Starting school with diabetics? & Packing School Lunches?

Ok so my little one was dx about a year ago when she was 3. So far we have done really good modifing diet and such. But this year she starts school! Which has me worried enough as it is. But now I am trying to see what others send with their child to school. For lunch and snack wise? Also how do you all handle birthday parties and treats the schools do? She will only be there from 8am to 2pm. They do breakfast and lunch at the school as well as afternoon snack. So I’m looking for ideas and helpful hints for her starting school.

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Is your child on a pump or MDI?

She takes 4 units of lantus first thing in the morning. She isn’t on any short acting at the moment.

Enjoy that honeymoon!
My daughter was 11 at dx. Even on MDI & against the wishes of the school nurse, she always participated in parties & special treats. I drove to the school & gave her insulin for those special days since the nurse refused to.

My daughter grew up eating lower carb so we didn’t make many changes. She also preferred having breakfast at home & taking her lunch. Our schools serve basically fast food junk, & bolusing for it was a nightmare on the few occasions she chose to have their food.

I like the bento boxes, so that’s what I used. A Google search for bento will find some great ideas for fun lunches. Lunches were usually homemade chicken breast chunks, an occasional half sandwich, or leftover casseroles from the night before. Celery sticks with cheese, cheese sticks, a small portion of fruit, pickles, cucumber slices, olives…basically healthy fruits & veggies balanced with protein & fat. Our schools didn’t have issues with peanut products, so peanut butter was in almost every lunch. Dr Steven Ponder tells parents most kids tend to rotate through the same 10 foods. That was very true with all 3 of my girls, & I see the same thing in my grandkids.

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I’m guessing your little one is your profile pic. She’s a doll! Love those curls.

That’s how she is it seems she eats the same foods all the time. Glad to know I’m not alone in that! Doesn’t help hay she can be super picky! We normally do baked or grilled chicken it up. With carrots or apples. She has few pretzels not many. And cheese stick. She also rotates turkey with chicken. Few other foods. Blue berries. Things like that. Once in while she is treated with some Nutella on her cracker. No way am I letting her eat school lunches. Not only is she super picky but like you said it’s not very good. I would have pack breakfasts and lunch as they eat them both as aclass. She isn’t on any short acting insulin we are just monitoring very close so he will know when she needs it’s. I was worried about her being left out of the special stuff. I want her to participate in everything she can. Just be safe about it. She only 4 we been dealing with dx for a year now and I still worry my self sick. And I’m pretty sure her starting school is worse on me she excited and ready to go. She will have her meter at school I have meeting with nurse and her teacher in July. To go over her care and plan.

Yes that’s her! Thank you!!!

Is she on a meal plan? If so, you can just include the special treats as part of her meal carbs. If you’re in the US I highly recommend getting a 504 plan in place. There’s not a lot of use for it at her age, but it’s better to have it in place from the start. It will help keep everyone on the same page.

Sending them off to school is scary enough. I can only imagine how much harder it is with a little one with T1. Hang in there!

Her doctor has her on low sugar cut startches as much as possiable with her age. But as far as carb counting and all no not yet. I was planning on asking about an504 when we met in July. Now i most certainly will. And yes nerve racking to say the least.

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I always got to have a piece of cake whenever someone had a birthday but it had to be a small piece and I had to learn to tell whoever was cutting the cake that I couldn’t have the frosting on the corners (where the flowers were) but otherwise participating in treats wasn’t a problem.

Everyday snacks and meals were often a problem though so you’ll have to keep a close eye on that to make sure she doesn’t accidentally get extra snacks or worse miss her snacks altogether. Once my school changed my snack time without telling my mom and for two weeks my BG’s until after lunch were crazy because of it.

Ok that makes me feel better. Because I don’t want her left out but st same time she can’t have all that sugar. Which she doesn’t like a lot of sweets anyway but I know if kids are eating cupcakes she would of course want one. Oh no! Her doctor filled out the medical form saying she needed snacks. And I meet with nurse in July so I’ll make sure to stress to her that her snacks are very important. I’m just running out of ideas for what to send daily and worried she will get bored of same thing. Which previous poster said her kids ate same foods for forever so maybe it’s a kid thing.

Re. what to make for snacks, there are a lot of low carb websites online, do a search and look for things she likes and will eat. There are low carb scones, low carb cup cakes, etc. Also you can find lowish carb flatbreads in the supermarket. Paleo and keto recipes are good to look at too, just be careful about sugar with their recipes.

I wouldn’t be very worried about getting bored either. I wasn’t on low carb as a kid but if my mom had sent me to school everyday with crackers and cheese or applesauce I wouldn’t have had a problem with that. Nowadays my snacks are either cheese or nuts with the occasional switch-up.

Some of these are more suitable for adults, but a few would be great for kids.

Bento boxes for kids
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bento+box+kids

Make sure you ask about school policy concerning nuts & nut butters. Some are very strict.

Also, I highly recommend you research 504 plans & prepare ahead of time. Childrenwithdiabetes.com has sample plans for different age groups.

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Thank you I’ll search Pinterest they always have good stuff

Good maybe she won’t mind either!

Going to be ordering that bento box! Well a few of them. And some of those meals look perfect and I love the way the box divides it she not big on mixing

I’ll research that 504 plan more in depth thank you! For the website. Any suggestions on what would be needed?

Our schools allow nuts unless a child with an allergy is in the class then they are banned

http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/504/

Several at the top should give you an idea of what you need.

Thanks!

My daughter was diagnosed at the age of 6 2 years ago. There was not much of a honeymoon. She has a nurse come to the school for both breaks. 1st nutrition break will include a low carb yogurt, strawberries and blueberries and a fibre one bar. She will get anywhere from 25 to 35grams of carbs. Second break she will get a ham sandwich a low carb juice box (costco sells oasis low carb juice. 11g each), unsweetened apple sauce at 12g some carrots and dip and a special snack like a half Joe Louie 17g. So anywhere from 55 to 65g. She is getting to the age now and has been living with this crap disease that ahe is becoming more confident and capable of bolusing herself. She is on the omnipod and wears a g5 cgm so my wife and I can see. I make her lunches in the morning and write up all the carbs on a post it for each lunch. If she doesn’t want to eat something in her lunch, her nurse will subtract it from the total. Lately her sugars have been great at school. But there are days where she will be higher than most. It happens about 3 or 4 consecutive days in a month. I call this basal program growth spurt and have thought about naming it the pre premenstrual. Lol. It’s coming. We bought my daughter a lunch bag that has 2 numbered compartments. 1 for nutrition break 1 and 2 for the second. I hope this helps.