My 10 year old has been a T1D for almost 2 years. Up until 4 months ago, I was a stay-at-home Mom. I had to go back to work. I called local daycares to try to get him in for the summer when school let’s out and none of them agreed to take him due to his illness, same story with the local boys club. Luckily, my husband works nights so he is home during the day…just asleep. Since we knew this was coming, I started working with him on giving himself injections for a couple months leading up to summer break. I even got him a cell phone. All he has to do is call/text me at work, let me know what his bg is and what he ate and I tell him how much insulin to take. This should be fine and work smoothly. However, he keeps getting distracted by TV or toys and forgets to take his injections. I just don’t know what to do. I have no one to watch him. My husband works 14 hour shifts so he has to sleep and I can’t quit my job. I just can’t get my son to understand the importance of taking his injections like he is suppose to.
I’m not a t1 parent, just a t1 myself (and former 10 year old haha). I think you have 2 options here–1 is that you call/text him to remind him until you are confident that you don’t have to anymore. The other is that you let him mess up and learn from his mistakes. Forgetting to take insulin can make you feel pretty crappy fairly quickly–I doubt he would let it happen consistently. After 2 years, testing and injecting before any meal should be second nature. Learning to take care of himself is an important step toward independence, which I think you both will be glad he has as he enters his teen years. Good luck!
I am so surprised to hear that no one will take him…i will tell you that it is illegal for child care centers to refuse care to T1D children per the Americans with Disabilities Act. I am currently looking for centers for my T1D 24 month old & every one that I’ve spoken to are happy to accommodate him.
I’ve decided to go with a daycare center affiliated with our local hospital so you may want to try yours to see if they have one available. Good luck!
Hi there,
This is a common problem for Organizations that are not State funded. They can refuse if they feel they don’t have the training or staffing to provide for your child. We’re fortunate that mom can stay home, but have heard that only the really expensive places are equipped to handle T1D kids. My two suggestions are:
- Check with your local JDRF Chapter for camps or programs they know of.
- You might try BlueLoop. It’s an app that helps with reminders, communication and stuff like that. We learned about it at Diabetes Family Camp.
BlueLoop powered by MyCareConnect
I can totally relate to the situation you are in. All of the excuses I heard from multiple places where sometimes down-right horrible. I came to the conclusion that i did not want “those” type of places taking care of my daughter anyhow. If they seen her as a burden or a “reliability” as they put it, I could never trust them to properly take care of her let alone keep her alive. Perhaps training one individual (one on one) care might be do-able. then you know your child`s care is being met. Good luck