staying home from school

[monkey97]

Under what circumstances do you keep your d child home from school, if they're not showing any signs of other illnesses? I sometimes keep Phillip home if his bsl's are over 15 (270). Other times I'll send him unless he's got ketones as well. I think sometimes I'm too cautious and other times I'm not cautious enough. Thanks.

[Amy C.]

I have never kept my child home from school for out of range sugars. I treat and send him to school. If he has ketones, I suspect he is getting sick, but don't keep him home unless he has other symptoms.

School is extremely important and it is important that he maintains a normal routine, unless sick.

My Philip has had diabetes for 9 years. Fortunately, he has been quite healthy - except for the diabetes.

[Ellen]

My son never missed school due to diabetes. If blood sugar was high, we corrected and off he went. He fortunately never had ketones or vomiting before the school day. He was late (not more than 30 minutes) because we had to do a last minute site change, and it only happened a couple of times in all his years of school.

[Boo]

In the 2 years since my 11 year-old's diagnosis, we have never kept him home for anything diabetes related. Knock on wood, he is pretty healthy otherwise, and rarely gets sick. For out of range numbers, I agree with the others-we'll treat him and send him off to school. On occasion, if he is really high at school (over 300 or so), I'll pop in and give him an extra shot of humalog.

[Tamara Gamble]

I wish I could say the same as the rest of you. Tyler was diagnosed last September and we had chronic ketone problems. Not severe but enough to make him shake really hard. (small ket) I never kept him home for high's only ketone issues primarily because he would get pale and shake and then he would need to sleep it off.

His blood sugar was so unstable last year it was unbelievable. I'd get a phone call from school, he's at 450 and has small ketones. I'd call the doctor, stop by and give him extra insulin, do the water thing, wait until the shakes were gone and go. Two hours later I'd get a call, Ty is 40 . We would treat it and it would start all over again sometimes. It was a nightmare.

Needless to say we were put on the pump within about three months of diagnosis and this helped alot. He is still highly sensitive to insulin as well as food but we have him much more controlled now. Last year once he was on the pump we would only have these incidents about once or twice a month. Since summer began we haven't had any other than a pump malfunction or something a few weeks ago. I am hoping for an entirely different scenario this year.

We are switching endo's I think this had alot to do with it. Now we are going through the end of honeymoon. Figures now that school is about to start. Fortunately at this time I am much better equiped to handle the situation as it has been almost a year. I have a post on the parents of type 1 board and would love to hear from you.

I envy all of you who can say that your child never missed school due to diabetes or who can say that your child didn't spend most of the school year in the office. Tyler really struggled last year because of all of this and it was really disenheartening for him. I look forward to this year as I feel it will be a totaly different situation.

Good Luck! God Bless! Tami

[nantomsuethom]

We would keep Thomas home if he had ketones, but take him to school when they were gone. In 5th grade he had gym class first thing, 9am. He rarely has ketones but did wake up a few times in the last 2 1/2 years with bad sites.
Middle school doesn't start until almost 10am so if he were to wake up with ketones they would be gone before school started.
One time I kept him home for high bg, he was put on a steroid for his asthma and I couldn't get his bg under 300. That will not happen again (steroids)!

[allisa]

Hi, the only time I have kept Ty home for Diabetes-related problems is when he has a SEVERE low during the night and awakes with Starvation Ketones....he is horrendous headache, needs to throw up a few times and usually sleeps until at least noon. Unfortutnately we have had this happen a couple fo times. But I wouldn't keep him home just because his BS was out of range.

[Mariel's Mom]

I agree with all of your comments -
Have not kept mariel out of school due to blood sugar readings - She has been late a few times if she had moderate keytones in the morning - to make sure we were flushing them out. If her sugars were a little high or she had small keytones, I would make extra trips to the school to make sure that the sugars were coming down and that the keytones were flushing.

I have kept her out for the normal things that keep kids out from school - flu like symptoms, throwing up. ear infections etc. which always result in higher sugars and high ketones in Mariel.


If we had incidences with very high sugars in the absence of illness that we could not seem to get down - I would keep her home - luckily that has not been the case

[pookas]

I only kept Hunter out of school for about 2 weeks after dx because we had to get his numbers and insulin adjusted enough to go. He also had a mild stomach virus at the time. I haven't had any morning BS problems, but if he was high, I'd probably just correct and send him unless he had ketones.

[butterflygal291]

i stay home from school whenever my blood sugar goes over 400 or i have ketones.

[LantusFiend]

I have gone to school despite diabetes, hadn't thought that maybe I shouldn't. However, so far my blood sugar has been so out of control that going to class has been mostly a waste of time. I can't see and I can't concentrate.