I have been very fortunate that I am able to stay at home with my children. Now that my daughter is 4 she is eligable to go to Pre-K in our state run program. I was really looking forward to this because the part of Georgia that I come from all of the Pre-K classes are in elementary schools or run through the school systems and my hope was that there would be a school nurse there. Well, in the part of GA that we now live in all of the Pre-K classes are in day cares. Lovely. I have to tell you my heart fell when I found this out.
I finally found a spot for her for Pre-K and it is even in a NAEYC accredited center. I went in last Tuesday to train the teacher and the co-teacher and the center director and owner on dealing with Type 1 and how to take care of Isabelle.
As soon as I mentioned that I wanted them to give insulin after she eats (they will have 2 snacks and a meal while she is there) the center director said that she didn’t think that they could do that. I almost fell out of my chair. Can’t give a child insulin!!! What the??? Of course I gently told her that she will give my child insulin or I would have to find another place for her. After I explained everything to them they seemed much more comfortable with giving her the insulin. Tomorrow is her first day of school so we will see how it goes. I also told her to give her licensing agent a call and find out what they say about giving insulin.
I think the thing that drives me the most nuts is that they have known that she is Type 1 since I signed her up at the end of May. They also knew at that time that I wanted them to give her the insulin while she is at the school. Why didn’t they figure all of this out in the last 2 months???
I’m sorry for your frustration. Until you feel comfortable maybe you could “supervise” the insulin injections. When my son was first diagnosed he was in 5th grade but was the first student at the school to have Type 1 (yes I know it is a small school!). Although they had a nurse -she was initially uncomfortable giving him the injections because she had been a “school nurse” for 5 years and felt out of touch with the procedure. I told her I fully understood and offered to come in every day to help until she felt more adept. I believe I went in for close to a month every day at lunch time. I let her and my son do everything themselves and was only there if she had questions. I also told her she could contact me by phone anytime. This actually worked out extremely well because I was able to keep tabs on Jake and how his blood sugars were effected throughout his school day. It also made me more confident (then being a new parent of a T1), and she in turn helped to educate the rest of the staff including his teachers and the principal.
I’m sure the center director is probably apprehensive at the thought of giving your child a shot and all the responsibly that comes with it. I’m interested to see what the answer is from the licensing agent. Keep us posted and good luck!
That’s got to be frustrating!
I work full time and it’s been a challenge finding a daycare where my daughter would get the proper care. I ended up using in-home daycares. One run by a Type 2 and another by a mother of Type 1 child. I guess I am lucky I was able to find that.
We run into some issues in school where they wanted her to draw her own insulin and give herself shots. They would only “make sure she got correct amount drawn”… At that point we went on to using an insulin pen. My daughter was pretty comfortable doing shots with it (even better than syringes) and it was easier to measure the shot. If I remember correctly, she was about 5 then.
That went on for about a year and we then switched to an insulin pump.
I remember complaining to my endo and him mentioning to me something about Federal Fundings that could be taken away if they do not accommodate her needs at a public school.
Thanks for the feedback Mary Beth and Kseniva. Evidently I forgot to mention that Isabelle is on an insulin pump. She is on the Omni Pod and that makes it sooooo much easier on them. No injections to deal with or insulin to draw up. I think that is why it surprised me when she said that they couldn’t give her insulin.
We are now on our 3rd week of school and I have to say I am very pleased with the center! They have really done a great job. They still call me 2-4 times a day, but really, that is ok with me. It helps me to know what is going on. So far they haven’t mentioned their licensing agent again. I don’t know if they have spoken to her or not, but they have been giving her insulin since day one.
I spent the first day at school with her helping her teachers get better aquainted with the OmniPod system and getting all of the carbs on the menu counted so that it would be easier for them to determine the correct carb count on what she eats. All in all, I really couldn’t ask for more.
I’ ve recently had fun with school. TJ was in nursery mornings only so insulin asn’t an issue, but all the staff were trained for testing etc. However she started fulltime school last month. Earlier in the year it was looking as if she wouldn’t be accepted in school. The diabetes nurse visited the school nd sorted it all out for us. She did all the training sessions.
