Newbie Q: who does the injections?

[rh040]

Hi all,

I've had a quick look through the posts and this seems like a good place to ask my question - I hope it's OK.

My son was diagnosed Type 1 last week. He is 8 years old. He is doing great, wasn't hospitalised, levels OK and we are expecting that he will go back to school tomorrow. He is on 4 injections a day (with meals + bedtime).

The thing is that I have been doing all the injections for him. I can see that we are aiming for independence (or at least supervised independence) in the longer term but right now his hand is shaking too much to do anything. I have been given a week off work and have agreed to go up to the school at lunch to do the lunchtime jab. But what happens after that?

At what age do kids start doing their own injections? How can I encourage him to do it him to do it himself?

All advice appreciated

thanks

Rho.

 

[Mand]

Welcome, Rho.

My son was diagnosed age ten and a half and did his own injections from day one. This was his choice. Of course, we watched over him to begin with to ensure he was injecting the correct amount! But it was a good thing because it gave him independance very quickly. He started on two injections a day (nightmare!) and changed to mdi (4+ injections a day) after four months which was so much better for all of us. Now he is on a pump.

I guess what age a child should inject themselves will differ from one child to another because children mature at different speeds. Perhaps your son could start doing his own injections as soon as he feels ready but with you (or a teacher) supervising (ie checking he injections the correct amount). Eventually he will be able to do it alone.

Feel free to ask anything on here. You will find a wealth of support and advice.

🙂

 

[Gemma444]

Hya


My son is also 8 years old. He did his first injection in the hospital with the help of a nurse. When we got home he did one occasional but left it to me and his dad to do them. He is now doing them all himself.

At first we started with my son getting the pen ready and we would hold it together and then do the injection and counting to 6 then I started to let go of the pen when he was counting. Then we moved onto him doing it himself. We went through a stage ofhim doing it fine and then he didn't want to do it. It just takes time. Good luck

Gem x

 

[rh040]

thanks

Thanks Mand and Gem,
Well, I've just dropped Dylan off at school with his test kit, sugar, digestives and a 1 page 'diabetes at a glance' thing I put together. The teachers are sympathetic and kind but not terribly knowledgeable. They didn't expect him to have to have drugs in the middle of the day.
I'm going back at lunchtime to do his injection and maybe that is a good time to start asking him to hold the pen as you suggested Gem. At the moment he is so thin he is only injecting in thigh/bottom. Maybe the thought of having to pull his trousers down in front of the Head will be a kick start to injecting himself!
thanks
Rho

 

[Adrienne]

🙂Hi Rho

Take a look at www.childrenwithdiabetesuk.org It is a website for parents written by parents. You can join an email group and there are so many parents who have been through this and are going through this exact same thing, if you post your same question you will get loads of answers and help.

You do not have to push your son to inject at all. He is only 8. A nurse at Gt Ormond Street hospital once told me that they do not ever make any child under the age of 13 even think about self injecting if they show no signs of wanting to. So don't push it.

There is no law to say the school have to inject but they are under an obligation to make sure your son has the care he needs under the Disability Discrimination Act. They have to ask for volunteers and if none are forthcoming then they have to find someone who is.

You must make it clear this week (sooner rather than later) that you cannot come into school after next week.

Your DSN should have helped you get a whole detailed care plan together. The school need a proper care plan in how to look after your son, there are examples on the website I gave you above and people on the email group (including myself) can send you copies of theirs. This needs to include emergency instructions ie what to do if hypo or hyper, protocol for PE, lunchtimes, break times etc.

You will need to do some training sessions with some of the staff at school. There needs to be designated people who know how to look after your son. Some schools use teachers (which is quite hard as they have a whole class to look after) TA's (most popular choice), office staff, head teacher etc etc.

There should be more than one person in case that person is off ill.

There needs to be protocols on when and how your son is finger tested. ie if he wants to test at his desk then that should be allowed. If he needs a snack that has to be allowed. If he is hypo he should not be moved and the people looking after him come to him not him go to them etc etc.

There are loads of things to think about and I will help you all I can if you want me to. I urge you to join the email group. They will help you immensely. It is a busy group though so I would advise you delete the emails you don't need or join, ask your question and leave and just join when you need a question answered.

I hope that has helped somewhat and not frightened you. Dealing with schools can be hard. The person you need to get on most with and have on your side is the head teacher in primary schools. A head teacher on side makes this whole process so much easier. If the head is not on side then the whole diabetes thing at school is so hard to deal with.

