Help! ideas on how to handle morning snack at school

Parents
1

My daughter, who is going into 3rd grade, has been begging me to let her do her morning snack in the classroom instead of having her walk up to the nurses station every morning during school.  She loves the nurses as they spoil her, but she hates missing class time and being pulled from class.

My Julia is a soft spoken child and will wait patiently for others, but she told me at the end of the year last year that she hated go to the nurses station because sometimes they were helping others, on the phone and she had to wait and it would take too long to get her tested and give her gogurt.

Basically, she goes every morning 20 minutes before recess, tests, has a gogurt and gives a bolus (she is on a pump)

Julia totally does it herself and the nurses just overlook her shoulders or if she is low assist in giving glucose tabs.  The whole process really only takes a minute as it takes 5 seconds for test and she slurps down a gogurt.- but often times it takes 15 minutes for her to go to nurse.

Julia keeps saying to me- why don't I just test in the classroom and eat my yogurt there and just give myself my insulin.  I know how to do it!!!! and I know what to do if I am low- she actually has really excellent awareness of low bloodsugars and knows how many tabs to eat.

Do any of your kids do their morning snack themselves in the classroom???  any suggestions???

I know I would never leave Julia on her own at this poing even though she always does it right- do you think I could have her do it in class and just have her tell her teacher what her BS is and the teacher have a guideline like if under 150 go to nurses station (usually Julia needs to be about 150 at morning snack to make it through lunch ok)  and Julia could use her mini-med meter that automatically inputs her BS so I know for sure she would not make a mistake in inputing that and she would only have to scroll in her carbs. 

She is 8 and has been inputting her carbs since she was 5 and never makes a mistake- plus she knows for her 13 gram morning snack, it almost always gives her .4-.5 units of insulin and we have a routine where she says out loud the amount of insulin her pump is about to give her before she actually hits the activate button and so she is totally aware of "normal" amounts she gets and I think would be alerted if she had accidently typed in a wrong amount of carb and it was going to like give her 1.0 for morning snack.

I am looking for input for you other parents to see your opinion on this or any other ideas on how you handle morning snack at school for your kids.

Julia said she knows she would still need to go at lunch time so the nurse can help her count all her carbs, but keeps on insisting that morning snack is so easy to do and she hates getting pulled out of class.

Please help with ideas!!  my quiet little Julia is really adamant and determined to try to do it on her own.

2

We have a soon to be six year old going into first grade this year. She is also on the medtronic pump and knows how to give herself boluses.  We were lucky enough to get a shadow for her as there is another type1 in her class, so our situation is different. 

However, I can see were you are coming from. The first question is "Do all the kids get a snack at that time?"  If not, that may be part of the reason for her leaving the classroom.  Maybe talk to the teacher and see if she would be able to verify her pump readings. And if she doesn't want her eating in front of the other kids, maybe just a quick juice box.

Might also want to remind the teacher that your daughter should not be alone at any time.. like when walking to the nurses station. In case she has a low.

Great Topic.. I'm interested how everyone else handles this. 

3

Another thing..  Maybe since it's only 20 minutes before recess and she's waiting in the nurses station anyway.. See if the teacher would help her check her finger at the start of recess and let your daughter eat her snack during recess. That way the class will not be interupted.. Just another thought..  Really got to find out the teachers stance on all of this.

4

I would absolutely have her check in the classroom, and have guidelines set like you mentioned. Especially if she is low. There is no reason why she couldn’t be treated for low bs and continue on without missing class time. I am sure she has plenty of days when she doesn’t even need a snack, but has to be away from class for no reason. I would type up the guidelines for the teacher and start checking her in the classroom at least for midmorning. That’s what we do with our daughter. The afternoon is done by the nurse because usually insulin is given as it isnacktime. For the whole class. Our daughter only just got her pump and is not as independent as your child. I would put it in her 504 that she may test and administer insulin with assistance.