This must be very scary to deal with. The carb counting is a big solution to a lot of this. If he's not keen on math, a pump may actually work better since, to make a pump work, you have to tell it what you're going to eat and it does the work for you. Another feature, that they don't market as much, is that the pump keeps track of everything much better than I was ever able to do on my own. The data reports have been instrumental in my getting pretty decent control. I also found it to be quite a bit less work than shots although the shots I took (R/NPH) were very labor intensive.
I may have gone though a sort of similar phase as I was dx'ed when I was 16 and did ok and then went off to college and partied my brains out so I had sort of a casual attitude about shooting up ("Keith Richards, w00t!") but also sort of had a decent idea about the notion of balancing things, more food= more insulin, although that wasn't au courant in 1985, so I just blazed away with insulin and more insulin. The pump made it a lot easier to keep track of things. Another possibility that occurs to me is that junior might be experiencing "normal" challenges of trying to figure things out. Even if he's not "figuring", he may be saying "gee, I'm high, I'd better have some insulin..." or "now I'm low, I'd better eat a box of donuts!" which are very normal reactions to insulin. It's strong stuff. One of the first pretty "woah" hypos I had, I lit a carton of ice cream on fire, defrosting it in the broiler...fortunately, I got it put out and my parents didn't perceive what had happened but some of the stuff that goes n with insulin and diabetes can be attributable to the fact that it's powerful.
I have a 14 year old and went through many similar "pushing the envelope" issues with her during those years. She has calmed down a bit lately, which is *wonderful* but, in diabetes terms, it may be useful to get junior to suck it up and do the math. It makes it *a lot* easier to know what's going on to test and manage things. Sorry to go on about it so much but I can't imagine trying to manage diabetes without having it, it has got to be horribly difficult! In terms of your "professional help", I hope you can find someone who understands it as "straight" people, without diabetes can have a lot of opinions about it that are very unusual from my perspective and may aggravate rather than helping the situation.
Dangerous game, STUNNING he is playing it this early?! At some point as a diabetic, you make a choice, two or more which looking back on them, you can't figure out what made you do XYZ in the first place.
His SNEAK correction is a byproduct of the blase attitude which the current eating programs, and the rapid insulin we now use causes.... because he can correct (a secret snack), he did... does and can.
Unfortunately he likely stacked one dose on top of another which tidal waved and hammered him.
You can be afraid but it will not serve you. You can be terrified but you must NOT show it to him...
Also consider one important thing, he actively choose and hid snacks. Then he hid the insulin, the needles, and theoretically (?) made calculations based on his hidden eating. Despite the fact it is absolutely wrong... that is one @*()#*@(#@&( smart kid you have... that took planning, strategy, and in some respects deserves some real respect for it... one one screwy level anyway.
Perhaps, perhaps if you treated it like he was an adult (sic. very young, immature) if you took that route, it would help you both? He still gets punished but not for being stupid, a child. he is being punished for lying to you... something to consider? He is taking responsibility for his actions, but screwed up, and not knowing it, not realizing it got spanked (by the overdose) for that.
What punishment is he getting for lying to you????
You are definitely not alone in that one! I personally went through the exact same thing - sneaking snacks, but while I was on the pump, and then sneaking insulin pens to cover up the extra dosages. I, too, would guess on how much insulin to give myself thru the pen.
I agree with the others saying he probably wants some independence. Does your endo offer training in different areas, such as carb counting, injections, etc? Possibly you could get him a little calculator that he could use. Granted, it would be under your supervision but that way if it ever happened again he would sort of konw what he is doing.
Also, have you considered joining a support group for type 1 kids and parents? Maybe a summer diabetes camp? Just some thoughts.
I think your first step should be to call his endo asap and explain the situation. I'm sure they may have some advice for you. I'm so sorry you have to deal with this!
I really feel for you! I know it is agonizing to worry about a child for any reason, having raised 2 myself. You would naturally want to continue to control things as much as possible. However, please don't neglect to consider a pump for the child. The case for doing it now: You probably shouldn't wait till he masters multiple injections because no one, even an adult, can master that. I say this after 25 years on multiple injections and 6 months on the OmniPod. You really can't predict insulin absorption as well with multiple injections. Also a pump allows you to easily account for insulin already taken when you need to do corrective boluses. And, it won't let you mix up long-acting and short-acting because you are distracted or bolus when you have low bg. The OmniPod integrates the meter, so you have a record you can refer to, right there on the meter; including a record of all carbs consumed and all boluses scheduled. There is also software you can upload to a computer for you to look over, so it might improve the accountability factor. Note: I have no connection with OmniPod; I am a late convert to pumps because I couldn't stand the other pumps I tried. They could not be worn in the shower or easily hidden beneath clothing.
