Especially with younger school-aged children, they might not understand the importance of eating their regular snacks. Ask the teacher to help remind your child to eat these snacks.

Your child’s teacher is the best person to observe your child during the day. A common occurrence for children with diabetes is that they develop low blood sugar before lunch. Have the teacher monitor your child to see if there are patterns of lethargy that should be noted and altered (possibly with an extra snack). The teacher can help remind the child to do blood testing as well.

3. Prepare your child

Before your child goes to school, be sure that they understand diabetes. You will want them to know what their responsibilities are.

Remember that as your child grows up, you are transferring the responsibility of monitoring and regulating their own blood sugar from your hands to their hands. During this transition period, you might find that your child makes a mistake, and occasionally misses snacks. This is a normal part of the growing up experience. Help your child overcome these mistakes, but allow your child to make these mistakes in the first place.

Consider getting a medic alert bracelet for your child, or similar piece of identification that explains that they have diabetes so that emergencies can be averted or cared for properly.

4. Help pack the lunch.

When your child is young, you will probably be the one packing their lunch to take to school. Be sure to pack extra snacks in case your child gets low blood sugar at school. Or leave some extra snacks with the teacher if you are worried that your child would eat them all at once. Pack some snacks that are quick to eat, such as carrot sticks instead of an apple, so that your child won’t have to