8 year old daugher has diabetes

wada

Dose anyone out there have a child with diabetes or know of a child with diabetes. My daugher was told she was a diabetic in feb 2007 she was 7.5 years old. she was going in to a coma when we found out. she is now acting up and is a very sad and angry shild because of it. Can anyone relate to that?

January

We have a Long Term Illness forum where some of the people who post there have diabetes.

They may be able to give you a better insight into this than we would.

It's in Science>Long Term Illnesses.

Victor

My niece was diagnosed aged 6. She was a contrary one anyway.

I think anyone who is on a long-term, enforced, medical regime is likely to have resentment issues, so I suggest having a word with your GP, other medical professionals and even teacher might be an idea.

What does she say herself?

wada

Im on the long term ilness forum as well - she is waiting for an appointment to see a pychologist, whenever that gets done- school last year made matters worse we were told she would be excluded if she didnt change classrooms because there was 2 sna's in her class and none in the other and they wanted her sna to help with the other class.

we got in touch with the hse person who deceides on sna's and they said she could have a shared one which means that she could stay in the same class, so we agreed to that. changing classes was not an option she has friend as if the ilness hasnt already changed her life enough.

bored and tired

wada wrote: »

we got in touch with the hse person who deceides on sna's and they said she could have a shared one which means that she could stay in the same class, so we agreed to that. changing classes was not an option she has friend as if the ilness hasnt already changed her life enough.

That makes me so angry, your child was in need of an sna and your child and everyone elses shouldnt be made to suffer because of hse and dept of health cut backs, If your school needed and was approved another sna, it should have been provided instead of forcing you and the school to make do.

I hope this year goes a bit better for you, and that as she gets older she learns to live with diabetes instead of resenting it,

out of curiosity does your school have a healthy eating policy or food dudes programme, and would it make things easier for your little girl if she didnt feel like she was missing out on lunch time treats??

lostinnappies

wada wrote: »

Dose anyone out there have a child with diabetes or know of a child with diabetes. My daugher was told she was a diabetic in feb 2007 she was 7.5 years old. she was going in to a coma when we found out. she is now acting up and is a very sad and angry shild because of it. Can anyone relate to that?

I dont have a child with diabeties but i had gestational diabeties during both my pregnacies and just wanted to let you know that she is probably sad and acting up because .... well ... none of her peirs have it so why should she. Find a support group for her, of the same age and perhaps when she finds a friend she can talk to and hang out with that has this same problem it wont be so bad. If no one can eat chocolate etc around her then she wont feel so bad, thats not to say she wont have friends in school who will be thoughtless but so long as she has one friend she can relate to then she should be able to cope with it better.... im rambeling sorry.

wada

The school has a healthy eating policy. but even though diabetics need to eat healthy an apple would drive her sugars higher than a small pack of taytoes. she is a fussy eater and its hard to feed her at school she like jam and chocolate spread sandwiches the school wont allow them( i just give her extra insulin to cover the extra sugar(carbs)). they do however give out sweets as treats and rewards depending on blood sugars if she is allowed one. ive told them they can send them home and i would give her the sweets when blood sugar allows but they dont (this year different teacher)

also we have to provide the school with a moblie phone with credit so they can phone us her blood sugar readings and ask for insulin dosage they will not phone from school phone. (what a load of S**t)

wada

we live out in the sticks so its hard finding another child nearby who has it there are only 2000 children in ireland under 16 that have it and 230 in limerick, tipp and clare - (im clare), we did meet one 6 year old who live bout 20 miles away but things to difficult to meet up - (my husband to be had cancer in dec and finished chemo in april) and two spogs ( 3 years and 18 months) getting married tomorrow week the 29th after 10+ years.


just to say i nearly go diabetes in my last pregnancy had sugar in urine and constant thrush and hypos but it never kicked off somthing to worry about if i ever have a fourth - his less fertile now -

bored and tired

hi wada,

i was just wondering if you could set up a web cam or something that your daughter could talk to other children her age with diabetes on?? i live out in the sticks aswell and know how hard it is to get a play date on with local kids never mind trying to arrange it with a family 20miles away.

