My daughter has been going to daycare and they haven’t been watching her sugars or testing her right and nither have I because everything we have been going through. But I want to talk to the doctor and tell them I will go through training yet again, but I want to see if it is possible to put her on a pump. Maybe make it easier and safer for her to be at daycare and not give my up job. Any Idea’s? Can a almost 3 year old be taught to not touch a pump or is it possible for a 3 year old to have a pump?
Hey stretched2thin!
There are multiple federal laws that protect your child in this situation that it sounds like are being ignored:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/26/suppl_1/s131.full
I wouldn’t advise though telling your child’s daycare how much trouble they’re in… I would advise sitting down with the daycare director and educating him/her on the importance of proper care to the LIFE of your child… explaining that it is truly a life-threatening situation that they’re placing your child in DAILY by not giving her proper care.
If they seem to care, you’re on the right path. If they don’t - it’s time to file a complaint and find a new daycare. I wouldn’t and won’t tolerate this with my son. My 4-year-old is in preschool and fortunately for us, his school has been ALL OVER giving him proper care. I couldn’t ask for a more attentive staff and teachers. All kids should be treated this way!
As for your pump question, my 4-year-old has a pump and has had it since he was 3 and it’s WONDERFUL… but getting a pump will not fix your teacher attention problem. If they don’t pay attention to tests and needles then they won’t pay attention to tests and pump boluses.
If the diabetic care of your child in daycare is impacting your ability to work and your child’s health (a1c?) - then you definitely have a clear case for discrimination should you have to take it that far. In my humble opinion though the best thing for your child is to pursue better paths for her out of a lawyer/court situation unless absolutely pressed to do so by the callus lack of concern by your daycare provider.
good luck!
Null and VOID, we are a military installation, all military member/spouse cannot sue or take legal action against another military member/spouse. If they feel that my daughter isn’t fit for their in home day care they can dis-enroll me and I loose my job.
it is on person to 6 children her age, and they scream yell and are just ick. But i cannot afford a new daycare till i am done with my training and get more hours and what not. I mean hell im not perfect I have trouble keeping track and pulling out all the insulin and all that is in tow with that, but at least i take care. But she sleeps till she wants to get up there and eats when she wants… I just want to be able to take care of this myself right when i drop her off or before and feed her and have the pump help me, instead of juggling the mad chaos of the hustle and bustle of our base showing up on time and juggling my daughter. Its so fustraiting and most out diabetic friends here have their children on pumps and arent so strict as to what they eat or their schedule and i just feel like everytime i walk into the doctor i get scolded and I cant say a dang word as to why we cant keep a schedule or my daughter gets food aside from my instructions.
In all honesty, a pump actually requires MORE testing and MORE observation than injections. It’s not a cure-all, though it is a wonderful treatment option that I’ve chosen for the last decade.
Yes, a three year old can pump (even babies can pump) - pumps have “lock-out” features for small children… But it is not going to solve the problem of the adults charged with her care not testing her enough or watching her diet/activity/sugars/etc.
Many insurers won’t approve a patient for a pump unless they have proven they test their blood sugars 4 or more times per day and have been through recent diabetes education. Most pumpers have to test upwards of 6-8 times per day.
Her daycare workers would have to test her blood sugar, decide on her dosage, input it into the pump, make sure the dosage delivered, and monitor her blood sugars afterward. They would be responsible (possibly) for changing out her infusion set tubing, filling reservoir cartridges, etc. It is not an automated device and it cannot manage her blood sugars. It is simply a different method of delivering the insulin.
soon i will be her daycare provider, which will be great, but for now i test her sugars 4+ I have to take off and drive over there. its horrible.
I’m so sorry that you’re having to go through that, stretched2thin.
Hopefully you will be your daughters full-time day care provider sooner rather than later as noted in your response to Melissa. In the meantime, keep driving over the 4+ times a day that you are currently doing as your daughter needs someone to look after her testing.
A pump will allow freedom for your daughter to eat without needing another shot each and every time that she wants to eat, but pumping requires training and skill with carb counting, monitoring and assessment of trends. The initial set-up requires a few weeks or more of very aggressive monitoring to get basals and meal ratios in order. It appears that your current caregiver has little to no diabetes training as things stand right now and proper use of a pump to deliver insulin is not something that I would trust to a caregiver that has not been properly trained.
If you are not carb counting already, start now, so that when you are the full time caregiver, you will be prepared to move on to pump therapy and start reading some books now on pumping insulin.
Cheryl
JDRF has a down loadable school toolkit that explains federal law. No one can be above that can they? Make sure your daughter has a 504 in place to protect her. The Americans with disability act requires all her accommodations are met at school. Maybe her daycare providers need a refresher on how serious Type 1 is and how they are letting your daughter down by not providing her with the proper care.
If you switch her to a pump it does require more testing especially in the beginning -up to 10 times a day to get the basal rates worked out.
