My son is nine and a half years old and wears a pump for type 1 diabetes. Are there products for boys, other than backpacks and fanny packs, to carry around their meters or sugar source? Pockets usually aren’t big enough and carrying around a lunchbox is not always such a “cool” look for him.

According to parents on our web site mailing list, their sons use the following: a nylon string backpack; pockets for glucose tablets with meter and such in a small fanny pack worn under several layers of shirts; cargo pants (many pockets); a sports duffel bag; and hidden pocket hoodies. These hoodies have a hidden pocket behind the front pocket that has a zipper across the top and a huge grommet right above the belly button. These are meant for kids to wear their iPods in school, run the ear buds through the grommet, up the inside of the hoodie and tuck discreetly in the ears. You can put the pump in the pocket and thread the pump tubing through the grommet. One mom found them at J.C. Penney.

BH