Best of luck on your wedding i hope you have a lovely day.

Nevyn

wada wrote: »

The school has a healthy eating policy.

Good.

wada wrote: »

they do however give out sweets as treats

Isn't that at odds with their policy ?

wada wrote: »

ive told them they can send them home and i would give her the sweets when blood sugar allows but they dont (this year different teacher)

The teacher should have more cop on and find different ways to do that.
Ok yes sometimes mine get an award of a mini box of smarites on a friday but they both bring them home and ask can they have them.

wada wrote: »

also we have to provide the school with a moblie phone with credit so they can phone us her blood sugar readings and ask for insulin dosage they will not phone from school phone. (what a load of S**t)

I am gobsmacked at that.

lostinnappies

Thaedydal wrote: »

The teacher should have more cop on and find different ways to do that.
Ok yes sometimes mine get an award of a mini box of smarites on a friday but they both bring them home and ask can they have them.

quote]
OMG they bring them home? I want your kids lol

Nevyn

They would get them leaving the school and have them on them when I would meet them at the gate and now they walk home themselves they wait and ask cos my daughter who is a choco fiend tried to pull a sly one and eat hers and say she didn't get a friday treat and ask for one of me.
She was not impress when I could tell by the stains on her fingers and chocolate breath that she did eat them already, so she was banned treats for the rest of the day.
They have a limit on how many treats they can have in a day, if they break it they get none the next day.

lostinnappies

Thaedydal wrote: »

They would get them leaving the school and have them on them when I would meet them at the gate and now they walk home themselves they wait and ask cos my daughter who is a choco fiend tried to pull a sly one and eat hers and say she didn't get a friday treat and ask for one of me.
She was not impress when I could tell by the stains on her fingers and chocolate breath that she did eat them already, so she was banned treats for the rest of the day.
They have a limit on how many treats they can have in a day, if they break it they get none the next day.

Ha ha ha ha ha, oh i think thats hillarious. good tip.

wada

Try and limit treats but when her blood sugars fall low she needs somthing sweet and quick. so the house has to be stocked but with a 3 year old and 18 month old monkeys its hard to keep house stocked unless there under lock and key - but then would take too long to give her the sweet thing and she could go in to a coma no win situation.

hopefully the school teacher this year is better than her last one. we will meet him in sept before we send her back to school were on our honeymoon in the first week of sept so that prob be the second week of sept that she goes back. i think in general men handle the situation better than women- her woman teacher was panic-e

Nevyn

I don't think a person's gender has anything to do with how well they react in a medical emergency, a person's temperament and training does.

Have you tried sticking with one thing to bring her sugar levels up and set it aside as you would medicine ?
ie a small tubber ware box with sugar cubes in it kept where your first aid kit is in the kitchen and mark them with a red cross symbol on them.

That way hopefully your younger children will see them as medicine and not treats.
If it was me I might even consider used food dye on them as well, 1 or 2 drops of green food colouring.

I had trouble with the kids raiding presses and just refused to buy biscuits for a month.

wada

good idea but shes very fussy and will refuse to eat sugar cubes and other things that bring her blood sugars up and we end up fighting over it - i tell her she'll end up in a coma and i'll have to give her the emergency injection and then she might tatke it or something else as a comprimise. she acts up a lot. it a constant fight even to get her to check blood sugars.

We did have medical tables - dextrose and lucozade tablets to bring up the sugars and 3 year old loved them and ate all of them he found how to pull a chair over and climb to get what he wants -

lostinnappies

wada wrote: »

good idea but shes very fussy and will refuse to eat sugar cubes and other things that bring her blood sugars up and we end up fighting over it - i tell her she'll end up in a coma and i'll have to give her the emergency injection and then she might tatke it or something else as a comprimise. she acts up a lot. it a constant fight even to get her to check blood sugars.

