My 11-year-old son was just diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He is having a very difficult time with the finger pricking. We have the gentlest lancets available, yet he is so reluctant to test. He is fine with the insulin injections, diet and exercise. He was diagnosed less than 2 weeks ago. We have a great support team at our clinic. Any ideas or help with this problem would be appreciated. It is often a battle at test time.

Keep in touch with your diabetes team to talk about this. As they know your child, they will be able to help you best. It sounds like you have the best materials for blood glucose monitoring, however it might be a good idea to do a blood sugar in front of your diabetes educator to see if there are any technique issues. They can also talk individually with your child to see if there are any concerns or worries about the blood sugar checks. I once had a ten year old patient who would not check his blood sugar because of some misconceptions about what blood glucose monitoring would do to his fingers. After talking with him and answering his questions, the problem resolved.

Your child may also just “plain old upset” about the diabetes, and may need to work things out a little over time. In this case, although he won’t like to do his blood sugars, he’ll do them with less of an issue over time.

LM