First of all, the child's illness should be dealt with openly. Diabetes is a chronic disease and not a disability in the strict sense. Of course, the child has to accept various impairments in everyday life, but the more openly this is dealt with, the easier it is for the child. Open discussions with the teachers and also tips at parents' evenings can provide valuable help and overcome hurdles. After all, no one is immune to this disease. Children who are still healthy today can develop diabetes themselves tomorrow. Parents should make that clear to their children and point out to them that the sick classmate is still a valuable person, a person like everyone else! And for the parents of the child who has diabetes, it is equally important to make them understand that they are a child like any other and to let them grow up as normally as possible.
Of course there are always festivals and celebrations at school, but for the diabetic child that doesn't mean that they can't take part in them. All the child has to do is keep an eye on their blood sugar level. Depending on the age of the child and the status of the illness, the child will usually be so well trained in dealing with his illness that there are no abnormalities at all. As part of the hospital program, there are always training courses and events for children, which address the fact that one is “normal”, that certain problems or limitations can arise and how these can be avoided. Even if it is not actually allowed to eat or drink anything during class, the child with diabetes has a special status here . Because it MUST be guaranteed that this child is allowed to eat or drink something at any time and is also allowed to check its blood sugar level at any time. A good teacher will find an intelligent or even interesting solution for this and maybe even involve the whole class in caring for the classmate. It must be clear that there can also be emergencies here in which everyone has to know what to do. Perhaps diabetes is also a topic for biology lessons, but then the teacher should perhaps also make other limitations or diseases a topic there. Because if you take a closer look, it turns out that many children and young people have various “ disabilities ”, one wears glasses, the next suffers from an allergy and another has a lactose intolerance, all people are something very special.
What to look out for