We did have medical tables - dextrose and lucozade tablets to bring up the sugars and 3 year old loved them and ate all of them he found how to pull a chair over and climb to get what he wants -

its very difficult to deal with especially as low or high blood sugars can lead someone to become very combative also. The only thing i can think of is to give her complete control over her own medication and checking ... although at her age im not sure how much of a good idea that might be. Im sorry i cant be more help.

taram

Maybe get her books such as http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/d_06_a00.htm and http://www.maginationpress.com/4414410.html etc? Might be some DVDs or something out there too.

Nevyn

Sounds like you need child locks on your presses, or another option is to get some small bells and attches them to the handles of the presses so you can hear what they are at.
Locking the kitchen door at night was also helpful.

luckat

Yikes, three-year-old ate the older kid's stuff? Locks on the presses, definitely, and not child locks but locks with keys you keep. That could have been insulin he got.

Hmm.

You need (it seems to me) to get your daughter thinking in quite a grown-up way about this, and thinking of food as part of her medicine, rather than a source of conflict with her mother, or her parents.

Oddly, the way into this may be to sit down with her every day and try a new food, and really talk about how it tastes and what it does - chillies, dark green cabbage, raw and cooked, very dark chocolate and very milky chocolate, and so on.

If she becomes really conscious of the taste and meaning of food, she may use it less for conflict.

Does the school have a doctor or nurse who could talk to the principal, and to your daughter's teachers, about what kind of food is appropriate for her?

It seems extraordinary that a sick little girl couldn't use the school phone to send in her blood levels.

You have my absolute sympathy in this, and your daughter too. Have courage!

allyJ

Hi Wada,

I was 8 when I was diagnosed and I am now a very healthy 31 year old with no complications and a very normal life. I can only speak personally but I was never excluded from activites like gymnastics as a child but maybe things have changed regarding insurance etc since then. One thing I will say is that when my blood sugar is high I can feel very tearful and irritable, as my family and husband are alll too aware of!!! Maybe some of the changes you see in your daughter are down to this. Sounds like you have all been through a lot though. I think my mother found the whole thing a lot harder than I did cos kids adapt so much quicker than adults. I hope you are getting plenty of support from your clinic. I have often felt guilty about not being able to control my diabetes as well as I would like and I often felt that doctors didn't believe that I was trying my best. I imagine as a parent you may be able to relate to these feelings. However, I have learned that achieving good glucose control is no easy task and there are so many factors at play. Once I accepted this, I ridded myself of the guilt and have started to go easier on myself in this respect.

*Carol*

Hiya, this is my first post. I wanted to reply as I too have a child with diabetes.
My son is 4.5 and has had Type 1 diabetes for 4 years. He uses a pump and is doing great. He just started school on Monday which I was terrified about but so far so good.
Just wanted to let you know that you PM me if you need to. I hope you're daughter is doing well.
Take care,
C

wada

hi carol

school is a nightmare for us well at least last year it was. so far so good this year. does your child have an sna?
ours has a shared sna this year to help with blood sugars and injections. she had a full time one last year.

do you get careers allowance or benefit and the domincillary care allowance? im trying for carers allowance waiting for final verdict should be hear soon.

how do u find the pump have you used it long how does your 4 year old act towards it?

tv3

Hi everyone,

Im 25 now and have diabetes 7 years "type 1".I was in 3rd year when i found out and tbh the school was quite ok other than i could not do my junior cert because i missed time when i was diagnosed with diabetes just before my junior cert,but yet i could not go back and do it.I went for a job a couple of months ago with a well known company and was at the medical were the nurse referred to me as a "needle bag":eek: which i did not take kindly...but thats a problem being sorted out by the EQUALITY TRIBUNAL!

