Diabetes Care School

Diabetes care program at school

• Educate your child and school nurse how to give insulin to your child, how much insulin to give, and how to store the insulin. Your child may get it as a shot, use an insulin pen, or have an insulin pump.
• Educate your child and school staffs about the symptoms of hypoglycemia (very low blood glucose level) and the treatment options; also provide your child with glucose rich food. Symptoms may vary, so provide information about symptoms particular to your child.
• Make sure that your child's teacher and the school staff know that your child has diabetes and have permission to eat a snack anytime he or she needs it.
• In case of pump users, educate about the pump usage and common problems such as Infusion interruption (cannula can accidentally fall out or get pulled out) and pump can run out of insulin.
• Educate your child and school staffs about the symptoms of hyperglycemia (very high blood glucose level) and the treatment options. Symptoms may vary, so provide information about symptoms particular to your child.
• Instruct your child when to eat, what to eat, how much to eat and what should not eat.
• Educate your child or school nurse how often and when to test your child's blood glucose. Also if symptoms of low or high blood glucose appear, immediate blood test may be needed.
• Provide information on when and how to test your child's urine for ketones. The school nurse and school staff members should know how to test urine for ketones and know what to do if the results are above normal.
• Include contact information for parent(s), caregivers, doctor and the health care providers.

Provide your child with all necessary diabetes kits

• Home blood glucose meter
• Insulin and Insulin delivering device
• Glucose rich snacks used to treat low blood glucose or Glucagon - a hormone produced by the pancreas that causes the liver to release its stored sugar into the bloodstream.
• Ketone testing kit
• contact information for patents, caregivers, doctors and health care providers.

Next: Diabetes Pregnancy