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I have to be honest, we were very frightened when sending our little insulin dependent 5 year old pumper to school, who can't feel her lows. Will they test her often, will they feed her activity, will she be okay? It is very frightening at first.
Now she is back on her "Mr Wizard" pump and things are running smoother. However, when we had her off the pump it got me thinking, and that's never a good thing.
First off, our school have been absolutely amazing! They have been willing to take on the responsibility for Rowan's Diabetes management, they have learned how to problem solve, count carbs, and they know how to communicate with "Mr Wizard" The communication has been bar none the best I could ask for.
That was with the pump. During the pump break I had to inject her at lunch time, for legal purposes further documentation was needed due to the switch in insulin delivery (Pump to Injections) It was easier for me to just spend lunch with the wee one then to track down an endo or GP to sign the 4 page document.
I am curious as to what other parents go through, challenges, difficulties, positives, anything related to having a Child with Type 1 in your particular school system.
My School is great and do everything possible to meet the needs of Rowan, and us as a Family.
How is your school?
Basically what's your take on Type 1 kids in the school system?
3 comments:
Where I live (in the rural west) I was told that if I want our 5 year old to attend K I would need to come to the school each time he needed to be tested or needed insulin (we do MDI) to do it. Our rural county only has 1 nurse and "policy" prohibit anyone but a medical professional from checking BS or giving insulin. sigh Plus the ride to and from the school is 1 hour each way. I know there are legal protections from discrimination and all but it was obviously going to be a BIG fight. When I went directly to the school board I was told that not only would I need to come to the school but check him out to do anything since I was not a medical professional either. So we pulled our older child out of the public school too and we are now a homeschooling family.
Trev, my story is like your's in many ways. Miranda was getting shots at preschool and because it was private they would not provide any medical assistance. We expected this and the teachers were very good about learning and noticing signs that she felt low. It was near home so I would dash up at lunch and test and bolus, plus we had Lantus on our side so she was pretty flat all day. Then....K time and the new pump all at once. She was a trooper and stuck at it through all the crappy logistics when you start the pump. We have a nurse who is at her school all day only on Tues and Wed but still comes to check her at lunch Mon, Wed and Friday. Those days I drop in and test at morning snack and bolus. We are lucky, our nurse is super aware and reg attends classes at our Endo or conventions in our city which may be happening. Not all parents are that lucky and I am a stay at home dad so I can be at the school in 5 minutes if something happens.
Hey Trev...my situation was similar to the preschool situation mentioned by the commentor above.
When Joe started public elementary school he then had a full time nurse. So, I did not need to go in at all. Their policy in the nurses absence was to have a parent man the Health Office...this was unacceptable...as I would have to hang at school all day...they would not even train non-medical personnel on checking BGs or treating a low by giving a juice. I took it up with our district. They bumped up the sub-nursing pay and got a whole pool of nurses for "back-up". I have since...trained a bunch on non-medical personnel on helping children check their BGs and on low treatments. The tide is turning and I am so grateful.
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