How sweet is this?

My cute little niece, Avery, who is 2.5 years old now and quite the talker asked me a few weeks ago what I was pulling out of my pocket, it was my pump, so I told her it was my medicine, she is very familar as she takes allergy meds every day, and if I did not she would want to pretend it was a camera or a cell phone I am sure. She has mastered the digital camera and takes pictures all the time.

She looked at my pump, ready to push buttons, and her mother said that is Aunt Karen’s.

This Saturday I was sitting across from her in a restaurant, while she was busy squirting the ketchup and mustard on to her plate, saying I do it. I took out my pump and her little voice rang out, medicine Aunt Karen?

How sweet is that?

Karen

Kids are so cute . When my grandson first noticed my pump I had pulled it out of my pocket when we were getting ready eat and he shouts out "I WANT ONE " he thought it was a cell phone …lol

I can’t help admiring you all for being up front with your kids. I have two type 1 (adult) kids and even though I am a type 2 have talked to all my kids and especially grand kids about diabetes. We have all adjusted our diets and exercise regimens because of it. I want especialy my grandkids to be knowledgeable and maybe prevent diabetes for them. When we are together my 14 year old grandon watches when I draw up my insulin. He usually comes over and says here grandma let me help you with that. He says he knows I have trouble seeing those little numbers without my glasses. I think that is very sweet. I also have a 7 year old who wants to watch when I shoot. He says he wants to help. So I put the needle in and hold onto everything, Then I let him put his little thumb on my thumb and push the insulin in. He says he wants to learn how to give medicine to people so he can help people when he gets bigger. He also says when he is bigger he will find out how to fix diabetes so we won’t get sick anymore. It brings tears to my eyes to find such love and understanding in children.

I walk in the Diabetes walk 2 years in a row and my now 4 year old would tell my friends that he was walking in the diedabetes walk with my mom. I have type 2 for almost 2 years now in April.

Jody

Children fasinate me. But what I found really frustrating during a recent surgery on my back, was…
The nurse taking my pre-admission information wasn’t familiar with my insulin pump at all. She was the HEAD NURSE on the floor for surgery.
She asked how much insulin I was taking and I told her I was on a Pump. Much to my surprise, she looked intrigued.
I told her that, if the surgeon had to remove it or shut it off during the surgery, that it would have to be replaced once my glucose levels began to raise, and started up again.
She said, (and I’m not kidding about this)… “Isn’t this transplanted in your body?” I just about laughed in her face, until I realized she was being serious. This nurse knew nothing about Insulin Pumps. I lifted my shirt to expose the pump on my waist band of my jeans. She about fell over. NOW wouldn’t you think that nurses in the capacity of NURSING FLOOR SUPERVISOR be trained on things like this? I ended up training all of the nurses that cared for me the day of my surgery. They all had questions and couldn’t believe that Pumps worked the way I described.

I realize that not all Diabetics have these Pumps yet, but it is important for our Medical Personnel to atleast have Memos describing what is now out there.

Karen I have read about kids that age who are Type 1 and they pump insulin. They could not get any kind of control with MDI so pumping was necessary, or so I read. I think that must be a terribly awkward and almost impossible thing to do with a child so young. It seems to me that the child would always be pulling and picking at the cannula and dislodgements would be unavoidable. I guess that is a last resort. Maybe heavy taping over the site works best. Has anyone heard of very young children pumping?

Richard

I have a online friend whose daughter is a Type 1 since 8 months and she is 6 now and has been pumping since almost the beginning. She is an amazing child, she has the most beautiful blue eyes. I will try to find her website so you can see her. Her mother is wonderful and so is her child, and it breaks my heart that she is diabetic and also to hear of all the sores on her bottom from pump sites, but from such a tiny age she knew that pumping was way better than getting multiple shots every day. Let’s just say she is old beyond her years.

Here is little Caroline, hope you can get to one of these websites

http://walk.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=extranet.personalpage&confirmid=86802677

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=89550528&MyToken=37db82ca-c434-4b12-b4c8-ca4da5ec2507

Kimberly, I can totally relate to the lack of education with some of the medical community and my pump. The last time I had major surgery, I got SO frustrated with my nurse, I raised my voice at her shouting, “just let me do it!”.

On a more positive note, I’ve been pumping for close to 12 years. My kids are 10 and 8, so they’ve always seen me with my pump attached to my waist. When my oldest was around 2, he received a toy cell phone and pager for Easter. He immediately attached the pager to his hip and said with a very proud voice, “look Mom, I’m just like you now”.

Now, fast forward to present day, he has a girl in his class that just got on a pump. She was falling in to a severe low and the teacher was busy with another student to notice it. My son jumped out of his seat, put her pump in suspend and ran out of the classroom to get her juice. 10 years old!!! Karen, there’s a new generation of children out there wiser and older beyond their years.

I talked yesterday about my 4 years old son, today I will tell you about my 7 year old son. Since I found out that I was a Diabetic I have told him that if he couldn’t wake me up or if we got in an accident to have them look at my bracelet, or he should call 911 then take his little brother and go upstairs to Mimi’s house. After the death of my mom who lived upstairs from us. My son Alex said to me he was 6 at the time " Mom what do I do now that Mimi died, if I can’t wake up what do I do" I didn’t even think of that at the time. So we talked about it, at I told him to call 911 then take your little brother and go next store to the neibors house she is a stay at home mom too. So I gave her my info just in case. I was amazed that he even thought of that.

Jody

Kids are so smart and sooooo sweet and thoughtful. Gives me goosebumps.

Too cute, Karen!

My baby sister (20 years younger, now 5 years old) calls my pump my “diabetes”. Whenever she sees my infusion set, she gives it a gentle kiss and asks me if my diabetes hurts today. So cute!

Once she started to learn about the ‘real world’, she informed me that “not all big sisters have diabetes, just hers does”. She said it with pride. Got to love her!