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annikempson - son does not like injections

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A

annikempson

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
My son Tom is 11. He was diagnosed with type 1 two weeks ago and has been absolutely brilliant - he has been doing all the monitoring and injections himself. Then yesterday he said that he 'couldn't do the injection because his arm wouldn't let him', so his dad and I have been doing them. However this has caused him to be very upset (and us as well). Has anyone else experienced this? I am thinking that it is the - denial type emotion that I was expecting earlier. How do we manage it?

Thanks for listening
 
Hi anni, welcome to the forum 🙂 I can't help personally with your question, but I am sure that a few of our lovely parents will be along to share their experiences soon. Where is he injecting, and is he on multiple injections per day (usually 4)? I find that, very occasionally, it stings or I feel a sharp scratch as the needle goes in, but mostly I feel virtually nothing. It may be the needle size too - there are different lengths, so ask your diabetes nurse if you can try some others if he is finding the current ones uncomfortable. Or is it not the pain, but simply the fact that he has to inject?

p.s. I moved this to its own thread in case it got lost amongst the other posts.
 
Hi Anni,

My son was diagnosed four weeks ago today; he's twelve. Most of the time he does his own injections (four a day) but sometimes he just can't.
At the moment I think he lives from day to day - it's all new and some of it he finds fascinating (yeah, he's an odd child! 😉). I don't think it's all sunk in quite yet and if I'm honest I hope it hasn't because it's hard.

I think your son will find his own way in all of this and the best you and any of us who are parents of diabetics can do is to be there, support them and sometimes carry them. If that means we have to do their injections for a while then that's what we do. I'm absolutely sure that he won't always want that - some days my son is fiercely independent and can do it all. Other days he's a scared little boy again.

Good luck.

Heidi
x
 
welcome to the forum anni xx cant help much because im T2 on meds but just wanted to say Hi ....some parents have talked about some cream that you can use but i will leave it to them for the exact advice x
 
Hi Anni ..

My son .. Nathan was diagnosed aged 11 .. just over 3 years ago ... and I honestly wondered how we were going to get through .. as he is/was needle phobic, in a major way ... Initially it took some serious coaxing .. to get him to do them .. but at the time he was DKA .. and I think that played a part in him getting over the fear .. In the early days I did some of the injections for him ... when he flatly refused to or want to acknowledge or accept his condition .. through time though this passed ..

I can understand fully how upsetting it is for you, your hubby and little one .. but things do settle down and become easier ... as you all adjust to the diagnosis.

Have you thought of trying a reward system for little one .. just till his confidence in doing his injections etc rises ... say every day he does them .. he picks something nice to do at the weekend

Heidi
xx:D
 
annikempson said:
My son Tom is 11. He was diagnosed with type 1 two weeks ago and has been absolutely brilliant - he has been doing all the monitoring and injections himself. Then yesterday he said that he 'couldn't do the injection because his arm wouldn't let him', so his dad and I have been doing them. However this has caused him to be very upset (and us as well). Has anyone else experienced this? I am thinking that it is the - denial type emotion that I was expecting earlier. How do we manage it?

Thanks for listening
Click to expand...

Hello Anni,

I was diagnosed when I was five and I didn't like to do my own jabs at first. There come times like that when we just don't want to ram a lump of metal into ourselves. What he needs to understand that the consequences of him not taking the meds are. Don't scare him too much but just let him know it's better. It takes time to get used to it. Even after fourteen years I still wasn't used to jabs. Hence I started on a pump today. He needs to be able, just talk to him. If he wants to talk another diabetic who was young when diagnosed and had it through some rather rough years I can offer you my e-mail, MSN or a phone number.

Hope I can help,

Tom
 
F is 7 and J is 5, so their reactions may be quite different to those of an 11-year-old, but they definitely went through a period of resistance to the injections soon after diagnosis.

When she was first diagnosed, F was so ill that she submitted to the injections passively, then she started doing them herself but after a couple of weeks the novelty wore off and it used to take me a LONG time (sometimes up to an hour and a half with a screaming, sobbing 6-year-old) to get the injection into her. Now she accepts the injections as just something that happens. She still prefers me to do them, but if she knows I'm struggling with the other two kids and making dinner, she will offer to do it herself.

J also had a short time when he resisted the injections - around 2 weeks after diagnosis oddly enough - but it only lasted a day or two with him.