Good Luck to you - You’re doing a great job!
Don’t kid yourself that a pump is less work. It’s not. You still have to take blood sugars before every meal and so forth. But it can make it more convenient for people other than you to administer insulin - my daycare provider couldn’t bear the thought of giving an injection but is fine with giving insulin via a pump. The pump I have for Eric, who is just a little younger than your daughter, has a locking feature—you can lock the keypad so she can push the buttons to her hearts content without doing anything to the pump settings or starting a bolus. Another way to keep little hands off a pump though is to sew pockets onto the back of her clothing so the pump fits within the pocket and there’s a little slot to put the tubing through it. I bought a couple of shirts online and then used them as a model to create my own - changed a few things to make them more secure than the ones I bought, like making the slot smaller so that the clip at the end of the tubing fit through but the pump itself didn’t (which prevents it sliding out the slot at night).
I would also say maybe you should get in touch with the American Diabetes Association and ask their help. Military or no military, they are still subject to federal disability laws and anti-discrimination laws and as such they MUST provide your daughter with adequate care, or else pay for alternatives such as a nanny who is trained in caring for a diabetic. ADA takes the stand that they educate & negotiate first, with litigation as the last resort. Here’s a link http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/know-your-rights/how-t… I think if they better understood what was needed to care for her, they’d cooperate.
We are on the OMNIPOD pump system. Ella will be 3 in January. I test her about 10 times a day and I am ALWAYS making sure the cannula is set. Because of her activity I change it every two days instead of the recommended 3 days.
All that being said. I stay home with her, but it IS better because toddlers love to graze so you can give incriminates of insulin down to 0.1 units. Hope this helps.
Sorry everyone I was in the hospital with my little one… She had a low and was admitted.
See I have the 504 booklet for california and the military gave it to me. But when I made a complaint they told me they would find another sitter. But out military Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP) turned around and enrolled me the other day so that a family member could watch my daughter at their exspence. A friend of mine just offered to be her daycare provider because she used to be a nurse! It kinda just feel into place the past few days.
I was monitoring this group via celly but it would take so long to respond. Yall were such a huge help. I spoke to her endocrine team about a pump and they said wait another year and then we will talk about a pump. She had her low on my watch, I did everything to the T and she still had a low. the hospital visit sucked soooo bad. I hate when she gets sick
We carb count religeously, we eat healthy. But the people around here uhg half of them are spazzes and half of them well… never mind no one on this base is a health nut. Because sophia cant eat like a little piggie… I watch what i eat too, because my little girl her mommy wont have type two diabetes, because i got active started eating right and what not.
oh, ouch.
I do hope you can get your daughter on a pump. Especially lately, I’ve seen a lot more stability in Eric’s blood sugars because of it. Doesn’t mean he won’t have lows (we had one just the other night too) but at least they don’t happen as often.
Yes, there are three year olds on pumps. You can also lock the pump or put it in a pump pack you can lock, or put the pump in an undershirt with the pocket on her back so they can’t reach it. It will make it much easier for the day care provider to take care of your child as far as dosing is concerned, but I would have someone available for emergency situations such as if you need an emergency site change.
Look carefully at Eric’s picture on my profile and you’ll see his shirt has one of those pockets on the back. the ones they sell online are too expensive so I make them myself with a sewing machine, takes about a half hour, and they work great!
Hi,
I have a 3 yr old and she’s been on the pump for 14 months.
It is really great to have her on the pump, but her doctor did not agree to have her on the pump until we were ready. I did count carbs every single meal, went to carb counting classes, went to nutrition classes, took training on the pump and we were ready. I definitely think she was right … you need to know a lot before getting to the pump. And you definitelyh need to check her 10 or more times the first weeks (day and night). THe first months were for adjustments . We’be been logging all her food and sending it to her doctor since she was diagnosed. Now I send every other day and we only talk if I need something. So after a while it gets much easier plus it gives you a lot of flexibility compared to shots.
A lot of people think that when they are on the pump they can eat whatever they want, and we personally believe it’s not like that, you should still feed them healthy foods cause the pump does not cure diabetes, it’s just a way of managing it.
If I were you I would first sit with the daycare and explain them about diabetes, what it is, why it’s so important to measure her and tell them exactly when you need them to measure her. Show them how to use the meter and all the measuring supplies and put a small notepad or log sheet so they can write down your daughters numbers. I found that the more you educate teachers the more they are willing to cooperate. Plus it is really important to give them in written what is a low (and which numbers are we talking about), what is a high and how to act after each one. And when it’s important to call you or 911. In this way they know exactly what to do and you’ll feel much better that they know when it’s an emergency and when it isn’t. Plus it’s a good idea to give them a little box with juices, glucose tablets or whatever you use to get her up when she is low.
