Starting fulltime school with type 1

[lou44]

Hi. I have a 5 year old daughter with type 1 diabetes which at first was steroid induced because was diagnosed with leukaemia in June 2015. She now has a pump which she has been on since last may & it has been a God send . Anyway to cut a long story short she finished her treatment for leukaemia in Aug this year & they were hoping the diabetes would disappear but it's not looking that way so will be starting school full time in a weeks time & just wondered how other parents went on with sending there kids to school..pump use & carb counting etc . Thanks

 

[himtoo]

Hi there @lou44

I would ring the school -- ask to speak to the Headmistress , and inform them of your daughter and her condition.
they should invite you in for a meeting.
this will set in motion an action plan , training for staff , and a care plan for looking after your daughter in school.

My wife is an infant school teacher and they do come across this scenario ( thankfully not very often )

and.....huge hugs for you and your daughter -- not an easy start for your child.
[[[[[hugs]]]]]

 

[bobcurly]

Are you based in the uk? The diabetic community nurse went in to train the staff at school on my daughters pump. The dietician attached to the hospital gave us a sheet of carb values of the school meals and i carb count her packed lunches

 

[leahkian]

As the two posts above have given you good advice, does your daughter know when her BS is low as if she does this is a great help as she will be able to tell the teacher and then they can sort the hypo out. The more information you can give the school the better. I think in the last few years awareness of diabetes has improved to what it was but this is still your child and you want to know that the teacher are ready if anything happens. I agree that packed lunches will be best for carb counting but also remember she may be doing more exercise than she did before and you may have to make changes to her insulin or maybe a biscuit or two before she does PE but as long as she has glucose tablets or something similar. You may find the first few weeks a bit tough due to the change is routine but as long as you write all the BS down you should see a pattern of where she may need a slight adjustment to her insulin. There will be a lot of children who will notice the pump but i think diabetes has got that big that most children will know someone who has it. One last thing is in some schools they do not let the children to go to the toilet and i would ask that she be allowed to go as diabetics need the toilet more than others do but good luck and i hope she enjoys school.