Starting school in September

[hkk1970]

Hi everyone, Harry is starting full time school in september and to be honest I am dreading it. Can anyone offer any advice on what I should expect school care wise.

We had the parents open evening last night and I am confident in his care in the class room, it is just the how and who is going to administer the insulin. He is on a pump...

The school is waiting for the Diabetes Nurse to call them ,which she should have by now..They have had children with diabetes before but this is the first time they have had someone on a pump which obviously makes me very nervous.

thanks
Helen

 

[Redkite]

Hi Helen,

You need to make yourself the central person coordinating things! Call your DSN yourself and arrange a meeting with her and the school staff who will be involved in your son's care. Don't leave it to the DSN to liaise with the school and leave you out of the loop!

It's a good idea if you haven't already done so to type up a care plan, including a page each on:

* daily schedule of testing, and action to follow depending on BG result
* a step-by-step guide to giving a bolus through the pump
* a clear procedure to follow if a hypo is suspected (school must know he is NOT to be sent off to the office or anywhere else)
* protocols for high BGs

If he will be having a packed lunch, you can include a note of the carb content for the staff. If he will be having school dinners, most county councils will provide you with nutrition information for their menus, and you'd need to have a meeting with the school cook so she is aware of his diabetes and knows he needs standard portion sizes so that you know the carb content.

Will the school give him a tea hing assistant in the classroom to provide 1:1 care when needed? And make sure you ask about lunchtime supervision - very often this is the time of day when the trained 1:1 is having their own break, and the midday staff may not be so clued up. My son was most likely to have a hypo at lunchtime at that age because he'd run around like a madman immediately after his insulin, so it worked very fast! For this reason he would have his insulin after eating his lunch, not before. The midday staff should ideally keep some hypo remedies in their first aid box on the playground.

Also, make sure the school let you know in advance of any planned off-site trips, so you can discuss your son's needs specific to the trip.

It's not always a good thing when a school has had pupils with diabetes before, as in our experience these children have often been on twice-daily regimens and never had a hypo because presumably they were high the whole time. My son has been described as having "severe diabetes" because he is on a pump and actually has to test his BG during the school day would you believe!!! So the moral of the tale is: make sure you get across to them what *your* son needs, irrespective of what they think they already know about diabetes. 🙂

 

[Hanmillmum]

Hi,

Good advice from Redkite

I've pm'd you regarding our personal experience 🙂

 

[HOBIE]

I know its easy to say relax about this but try it in the sixtys ??. I dont know how my parents put up with the stress. No blood tests in them days, no gluco tabs, basic !!! Still hear 🙂🙂🙂 Good luck 😉

 

[Redkite]

I know its easy to say relax about this but try it in the sixtys ??. I dont know how my parents put up with the stress. No blood tests in them days, no gluco tabs, basic !!! Still hear 🙂🙂🙂 Good luck 😉

Yes Hobie your parents must have been anxious, but on the other hand there was much less decision making you had to do for your diabetes in school. Now that we have pumps and MDI it needs a lot more "user input", and obviously a 4 year old can't do all that himself. Though my son's old school seemed to expect him to "take ownership" at the age of 4, but that's another story, and not a good one.....

 

[HOBIE]

REDKITE it is so so much easier to control these days ?? Kids would die in my parents eyes. Have a think what it was like. Now people expect teachers to give injections & know all about T1. 😉

 

[Redkite]

REDKITE it is so so much easier to control these days ?? Kids would die in my parents eyes. Have a think what it was like. Now people expect teachers to give injections & know all about T1. 😉

Sorry Hobie, I wasn't making light of how things used to be, sorry if it came across that way 🙂. It must have been just as awful handing over your child and fearing for their safety. What I meant was that because there weren't the tools (meter, inj pen and pump) that today's kids have, there was less to do in terms of training school staff and negotiating with the school for someone to help with testing/injecting etc. In your day presumably you didn't have to take insulin during the school day, but these days most kids do, and the little ones need *someone* to take this on - schools have limited resources and can't always provide a member of staff willing to help, so in addition to the natural anxiety for parents handing their child over, there is the stress of trying to get the practical side of diabetes management covered too. Although d is easier to control these days as you say, it's only if there is a willing adult able to help the child use their equipment.

 

[HOBIE]

Have you read what some of the old timers had to do. My dad who is very strong used to bend the needles trying to inject me in my arm. Twice the glass syringe exploded trying to get the insulin. Try calming a kid down to get that done again. I call those days "The Pannel Pin Days" (Needles the size of small nales). My skin used to be like buffalow hide (joke). The tech of using different sites was unheard. I know i sound like an old f--- but the kids to day have got an much better time thanks to Drs & Drugs 😎

 

[Redkite]

Sounds horrendous 😱. We were at a talk a while back from a chap who's been type 1 50+ years and he was saying too about boiling up the glass syringes and how his Mum sharpened the needle once a week, so on that day the injection went in fairly easily but by day 6 when it was getting really blunt how much it hurt. We are very lucky these days with our tiny thin disposable needles etc. There may not be a cure yet but at least we've come a long way in terms of better treatments! 🙂

 

[XandersMum]

Hi

Try and get your DSN to do a school visit with you. Mine was brilliant, she trained everyone on treating hypo's, awareness of Type 1 and gave a really good overview on carb counting.

My son takes a packed lunch and has a "communications book", in this I write his insulin requirement for lunch and school write his BG down when he tests at lunch. He has 2 teaching assistants who will oversee his injections and testing (he does it all himself) and one goes with him for offsite visits including swimming etc... I keep a testing kit and insulin pen with sharps box and hypo treatments at school and the school let me know when it needs replenishing.

To be fair, the school has been brilliant as have the teachers and DSN although Xander himself has taken everything in his stride brilliantly.

If you set expectations from the start, with good support, school shouldn't be so stressful (although sometimes it is don't get me wrong !)

Good Luck

Andr