We’re lucky our son feels his lows usually (not all of them but most of the time.) But, we’ve had a problem where, if we ask him if he feels high, low or in range, he is usually spot-on, but he doesn’t tell us he’s feeling that way unless we ask. I feel like if we can get him to make this leap (telling people he’s feeling low unprompted) we could avoid a lot of crashing lows at daycare and when he’s with other caregivers. This is especially important because our bedrock teacher, who’s super sharp and always on top of his trends, is leaving our preschool and the teachers left to care for him are less experienced and (seemingly) less intuitive about things.
We keep telling him that if he feels that way, he should come tell us or a teacher, but so far he hasn’t really done that. Any ideas for how to help him make that leap?
I could be wrong about this, but I wonder if he doesn’t really identify that the way he’s feeling at a moment in time is low, high, or in range until you ask? I’m just wondering if he’s reached an age where he could be able to make that connection before you ask about it, or if you asking actually makes him think about it and realize that he’s feeling a certain way because he’s low or high.
I wonder if talking about how he’s feeling (in addition to being low, high, etc.) more often might help him jump to making the connection on his own? You may already be doing this, so not sure I’m helping much. Unfortunately, I can’t think of any other suggestions at the moment. I’ll keep trying though
This is a good point. I often argue with my Libre (in my head…so far… ) when it’s telling me to check my BG because I’m going low. I’m realizing I’m incredibly resistant to acknowledging and dealing with anything when low.
How about some kind of reward system? Like if he says he is high or low, and he is right, he can get some allowance bonus or something else he might want?
Part of the problem - which I know can affect kids with things besides diabetes - is that they always know parents will fix it for them.
I know that you can’t just ignore the highs or lows, you have to go to him and correct it. But I can totally understand his perspective!
"I am having so much fun playing right now. I don’t want to stop and get juice or insulin. My parents will fix it for me…I will keep playing, because I don’t want to stop! "
That makes perfect sense to me. Sometimes I am in the middle of a project or engaged in an activity, and I will ignore a low or high until I am done.
Is he usually busy when it happens?
Is he task oriented? I am task-oriented, and that is totally a thing I have to deal with, all the time.
Things like, “Get off the ladder and fix your blood sugar, you dumb_ _ _!”, are conversations I have with myself all the time.
Is he task oriented? I am task-oriented, and that is totally a thing I have to deal with, all the time.
This is him to a tee. He can be incredibly focused and analytical and his latest thing is drawing – so he’ll go through an entire sketchpad in an afternoon. Or he’ll build a giant structure with kapla blocks. So yeah, a lot of the time he’s engaged in something and probably doesn’t want to stop.
The trouble with the rewards is figuring out a suitable reward. He’s too young for an allowance and he can’t really count LOL, so it has to be something else. Maybe we can pick a toy or something like art supplies and if he gets a certain number of check-marks on some kind of chart, then he gets to pick out a cool set of watercolor pencils or something.
Other ideas: You can let him pick the restaurant you are eating from (from your choices, not memory), You can let him pick from two movies the family will see, you can let him pick a dinner choice for tomorrow, you can reward him with special mom or dad time, you can let him earn additional tv or ipad or whatever time, you can let him select the dessert the next time you are eating out…
Would just like to say I can get “stuck” in just about any kind of activity when my blood sugar starts to drop—it really gets harder and harder to focus enough to make the decision to treat— but CREATIVE things are the hardest. Or activities that involve the task of organizing. For me, they’re a double whammy. I’m SURE they cause a drop in blood sugar, but they also make it hard to identify and act. Maybe when he’s into these things, he could learn to take periodic breaks, whether or not he feels anything, to check status.
My sons do not have diabetes, but my oldest is on the autism spectrum disorder. Finding ways to encourage him to communicate using words was the main focus in our early years. I made games of everything. It wasn’t necessarily intuitive, but at some point I learned that the emphasis needed to be placed on the EFFORT more than the final result. I think everyone in here is getting to the same idea, but if I were doing this with my son, I’d pick a game that focused on the attempt and nothing more. Exposure. I learned how to introduce an idea, a concept, a vocabulary word through exposure but then rewarded even the smallest effort on his end to use it. Zone of proximal development was the basis in which I developed his games… the idea that you take a skill he has, and then bridge it to another that is JUST beyond his current level. Baby steps. If it were my boy, we might play a game called “I think my sugar’s low”. Early rewards would be granted for just using the words. They’d be generous. As he started to use those more consistently, I’d up the ante. One token for initiating the game and one for guessing a blood sugar. I’d even reward for a wrong number…unless he’s already beyond that. In our case, it would really be the skill we would be encouraging, and we had to be careful not to hang too much emphasis on the accuracy of the result. I guess what I’m saying is, if you want him to learn how to tell you he might be low, you start with a game that targets just that… the use of those words. How accurately he can identify his number, another very important skill, can be a game all of its own.
Because I’m both a perfect parent AND a perfect diabetic… that’s how I can just rattle all that off with such ease.
My T1 son is 2 and nearing potty training time. We have potty trained our other 3 kids with canadian smarties (the chocolate ones not the glucose ones)
I have just been thinking of what to use for our little guy. I like @ClaudnDaye’s booty idea but I need to scale down as the potty thing requires smaller rewards.
Sometimes it seems like it would be easier if someone asked me that question, “do you feel high, low, or in range?” Than to just recognize that sensation out of the many other thoughts, feelings, distractions, emotions, etc that might be racing through ones mind at any given moment. Eg sometimes I just find myself getting irrationally frustrated with whatever I’m doing at the moment… say I’m gardening and for no definable reason I just seem to be getting pissed off and frustrated. In that moment, in my thought process it’s because gardening sucks, not because my blood sugar is low… so actually in some ways as a kid gets older and has more thoughts etc racing through their mind it might get even harder to just spontaneously realize that they feel low… but the bright side is they get more capable of just being trained to check for themselves and respond appropriately
I know it’s generally a bad parenting tactic to use name-calling or sarcasm in communication with your children, buuuuut… I’m about to start calling them all sticky asses.
) when it’s telling me to check my BG because I’m going low. I’m realizing I’m incredibly resistant to acknowledging and dealing with anything when low.
