When kids with diabetes can do self checks or injections

Pediatrician Jamie Wood, MD Clinical Diabestes, shares advice for parents on how to tell when your child with diabetes is ready to do blood sugar checks and injections on their own
When Is A Child With Diabetes Ready To Do Self Checks And Injections
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When kids with diabetes can do self checks or injections

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The decision of when a child is ready to give their own injection really has to be individualized. I have a teenager who is still working on giving her own injections. I have a little four year old who, with very close, direct supervision, is able to give his own injection. In general, when a child starts heading into Elementary School, with supervision, they start to express an interest in doing their own injections and we encourage that. If a child is not ready, we also encourage to take their time and have more support in doing the injections. Children will often start doing their own blood sugar checks on their fingers from a very early age. I have toddlers that will do their own blood sugar checks, again, always with supervision. It gives them a sense of control. This is something that's happening to their body and they will have a sense of control knowing that they are in control of when and exactly how it happens. As soon as the child is ready, we encourage it, but always with adult supervision.

Pediatrician Jamie Wood, MD Clinical Diabestes, shares advice for parents on how to tell when your child with diabetes is ready to do blood sugar checks and injections on their own

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Jamie R. Wood, MD

Pediatrician, Clinical Diabetes, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Dr. Jamie Wood was born and raised in Vermont, where she also attended medical school. She completed her pediatric residency at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, and her endocrine fellowship at Children’s Hospital Boston and the Joslin Diabetes Center of Harvard University. She moved to the Los Angeles area in 2008 and is now the Director of Clinical Diabetes Programs at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Wood’s specialty is the care of youth with type 1 and type 2 diabetes—a field she fell in love with during a medical student rotation at a summer camp for youth with diabetes.  She also enjoys gardening, cooking, hiking, and playing with her husband and two children, Jackson and Olivia.

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