Ann22

A woman I worked with had a little girl with diabetes, it was a worry but it's one of those things you adapt your life to live with. You sure have a lot on your plate. Make sure the bread she has in her lunchbox is wholegrain, it'll keep her sugars balanced for much longer than white. Also there are sugar free jams too.You probably know all that. I'm amazed at you having to provide a mobile phone for the school. At least you know though that they will ring as soon as there's a problem, usually the teachers wait 'til there's a break to go to the office to ring. Have a wonderful wedding day. I wish you, your intended and your little ones all the best.:)

wada

Its a tough old journey, i know we will get a few knock backs along the way, hope not so bad we have to go to court but still thats the it goes sometimes.

she wont eat brown bread - white only, children are so fussy, but then again if it was me i dont think i could stick to the diabetic food plan either.

i am more worrried about the long term effects rather than daily hypos, i know i can handle the hypos.

but find it hard knowing that if i dont do what is right now, down the line it could end up with my child going blind, kidney failure and limbs amputated. i hope she will soon grasp the severity of her illness and one day be able to take care of it on her own(which i think would be in her mid to late teens). long time to go yet

Ann22

Dunnes usually stocks a few brands of white wholegrain bread. Kingsmill do a 50;50 pan-50% wholegrain. Think Ormo do one too. I try to get it for my son's lunchbox, better filler and healthier. He's fussy too. I think girls are more health aware than boys, when she gets old enough I'm sure she'l have sense. A woman I know has a diabetic husband. His is not well controlled at all. She can't go to bed at night 'til he's eaten properly because she can't trust him to eat. She has to watch him in case he is snacking on biscuits! She found him in a coma a few times and was on the verge of blindness 'til he had laser treatment for bleeding in his eyes too and he is still so careless.

tv3

White bread is a no no no matter what!

lostinnappies

Try getting her to make the brown bread herself. I know with my diabeties that even store bought brown bread had lots of sugar in it. Making it with you will help bonding, and she may decide to eat her own bread.

Fionnanc

Hi Wada, maybe wouldn;t put down to being fussy your child refusing sugar cubes when hypoglycaemic, altered behaviour including aggression and mild acting up are symptoms of hypoglycaemia. Do ye have the glucagon pen. Not as good as a sugar dose and mainly used in the unconscious hypoglycaemic who cannot take sugar or IV glucose

The_Conductor

Hi Wada- my wife is a 34 year old type 1 diabetic who was diagnosed under 10 years of age. Once you accept that its a longterm condition that requires the person themselves to be aware of, and a person of authority to be cognisant of the condition (be it a teacher, a line manager, a first aider etc), its not actually a massive limiting factor in enjoying everyday life. I take it your daughter does blood tests herself too? What exactly does the SNA do for your daughter?

My wife is not dissimilar to your child- she refuses to eat brown bread, getting her to eat vegetables (other than pickles) is a nightmare, and yes, her blood sugars do swing up and down on occasion. She is fixated on her HBA1C, and thinks that a tight average is the be-all and end all- whereas I look at the high blood sugars and the low blood sugars.

Being in a position where you have to combat hypos with sugar cubes is unfortunate- and probably means that you need to be tighter with insulin control- and possibly a different insulin regime, than you are on at present. You mentioned a HBA1C of 9- which is on the high side- but not unusual for kids. It might be an idea to discuss the possibility of changing the insulin regime with a consultant.

I'd also suggest getting a few GI cookbooks- which make it very easy to try enumerate carbs etc- and when you get a chance possibly booking both yourself and your daughter on a DAFNE course (dose dependent food allowances- there is a very good course in St. Vincents, another in Loughlinstown, and University Hospital Galway (and elsewhere)). A few cookery courses based on the GI scale would also be informative (you'd be shocked at how different noodles and pastas are).

There are some people who are totally fixated on their readings- and try to keep as tight a rein as possible on them, with the increased risk of hypos- which is never good in a child (or an adult).

Vis-a-vis sugar cubes- really you have to lock those presses and get your daughter the likes of Isotonic sports drinks, dextrose tables, tubes of hypo-gel (if it gets to the stage where you need to use them) etc. A three year old with future in the Mountain Rescue, is not an excuse to not do this.

There are several Type 1 diabetics on the Long Term Illness forum- many of whom have not replied to your thread. I'd be more than happy to ask them to give you a few pointers if you like.