should an 8 year old be expected to inject himself at school

[andrew ferenc]

my 8 year old son as been told by his diabetic nurse that she would like him to start injecting himself at school dinner times this discussion took place without me (father) being involved
i personally feel this is wrong and would be willing to go to school and inject him my self
he does not do his own injections at home
i would welcome your comments on this thankyou

 

[sugarless sue]

My personal opinion is that he should start injecting at home first with your supervision until he is confident enough to do it at school. Injecting at school without familiar mentors around would seem very daunting to me.
This is something he will have to cope with for the rest of his life so a good safe teaching environment to start off with is essential.

 

[hanadr]

Andrew, I agree he should learn to do it himself, but with your support to start with. I've read a load of the DUK stuff and they tell how fast children learn to do this. Perhaps your son might like to join some of the DUK children's activities?
Hana

 

[Shazza]

maybe a good idea to start him doing injections at home then maybe after the xmas holidays he could inject at school, theres prob a school nurse who will keep an eye on him, our DN went into the school a few times to go over everything with the staff.

 

[SophiaW]

My daughter is 8 and I go into school every lunch time to do the injections for her. She can inject herself at home but she's very nervous about doing it and most of the time I do it for her at home. When she does do her own injections at home I am next to her giving her lots of encouragement and support. I don't expect her to take on the responsibility until she is ready to do so, I don't care how old she is or at what age everyone expects her to do it by herself. I think it's a personal thing and when she feels confident and ready then I'll let her do it by herself, until then she has my full support. She has so much else to deal with that I don't see any reason to pressure her to do something that she doesn't feel ready to do. My opinion is that each child will be ready when they feel confident, not because they have reached a certain age. Do what you think is right for you and your child, you're the parent and I think you know your child better than anyone else. Btw, another parent I met at clinic said that their son started doing his own injections when he went to secondary school, until then the parents did the injections for him each lunch time.

 

[bazippy]

In my opinion the quicker the better for self injection. i know everyone is differnt and people need differnt lengths of time. but as i turned diabetic aged 7 i started self injecting after just the second injection now this is probably unusual but what it mean was that when i wanted to do anything i could.from stopping at a friends to going out with grandparents etcetc. i never looked back and feel my early self injections helped me massivly with feeling normal at school and home.
also the other kids thought it was cool rather then weird. they were impressed by what i could do at such a young age rather then dissapearing off in some weird way(the kids will see it kinda like that i reckon).
its pretty cool aged seven when the class all want to watch you do injections and it also meant that they learnt my condition and meant if something bad were to happen in the very least they could inform people of what was wrong with me etcetc.
hope that is some insight into what it felt like for me at that age and like i said we are all differnt but if it was my kid id be hoping they started asap!

 

[leggott]

Hi, I think like other people have said, it is a personal thing. Every child is different and the right time is the one when they are happy and confident in doing it. My daughter is nearly 7 and she is a long way off doing her own injections, however there is another boy at her school (the same age), who has just started to do his own (under supervision). When I've mentioned to her about doing it she gets quite upset so I know now is not the right time. When she does start to show interest, I will then take her lead.

 

[bazippy]

agreed its hard, you cant force it on anyone they will just get upset and rebel and never do it.
the reason i started so young is a doctor did my first one ever and it hurt and i thought i can do it gentler, ive never let my parents do it. infact only 3 people have ever injected me. and even then i dont like it!

 

[suzi]

Hi Andrew,
My son Andrew was diagnosed at the age of 7yrs and it took him 17months to have the confidence to do his own injections , i never put any pressure on him and it was whilst at diabetic camp he chose to do them himself. Its wrong for his nurse not only to tell him he needs to do them himself at school, but not to have discussed it with you first. Its quite acceptable for you to make arrangements with the school and go in and do them for him at lunchtime. All children are different and yours will suprise you one day and do his own, and when that day comes be ready with the hankies, its very emotional and you'll be bursting with pride.
Take care,
Suzi x

 

[andrew ferenc]

thanks for all your views it is reassuring to hear that i am not alone in thinking that this decision
should not be forced upon an 8 year old child
to make matters worse my twin boys do not live with me as I split from their mother over 3 years ago, this decision was taken without any input from myself. The first i heard of it was from my son himself who told me he did not want to inject himself and so i reassured him that he did not have to and that i would go into school to do it myself

 

[Shazza]

if your son isnt ready to do it he shouldnt be expected to, I have an 8yr old an not sure what he,d be like, if you are both not happy with dn you should change, both of you should be happy with someone you can talk to, 3 month and we changed luckily i didnt say a word but sister new i now have someone i can talk to easily

 

[sugar2]

I feel for you! As a parent, I am very protective of my children...but as a child I was very "independent" (OK, I was an awkward little.....) and insisted that my diabetes was not going to make me "special" so did my own injections for the age of 6. The key thing was though, I wanted to,..if someone had forced me, there was no way I would have complied! The other thing to bear in mind, this was the 1980s, where you had the same dose everyday...so in that respect it was easier then.

Again,encourage gentley, at home, when he is the mood, but not push him into doing it. He is going to have to do it some day, but if you are happy to help, then it needent be today.

 

[Patch]

This could get messy - when do you stop going to school and doing it for him? It could get embarrassing the lad if he starts secondary school and still doesn't manage his own diabetes...