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Challenging behaviour/skipping meals?

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Niniel

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent of person with diabetes
Hi everyone,

my daughter is ten and was diagnosed back in September. It's been a huge adjustment for us all but for the most part she seems to be coping very well with it. The mix of pre-teen hormones and diabetes can make life quite difficult at times though. She has her transfer test for secondary school this weekend and this has caused quite a lot of challenging behaviour. She's avoiding doing her practise tests, faking illness to try and get out of school.

This morning the school called me because her blood glucose was quite high and climbing. I went to the school and checked her ketones and all was fine, her BG was starting to drop again too, so I just told her to drink plenty and went home again. When I got home I found her uneaten breakfast in the bin.

I'm honestly wondering if maybe she dumped her breakfast and then maybe took some of the jelly babies out of her bag or something in an attempt to get home from school.

Does anyone have any experience of things like this? I'm not sure what to say to her, she's on NovoMix 30 so it's very important that she eats her carbs in the right amount/right time. Maybe she just didn't fancy breakfast but I'm not sure how to talk to her about this, because I don't want to put the idea into her head of skipping food to get attention if that's not what she was doing.

Help!

Thanks (sorry for the essay!)
 
Sounds pretty normal to me... your daughter simply has an added weapon in her arsenal compared to non-D kids! Sorry to say it's just a phase, but she really will grow out of it. Meantime, some kids respond to quiet chats, and others don't. Good luck! 🙂
 
Hiya,
sounds as if there is a problem in more ways than one :(
Exams and tests will make her blood sugars run high anyway so that could be the cause of the high. What was her blood sugar before breakfast?
As only diagnosed in Sept her numbers will be all over the place as well. It's called the honeymoon period this is when the pancreas splutters along with sudden bursts of insulin and then big drops. So not a happy time all round for your daughter.
I would also suspect it has hit her well and good this is for life as well.
Jelly B's for hypos in a child would ring alarm bells for me. This is due to the child carrying that temptation around in her bag and having to resist eating them. Very hard for a child I would have thought. ( I know I would have scoffed them if I liked them)
So perhaps change them over to glucose tablets instead 🙂
Also consider changing her over to MDI which means she isn't having to force feed on insulin.
IE if she doesn't want to eat fair do's she doesn't.
How good are her hospital team?
Perhaps give them a ring as well and just say help how do we deal with this.
 
If this does turn out to be attention seeking behaviour, the best way to handle it may be (at least at first) to give it as little attention as possible. Easier said than done of course. Maybe have a chat at a calm time (when she's not doing the attention seeking behaviour) about what happened and how she was feeling at the time, consequences etc.
I wonder if in the long run a change to MDI would be good for your daughter. That way she can eat what she likes and dose accordingly, rather than having to eat to her insulin. She would be in charge of her food that way. If she feels more in control, it might help her rise to the challenge of growing up and making more of her own decisions?
Best wishes
Catherine (mum to William, 15, on MDI)
 
Welcome to this forum, Niniel.

As well as the expertise of people who survived to adulthood, after having type 1 diabetes through teenage years, plus parents, many people have also found Children With Diabetes website / email list useful - see http://www.childrenwithdiabetesuk.org/

Sounds like school is being good and communicative, so the next stage is to discuss with diabetes team, and, as others have said, consider MDI / basal bolus insulin, which would mean she could miss an occasional meal and a dose, or have extra, if she wanted.
 
Some people cant belive me when i say that i adore to "MISS" a meal. When growing up i was on a fixed diet/inuslin set up. When i came on 4 injections a day i used to love not having 1.injections 2. a meal. Things are a lot better these days but i can half understand what is happening. Good luck 🙂
 
Hiya,

Just wanted to add (from the perspective of life with D since infancy), that you need to be really, really careful about assuming your daughter is deliberately manipulating things - D can be a total pig & the last thing you need when you're feeling grim through no fault of your own is someone accusing you of 'getting it wrong deliberately'...it can just feel like a kick when you're down & can damage your relationship. Maybe just a casual inquiry as to why she didn't want her breakfast the other day but try & keep it calm.

As has been said, stress plays havoc with levels too... :(

Mdi will offer so much more flex- whether dealing with exercise, stress, not wanting to eat etc. I totally agree with Hobie - I used to HATE the fixed meal / snack / injection times with 2 jabs, plus going hypo after PE, etc etc ...felt like I had to stuff my face all the time & 30 odd yrs later after 15 or so years off that regime I still feel like I have some kind of carb addition habit to kick! 😱

Best of luck! X
 
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