- Stress that your child doesn’t need a special diabetic diet – just the healthy, balanced diet recommended for every child – and that ‘diabetic foods’ are neither necessary nor recommended.
- If your child has any particular dietary needs, explain this to school staff.
- Depending on your child’s insulin regimen, they may need to have meals and snacks at regular times. If so, tell staff that your child will need to be at the same lunch sitting each day and may also have to be near the front of the queue.
- Tell staff that your child may need to eat snacks in class, either because they need a snack at a certain time or to treat a hypo.
If your child needs help counting carbohydrates, think about how this can be done. For packed lunches, you can tell staff the amount of carbohydrates in each piece of food, so they can help your child work out how much insulin to have. If your child has school dinners, it may be possible for catering staff to give you menus, which usually have a nutritional breakdown.- Advise school staff on what to do if your child doesn’t eat all of their meal.
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