Don't ever be apologetic, always be strong in what you say to the school but polite. For example always say, 'my son needs......' or 'has to have' or 'this has to be followed to the letter for my son's safety'. You can say the words safety lots of times, it works. Also don't soften the blows, tell them like it is and worst case scenarios but without frightening them. Get the on board first but then make it clear that there can be no dallying around when your son is hypo, he needs attention NOW as brain damage can occur or even death etc etc. THey need to be aware of these facts but you can also say it is very rare.

Hope that has helped abit.

 

[Kei]

If he wants you to do the injections, that's fine. My daughter was diagnosed last summer. She's only 6 and she sometimes does the injections herself, but I usually do them. I tend to just let her decide. If she says "Mummy, I'll do the injection today", or "Can Daddy/Nanna/Auntie do my injections this morning" I just go along with it.

Is there a school nurse? She would be the person at my daughter's school who would do the injections if she needed them during the day, but at the moment F is on two injections a day.

Is your DSN going in to the school to educate the staff? Ours went in and taught all the teachers, dinner ladies, etc. about diabetes and how to deal with it. We're lucky that one of F's teachers has a son with type 1 diabetes, so she has also helped educate the other teachers. It has been a big learning curve for the teachers, and there have been some little problems along the way, but they're willing to learn, and they always act on the advice I give them.

Adrienne's advice is fantastic.

Things will gradually get easier to cope with, and your son will soon think of all the injections/testing as normal. We're completely into the routine now, and it's becoming second nature.

Kei
xx

 

[Adrienne]

Hi Kei

Unfortunately in most schools there is no school nurse, they share them. If you have one just for your school you are very lucky. At our last primary school the school nurse had nothing to do with Jessica. She was the nurse for 5 primary schools and a couple of secondary schools !

Our are new primary (well not that new been there 2 years now) the school nurse, actually thinking about it I have no idea who the school nurse is.......... again covers many schools.

Normally some TA's or teacher or office staff would volunteer. There really should be a law about this. It is disgusting there isn't. In the USA they have the 504 paper or law and it protects kids with medical needs.

 

[grahams mum]

hi like Adrienne said you have to make sure that the school can cope with your son in the next few weeks i did go to the school when my graham started reception i stayed for two weeks make sure that all the staff understood everything few emergency calls after that then year 1 another refresh course quick update then the SENCO teacher is in charge and the school is doing a fantastic job remember is not only the injection the problem to deal with also PE ,playtime, outing , swimming ,summer time more tricky ten winter sports day , etc. etc.

 

[Gemma444]

Hya

Has you diabetes nurse been into the school with you and discussed things with the teachers? My son only has 2 injections a day so we have not had to sort this, I hope you manage to get the help you need. Your son doing his own injections will come in time and like the others said, if j wants to do them he does and if he doesn't then we do them, your have to let them have the control. My son only does it in his leg aswell at the moment or i do it in the bottom for him. I know i couldn't inject myself so i think our little ones are really brave!

gem x

 

[rh040]

Thank you all very much for your responses to my question last month. We are now 5 weeks post diagnosis.
School have been trained and I've been going in every day. They will have their assessment and hopefully signoff on Monday. Then I'm only going to go in once a week just to be there so they can ask questions.
Dylan never did want to do his own injections so we (parents & teachers) are doing them all. He sets up the pen and disposes of the needle afterwards. I'm sure he will tell us when he is ready to do the whole thing.
Interestingly, injections got easier once I stopped smiling encouragingly. Dylan interpreted this as if I was enjoying hurting him. This came out in a rage of tears of one day and took me by surprise obviously. Now I have a genuine looks which recognises his bravery.
Rho

 

[jimmysmum]

Hiya,
Our son was diagnosed in November and started doing his own injections in hospital straight away, our dsn helped him, hes on the same regime as your son so also has 4 per day. We have done some injections too in the early days so that we know what were doing and we always offer to do them for our son if he would like us to but hes found a techniche that works, he kind of touches the skin with the needle to find a spot with no nerve endings (he read this in a book) so now he would never want us to do them for him.

With regards to school he does his own in school and one of the office staff checks the 'clocked up' dose and help in any way they can, not that he needs help but he is very 'laid back' so they write his levels in his book otherwise he'd be in the office for ages chatting to them.
Maybe you could ask your son how he feels about doing the injection himself and then try and gauge it from there, im sure he'll do it in his own time. x

 

[Kei]

Interestingly, injections got easier once I stopped smiling encouragingly. Dylan interpreted this as if I was enjoying hurting him. This came out in a rage of tears of one day and took me by surprise obviously. Now I have a genuine looks which recognises his bravery.
Rho

Isn't it amazing how wrong we can get things when we're trying so hard to get them right. I'm glad you got that sorted out and things are getting easier.