School trips are the most challenging, says Eve who supports a young girl with diabetes at primary school.
I supported a girl with Type 1 diabetes as a Teaching Assistant (TA) while she was in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
She was diagnosed with diabetes whilst in nursery at the school and so I trained to support her as she moved up the school, as well as being a class TA.
While I was working with her we went on numerous school trips, and the thing I found most difficult was the timing - often the trip locations would allocate a lunch time for our school which differed to the time she was used to having lunch, which meant that I felt anxious that she would be hypo during the trip.
I supported a girl with Type 1 diabetes as a Teaching Assistant (TA) while she was in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. She was diagnosed with diabetes whilst in nursery at the school and so I trained to support her as she moved up the school, as well as being a class TA.
While I was working with her we went on numerous school trips, and the thing I found most difficult was the timing - often the trip locations would allocate a lunch time for our school which differed to the time she was used to having lunch, which meant that I felt anxious that she would be hypo during the trip.
On one occasion we went to Chiltern Open Air museum, and had to eat lunch al fresco, and I was aware that she was slightly reticent to inject in front of others, so it was difficult to find somewhere where she could inject in privacy, which was also hygienic.
In a lot of places it was hard to find somewhere, other than ladies toilets, which felt appropriate to take her to in order to inject. We also used to go swimming weekly, and as the swimming lessons were early in the morning it was difficult to make sure that she would not become hypo while swimming.
Her mother told us that she wasn't to enter the pool until her blood sugar levels were above 5.5, which meant that often she was unable to enter the pool straight away, and on a few occasions had to miss out altogether as her blood sugar levels did not rise, despite drinking apple juice. It was also difficult for her as we had to test her every ten minutes to check, which I think may have been distressing for her.
I hope this is useful, please let me know if I can tell you any more.
