School is a very big part of your life. It is really important to prepare yourself to handle diabetes at school just as you would at home. It can make a big difference in your experience when you manage it well.
Many school rules are not made for kids with diabetes in mind. You may need to test and do insulin injection in class, eat snacks when necessary, eat lunch at a certain time with plenty of time to finish the meal and also have easy access to water and time to take bathroom breaks.
It is important to ensure that you, your parent and your school teachers are aware of your Diabetes Care plan whilst you are at school. YDA can help with that, if your parents need help. Send them to this page.
Friends in school
Sometimes other kids at school who don’t understand diabetes may hassle or tease you about being different.
Here are some things you can do about it:
- Let your parents know and they can tell your teacher what’s going on. Sometimes it helps if your parents can teach your classmates and their parents about diabetes.
- Tell your best friends about your diabetes. They can support you, cheer you up and back you up if other kids are hassling you.
- Set the record straight. Kids may say silly things, teach them about diabetes to help them understand:
You didn’t get diabetes because you ate too many sweets. Type 1 is caused by some of your cells attacking the cells in your body that make insulin and that means those cells can’t make insulin anymore. It’s nothing that you or anyone else has done, and it’s certainly nothing to do with eating sweets.
You can’t catch diabetes. It’s nothing to do with catching it from someone else like you can a cold. Otherwise there’d be a whole lot more people with it – think how quickly a cold goes around your class!
Don’t keep it to yourself.
There are lots of people who can help you, and different people can help you with different problems. There’s your Mum or Dad, brothers and sisters, a friend, your nurse, a teacher, or a school counsellor if there is one.