A friend of mine was working at a summer camp in New York. She said that they had four diabetic children in the camp, but no nurse. They handled things but were very nervous because they had little training from the parents. She asked me (because I have a diabetic child) if I knew how to get more training and a nurse to help for next year because they are expecting eight to 10 kids with diabetes. Do you have any suggestions? The name of the camp is Camp Pontiac in Copake, New York.

The American Diabetes Association publishes guidelines (Diabetes Care 29:S56-S58, 2006) for the care of children with diabetes in camp settings. These may, however, be of limited utility in your situation since they won’t replace having a medical professional at camp who is experienced or knowledgeable about diabetes.

Many, if not most, large summer camps do hire nurses for the summer, who work off of general algorithms for care of a number of camp-related maladies. It may be advantageous for the families considering sending their children to this particular camp to either explore options for their child that involve American Diabetes Association sponsored or affiliated camps or at least look for a camp that has nursing staff that can handle diabetes issues, such as those listed on this web site. See Camps for Children with Diabetes.

That said, many self-reliant older teens manage to do fine in camp settings when they know enough about diabetes to assume their own care. For younger children (which I would define, personally, as under 14 years of age – at a minimum – for this sort of experience), even if they know all the technical parts of their care, having someone help with adjusting insulin and trouble-shooting problems is mandatory.

LAD