we are living at the moment. Remember to take time for you