Going back to the pump to obtain approval from the insurance company the dr had to fax them all our daily logs. We got the Animas ping, it’s really cool beacuse the meter is a remote for the pump too, so if you have to bolus at night you don’t need to get the pump out of her clothes.
Regarding the pump, when she was 13 mos I used some pump paks to put her pump, they had little pictures so she loved them, then when she started daycare I started using an elastic belt (I bought it at pumpwearinc.com) and I tuck the pump in it underneath her clothes so no other kid can touch it (and the teachers feel more comfortable too), Nowadays when she it not going to school I just use a pump skin (they sell it at animas.com) which protects the pump agains a fall and you can hang it from any pant. There are several ways of hiding or protecting the pump for kids, some more expensive than the others, but you can always buy 1 and make a copy at home or ask someone you know that likes sewing to help you.
I would definitely start logging all her food and blood sugars in case you are not doing it, your doctor can surely provide you with a log sheet and then you can make copies, it’s a basic if you want to get her on the pump.
Well good luck !!!
Well now that I talked to people, the lady who was watching my kid, huge scandal… I wanted to file a report for child endangerment on my daughter. So she wasn’t even a provider! she lost her house, she now cant watch other peoples kids and her husband is in trouble! If it weren’t for ya’ll i would’ve let it slide. Sophia just got back out of the hospital, she was sick and the insulin stopped working. I talked to her doctor about getting her on a pump and they said once she is better and we can get her eating again she can go on a pump. My daycare opens soon and she gets to be with me all day.
Now that we have been home 13 days, I have been testing her 7+ a day she is never out of my sight when we are out of my home. W are blowing through syringes like its cool!!! I am on the verge of tears every minute of the day, even when she does eat healthy and she gets her humalog (1 unit for every 25 carbs/ calculator thing) still higher than a mother!!! My husband is still deployed and i cam so alone. I can’t believe she is getting six injections a day 3+ units of humalog at meals 1+ for snacks. I told the docs i wanted to get a pump when ready and she is stable, but guess what she isn’t stable! wouldn’t a bolus(correct me if wrong) help keep her in check in between her meals?? If so why are the doctors screaming(dramatized) no at me? I know how to count carbs, draw up insulin, she is now in a stricter schedule and I am still wanting to crawl in a hole and die!! How can this suck so bad? She eats nothing but healthy foods, when she gets peanut butter it is very little and only half a sandwhich with 8oz milk. or half sand which sugar free tang and 1/2cup mixed no sugar added fruit and she still rockets through the roof, if she gets chicken tenders they are baked and she gets fruit or veggies. my daughter tonight at dinner with my mother choose, her sugar free juice, mixed veggies two pieces of orange chicken and a hambuger patty a pickle tomato and she was 126 two hours after her meal… the lowest in a long time! she pig’d out she eats like her father who has to eat like crazy to fuel his marine body for humping packs and tow missiles around and other grunt work. she is so damn skinny it is gross!!! how could things go so wrong!!! I have this huge huge huge planner that i write what she ate, her sugars, how much insulin and snacks.
Help me get the courage to get her on a pump! I want her on it no matter what I have to do! I do not want to carry on with all the injects/corrections (forgot to add that in) all day and all night! I want to be able to get the mechanical help and be able to have some sort of peace of mind!
A bolus will only correct for the meal, like her humalog injections now. It won’t do anything different for between meals. The background, or basal, rate will take the place of her long-acting insulin. It will be humalog, but it will be doing the same job her long-acting does now. To get her more stable, you might consider asking the docs to adjust her current long-acting or splitting her long-acting into multiple doses so that it peaks correctly and holds her more steady between meals.
Who ever made you feel like 3 units was a lot for one injection, hon? 1 unit for 25g of carb is really really on the low end. As a kid, I started on 1 per 15g and as an adult am now taking 1 unit for 4g. Don’t beat yourself up. Her pancreas doesn’t work and her insulin needs will continue to increase throughout the rest of her long and healthy life. There is no shame in that. Insulin doses are NEVER a sign that something is going wrong or that you’re doing ANYTHING wrong. You’re trying to play the role of a complex endocrine organ - and none of us are good at it! 
If she’s pigging out and still losing weight, I have to ask - are you checking her urine for ketones? That could be a sign that she is running ketones. At higher levels, that can have some pretty serious consequences. If you don’t check her regularly, or at least when her blood sugar is over 250, you might see about picking up a bottle of ketostix and checking her at least weekly.
I know how badly you want a pump for her…but I really do fear you think it does things that the shots don’t do. It’s not as automated as you think. It won’t make those dosing decisions for you. And it will be just as heart-wrenching to poke her with an infusion set every three days as it is to stick her with a needle. Lows are a little more common with new pumpers, too, and there are all sorts of new things to learn. I love my pump and have no interest in returning to shots…but I understand how limited the pump is compared to what I wish it could do.