A child with diabetes started at my center a short time ago. He is on insulin shots, and gets checked a few times a day. He eats our lunch, but brings his own snack. He was dx only about a month ago.
Well, at every meal, this child refuses to eat. His own food nor what we serve. Our policy is usually to serve it and forget it, not make an issue out of eating or not eating. Of course, we can't do that with this child. We spend every meal cajoling, begging and bribing this kid to eat. The parents send a (sugar-free but sweet) treat that he only gets if he eats sufficiently, and now he starts whining for that without eating anything.
Naturally his blood sugar drops, so we end up giving him more attention about eating, which he seems to be looking for - he gets this puppy-dog "well I'll just sit here and starve" attitude.
The mom seems to be expecting us to "make" him eat, and then she does dumb things like send the same thing for the kids snack as we're having for lunch, send weird things no one would want to eat (raisin bread/jelly sandwiches), etc.
We know we probably aren't going about this correctly but we don't have any experience in this area and are admittedly afraid of what might happen if his blood sugar drops too low - the readings are usually not too good.
Anybody have any experience with this or advice?
Well, at every meal, this child refuses to eat. His own food nor what we serve. Our policy is usually to serve it and forget it, not make an issue out of eating or not eating. Of course, we can't do that with this child. We spend every meal cajoling, begging and bribing this kid to eat. The parents send a (sugar-free but sweet) treat that he only gets if he eats sufficiently, and now he starts whining for that without eating anything.
Naturally his blood sugar drops, so we end up giving him more attention about eating, which he seems to be looking for - he gets this puppy-dog "well I'll just sit here and starve" attitude.
The mom seems to be expecting us to "make" him eat, and then she does dumb things like send the same thing for the kids snack as we're having for lunch, send weird things no one would want to eat (raisin bread/jelly sandwiches), etc.
We know we probably aren't going about this correctly but we don't have any experience in this area and are admittedly afraid of what might happen if his blood sugar drops too low - the readings are usually not too good.
Anybody have any experience with this or advice?
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