School Lunches

We were lucky in that, after the first two weeks, Andrew was able to eat school lunch. Some diabetic children are forced to take their lunches forever because of the problem of carb counting. That would have killed Andrew! He loves a hot lunch. His school nurse made a stack of cards for the teacher where she writes down everything on his tray. When he finishes, he takes his tray back & she records the percent of food eaten. He takes the card to the nurse for carb counting & insulin. It's a great system & none of his teachers have complained about it.

However, when he was first diagnosed, the teacher had Andrew pick a friend and come eat at the teacher table where she could be sure he wasn't trading food, etc. She only had his best interests in mind, but Andrew did not want to be removed from all the other kids & made to eat with the teachers forever! I insisted that he be able to eat with the other kids. Andrew had to adjust to living a "normal" life with diabetes, and the beginning was so important to guiding his attitude. Giving up the ability to eat with other kids wasn't going to do. I only have a few years to manage diabetes. Andrew has his entire life. I feel like if he learns how to do the things he cares about while taking care of his diabetes now, he'll be more likely to take care of it himself later. I tell him that he can do anything the other kids can do. But I admit that sometimes it's hard to figure out how to make it happen!