Hello, my daughter was 6 at diagnosis and went onto a pump only 8 days later so we don’t really know anything else! She has just turned 14 and is pretty clued up on her condition now, and gets very frustrated when other people spout the “you can't eat sweets” rubbish and don’t believe her when she tries to explain that that isn’t true. She still likes me to do some things for her, but just gets on with it when I’m not there, and has been diabetic longer than not now so I don't know if she remembers much from before.
Pumps are great, they are harder work than injections, I seem to spend half my life fiddling with the settings on my daughter's, trying to get her blood sugars as close to perfect as I can. But the extra flexibility they provide is more than worth it, especially for little children who need such tiny doses! I think they get used to wearing them pretty quickly, we just told my daughter that it was her new best friend and she seemed to accept it. At primary school she didn't like talking about her diabetes, or if someone asked her what her pump was. But since transferring to secondary school she seems to have gained confidence, she says she still doesn’t like talking about it, but she seems to do so more easily now and laughs about some of the things people have said about it. She's got some amazing friends now which probably helps (she didn’t go to the same secondary school as her primary school friends).
Good luck to you getting used to it all, it's tough at first but does get easier, honest!