From my experience, they tend to go through phases of "I hate diabetes" and "I don't want to do injections", which is understandable really. I know I'd do exactly the same in their place. :(
 
Hello Anni,
My daughter was diagnosed at age 12 , 2.5 yrs ago now. She was a serious needle phobic, so much so I had to chase her around the house to let me test her BG when I suspected she was diabetic. Then I asked to be present when she had her first injection in hospital ( I was worried they'd do it when I went to the loo or something), and she asked me to give it to her. As I'm a nurse and had pride in the fact I never hurt a patient with a jab, I was happy to do so. Well, she never let me do that again. Apparently, it hurts much less to 'do it yourself'. I cant offer advice on handling your current situation, save to say, if he's been managing well so far, your instinct is correct and he's probably in denial at the moment, and finding the situation difficult. I know in tough times I cope well initially and then it hits a little later.
Hope it all sorts itself out soon, as I'm sure it will. He has fantastic support from you, and that's a really strong foundation for him to go forward.
Gloria
 
Hiya, I've had diabetes 14 years (diagnosed at 8 years old) and am still terribly needlephobic. I utterly hate injections and the thought makes my stomach turn, hence why I am fighting to get an insulin pump. However, I know that its something that has to be done if I want to keep happy and active like I am now.

I like what someone else suggested above, have a reward system. My mum did that for me when I was growing up and it helped me to get over the initial shock of injections.

Good luck and feel free to PM me if you need any advice
 
Thank you so much for all your kind words and advice. We spoke to the diabetes specialist nurse today and she said that she would get Tom something called a 'pen mate' which she thinks might help. I'll let you know how we get on.
thanks again
 
Hi. I can sympathise with you.

My son developed a needle phobia (which led to him now being on a pump). But pre-pump he started using a devise which i cant remember the name of but i imagine it was what your son is about to try. Well, it really helped my son. If it the same thing then it is a device where they dont have to actually push the needle into the skin. Instead they push a button on the device which shoots the needle into the skin then they have to push the top of the device down which puts the insulin in.

As i say, it helped my son, so i wish your son good luck with it. Let us know how he gets on.

I must warn you, it does make a loudish 'clunk' sound but they get used to that. 🙂
 
Tom has now has the Pen Mate and was able to inject himself again yesterday evening. The device is just as Mand described it and it means that Tom doesn't actually have to see the needle.

First hurdle cleared!
 
annikempson said:
Tom has now has the Pen Mate and was able to inject himself again yesterday evening. The device is just as Mand described it and it means that Tom doesn't actually have to see the needle.

First hurdle cleared!
Click to expand...

That's good to hear. Hopefully this'll help get things sorted. Best of luck to you Anni.

Tom
 
Hi Anni

That's good news! Hope it continues to help him. 🙂

Feel free to pm me antyime 🙂
 
Penmates are fab, weve discovered these in the last week or so too, it has totally changed for us; its gone from us having to pin our daughter down, to her sitting as good as gold and she doesnt even flinch or seem to feel the needle go in, maybe because it shoots it in so fast? the not seeing the needle also helps hugely so shes great with her injections now, our son however wont even entertain them hes happy with his Novopen and needle as he has a techniche that he uses where he finds a spot with no nerve endings, as long as hes happy thats all that matters!

Glad you find them usefull too 🙂 x
 
annikempson said:
Tom has now has the Pen Mate and was able to inject himself again yesterday evening. The device is just as Mand described it and it means that Tom doesn't actually have to see the needle.

First hurdle cleared!
Click to expand...

That's great news! I think the sooner he can feel like he has some sort of control over his diabetes (yeah, I know 'control' is probably not the right word) then he'll feel much better about all of it. Certainly that's our experience - Ross is being very mature about making decisions now over what he eats, where he injects and so on.

A child seems to adjust so much quicker than (this) adult.
 
annikempson said:
My son Tom is 11. He was diagnosed with type 1 two weeks ago and has been absolutely brilliant - he has been doing all the monitoring and injections himself. Then yesterday he said that he 'couldn't do the injection because his arm wouldn't let him', so his dad and I have been doing them. However this has caused him to be very upset (and us as well). Has anyone else experienced this? I am thinking that it is the - denial type emotion that I was expecting earlier. How do we manage it?

Thanks for listening
Click to expand...

Did he mean he couldn't do it because it hurt, or he just couldn't bring himself to do it, if that makes sense?
I used to go through phases where I'd get REALLY distressed about doing my injection, and my mum trying to do it only made it worse. My brothers (bless them) used to prick themselves with an empty syringe so I didn't feel 'alone' and it used to help quite a lot x
 
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