Sleepover

Carmen · #1 06-27-2012, 07:47 AM

Hello,

I need advice please. My son received his first sleepover invitation and he really wants to be allowed to attend.

He uses a pump and boluses by himself and can do relatively good carb counting. He calls when in doubt. However, we do test him at night because I found that his BG is most volatile during nightime.

I do not feel comfortable at all without testing at night. What should I do?

Serenia · #2 06-27-2012, 07:54 AM

Well if they all stay up late - perhaps he can just test himself at 8pm, 10pm, midnight - every 2 hours that they stay up. He needs to stay away from the sugary pop (soda) - drink diet pop only - take his own diet pop if he has too.

The point is that if he doesnt attend, he may not get any other invitations because the kids get the message - Dont ask so and so - he cant come and stay because of his diabetes. That is not going to make him feel normal.

You do want to try and allow him to have fun, and be with his friends - and as long as he can control his diet, he should be fine.

This is MY experience with a sleepover - My son went on a sleepover 3 weeks ago and drank all that sugary pop. But we didnt know he was suffering from high BG - and because of all the pop he drank he started exhibiting all the signs of a high BG so he was finally diagnosed. He has been officially T1D for 12 days now.

MomTo4Girls · #3 06-27-2012, 08:05 AM

My daughter has her first sleepover this Friday. What I am going to do is give her a cell phone with an alarm so that she can wake up and test at 3am. She will then text me the number and we can decide what to do based on her bg. She is still MDI. I also informed the Mom that this is what we would be doing and the Mom actually said she would set her own alarm as well to help DD out!!

I am very nervous of course... But I am just trying to be as prepared as possible and hoping everything goes well!

nanhsot · #4 06-27-2012, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carmen

Hello,

I need advice please. My son received his first sleepover invitation and he really wants to be allowed to attend.

He uses a pump and boluses by himself and can do relatively good carb counting. He calls when in doubt. However, we do test him at night because I found that his BG is most volatile during nightime.

I do not feel comfortable at all without testing at night. What should I do?

I think you have a couple of options:
-have him take a cell phone, call or text him at the designated time and have him test himself, then talk him through any needed correction.
-Have him run high during this sleepover, i.e. lower his basals a bit and/or have him eat a snack before bed without dosing. One somewhat high night won't hurt, you can correct in the morning.
-if the mom is a close enough friend, have her wake him at the designated time and ask him to test, then have her text you with the info. I'd do this in a heartbeat with certain friends and no way with others, so this has to be a friend you truly feel comfortable asking this of and know you won't mess up future invites.

I personally find that kids tend to snack a lot and stay up way too late anyway, so testing is pretty easy and they tend to run high anyway.

This is one of those scary/anxious events that you'll stress about and it'll all go great and subsequent sleepovers will be no big deal. Good luck finding a solution that feels good for you.

Joretta · #5 06-27-2012, 08:27 AM

Definetly let him go find a comfort zone. Not sure how much time you have as I type this but - try running him a little higher at home to see if it helps reassure you that if he does it at the sleep over he will be okay.

hawkeyegirl · #6 06-27-2012, 08:44 AM

Guess I'll go against the grain here, but I think 7 years old is too young for a sleepover at a non-family member's house. Throw diabetes in the mix and no way, Jose. Way too much responsibility for a 7 year old.

I would tell him that he could go to the party, and that I'd pick him up at bedtime. (At age 7, I assume the host parents will make them go to sleep at some point.) If he wants to go back for breakfast in the morning, I'd run him back over for that too.

nanhsot · #7 06-27-2012, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hawkeyegirl

Guess I'll go against the grain here, but I think 7 years old is too young for a sleepover at a non-family member's house. Throw diabetes in the mix and no way, Jose. Way too much responsibility for a 7 year old.

I would tell him that he could go to the party, and that I'd pick him up at bedtime. (At age 7, I assume the host parents will make them go to sleep at some point.) If he wants to go back for breakfast in the morning, I'd run him back over for that too.

I didn't catch the age in my first read of the question. 7 is a bit young for this level of responsiblity, my kids (nonD at the time) didn't do a true sleepover until at least age 9 or 10/3rd gradeish unless it was with family members.

I'd come up with a compromise where he can go for all the fun but get picked up at whatever the bedtime is. If they are watching a movie or whatever have him take his PJs and change into them, watch the movie, etc, then pick him up to sleep at home, bring back in the morning for whatever is planned.

I have kids do this NOW, and my kids are teens! My daughter has had friends who simply did not like sleeping away from home so they'd enjoy all the fun this way.

selketine · #8 06-27-2012, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hawkeyegirl

Guess I'll go against the grain here, but I think 7 years old is too young for a sleepover at a non-family member's house. Throw diabetes in the mix and no way, Jose. Way too much responsibility for a 7 year old.

I would tell him that he could go to the party, and that I'd pick him up at bedtime. (At age 7, I assume the host parents will make them go to sleep at some point.) If he wants to go back for breakfast in the morning, I'd run him back over for that too.

I agree unless you have a very responsible 7 year old or you know the parents super well and they are happy (!) to get up and check on him in the middle of the night. It is a process to get them to the point of being responsible enough to handle a sleepover - or being off on their own with food and bolusing, etc. It would help if he had some "half sleepover" experience with being on his own and bolusing and calling or texting you the numbers, etc.

Beach bum · #9 06-27-2012, 09:29 AM

Even though he handles most of his responsibilities already, IMO 7 years old is still to young to sleep over and be so in charge of his own care. Actually the rule in our house was no sleep overs diabetes or not until 10, but that's just our home.

I agree with the allowing to stay late and then bring back for breakfast (we call these half sleepovers).

Pauji5 · #10 06-27-2012, 10:29 AM

[QUOTE=MomTo4Girls;805638]My daughter has her first sleepover this Friday. What I am going to do is give her a cell phone with an alarm so that she can wake up and test at 3am. She will then text me the number and we can decide what to do based on her bg.

QUOTE]

this is what we do, however, I set my alarm for 10 minutes after she has hers set for....if my alarm goes off and I haven't heard from her, then I call her...this has happened only once...she slept through the alarm....otherwise, this has worked quite well....

Good luck!