Raising a diabetic blog

A time for new successes and challenges January 5, 2010

Happy new year everyone!

Our new year started yesterday with Ayden going into “the big boy room” at daycare otherwise known as the preschool room. What this means is he will be in a room that is not protected from the outside world with anything other than one small door. His other room had a separate door to keep the munchkins restrained.

But more importantly, this also means a new team of people taking care of Ayden – monitoring him, calculating his food, and caring for him. While we have only had one change like this since Ayden was diagnosed, my thoughts have always been - the more people who know and understand Ayden’s diabetes the better. So each time a change like this is made Phil and I will meet the new team to go over things like small signs to watch for to head off a sever low or high and what needs to happen when Ayden’s numbers are not on target.

Because of the time of year, setting up a meeting was not possible until today, so I had to cross my fingers and trust everything to go smoothly yesterday. It was a bit stressful, but I know there are several people in the daycare that care for Ayden and kept half an eye on him to ensure a smooth transition.

In the mean time I put my lesson plan together, and so far have included topics on:

• Low levels – what they are and what to do
• High levels – what they are and what to do
• Ketones – what they are and what to do
  • Dehydration ketones
  • High level ketones
• How to calculate carbohydrates and how to bolus Ayden
• What his insulin pump does and what to watch/listen for
• Mistakes and lessons learned -  this is an important topic for me as I know mistakes will be made and we all make them, but keeping an open line of communication helps reveal a mistake sooner and helps everyone involved learn from it.

I know many parents deal with this on a yearly basis when their child moves classrooms in the fall, so my lesson plan and my approach aren’t nearly as refined as a veteran parent. So if you have any advice or insights for additions or revisions, please let me know.

In addition, I came across a new resource today that is helping to link and highlight all the moms that have diabetic children – D-Mom Blog.