I'm having the same problem with my 12 yr old daughter Paige. She did something really dumb at school 2 weeks ago. She went to the nurse at lunch, checked her bg and told the nurse it was 416.Paige does everything so quickly that the nurse didn't get a chance to see what the meter reading actually was.Lucky for her the nurse called me to tell me that Paige wasn't feeling well because of her high bg. I brought her home and was logging info from her meter when I noticed the discrepancy. She gave herself a correction bolus for a bg of 416 but the meter read 116. I asked Paige about it and she proceeded to make up an elaborate lie of how she thought her meter was wrong so she used the spare at school, checked her ketones, and everything was reading high. I believed her.(so stupid) A little voice in my head kept telling me something was up but before I had a chance to call the school,I had a scare.I heard her rummaging loudy around the cupboards looking for food. By the time I got to the living room, she was lying on the couch, staring into space, all sweaty and glassy eyed, and not answering me. I forced her to drink 2 juice boxes and managed to get some food into her. It took a while but she finally started to come around. After that incident, I knew something was up so I got on the phone with the school nurse. Turns out Paige lied about her bg, using the spare meter(had no batteries in it), and checking her ketones. I have no idea why she did what she did. She knows that if she's not feeling well or if something is wrong, I have no problem picking her up from school. I lectured her for a good 20 mins about how close she came to really hurting herslf. Her response was:" so what, I don't care." If she had stayed at school who knows what would have happened. The nurse and I had a long talk that day. Paige now has to sit and show the nurse her meter and her pump. It's unfortunate that Paige has lost some of the trust that the nurse and I had in her. Paige is upset now and feels like she's being treated like a baby but what can I do.She played a very dangerous game and got caught. I hope there is never a repeat of this incident but who knows. I hear the teenage years are going to be tougher.

Lorie

This may be harsh (and I'm not exactly sure how to do it) but my mom suggested when I was going through this phase that she might need to take me to some diabetic rehabilitation type center. If you show Olivia that this isn't just fun and games, that it's serious with risk of blindness, amputations, even death, then she might wake up to the reality. Unfortunately, diabetic kids have to face the difficulty of life a lot sooner than most. It's not fair, but it has to be done.

My son Sam used to lie constantly about his bgs, usually to hide a high caused by not checking then snacking, etc. Anyway, I dragged him to see the social worker on our diabetes team (which also includes the nutritionist, the dr and the NP - GREAT team!)who talked to him for a while. Then she called me in and told me that what he was doing was perfectly normal for a kid of that age (he was 10 then) and that to not punish him for lying would be a huge mistake. Punish kid for the lies, not for having diabetes. If your kid lied about something not diabetes, wouldn't you punish them? When he lies a lot, I try to find out what is the motivation. Is school pure hell, etc. Then we try to devise ways around the hell. Maybe some one-on-one parent time (lunch and a movie?), or a new book, or something to remind him that he is a good kid. So we try to catch him doing things RIGHT in addition to catching him doing things wrong. We thank him for checking his bg (regardless of the number), and for volunteering to change his pump site (which he HATES to do), and for keeping track of how much insulin he has in his reservoir.... And when he lies about diabetes things, we punish him just like we punish him for every other lie. He loses TV or computer (whatever)for a day or three, and we remind him it is because he lied....

Just to be clear, my non-d kids lie too. I try to think it isn't because I'm a bad parent but rather that kids test boundaries. We just see the diabetes lies as having more impact than a lie about homework, or teeth-brushing and expect that our kids will be smarter than that. Ha. As if.

My son Sam used to lie constantly about his bgs, usually to hide a high caused by not checking then snacking, etc. Anyway, I dragged him to see the social worker on our diabetes team (which also includes the nutritionist, the dr and the NP - GREAT team!)who talked to him for a while. Then she called me in and told me that what he was doing was perfectly normal for a kid of that age (he was 10 then) and that to not punish him for lying would be a huge mistake. Punish kid for the lies, not for having diabetes. If your kid lied about something not diabetes, wouldn't you punish them? When he lies a lot, I try to find out what is the motivation. Is school pure hell, etc. Then we try to devise ways around the hell. Maybe some one-on-one parent time (lunch and a movie?), or a new book, or something to remind him that he is a good kid. So we try to catch him doing things RIGHT in addition to catching him doing things wrong. We thank him for checking his bg (regardless of the number), and for volunteering to change his pump site (which he HATES to do), and for keeping track of how much insulin he has in his reservoir.... And when he lies about diabetes things, we punish him just like we punish him for every other lie. He loses TV or computer (whatever)for a day or three, and we remind him it is because he lied....

Just to be clear, my non-d kids lie too. I try to think it isn't because I'm a bad parent but rather that kids test boundaries. We just see the diabetes lies as having more impact than a lie about homework, or teeth-brushing and expect that our kids will be smarter than that. Ha. As if.

I wandered over here from Six until Me. This really resonates with me. I did a lot of diabetes lying when I was a teenager. (I was diagnosed at age 3.) It's a crappy situation to be in. Teenagers in general have so little control over their lives, and here we are asking them to control something uncontrollable. Messing up and being weak is part of being human. If you do decide to punish her for lying, I would make it really clear that the punishment is for the lying and not for messing up her diabetes care (missing a test or eating unwisely or whatever it was). It's so easy to get into a negative state of mind about making mistakes in diabetes care. Seeing a bad number as being a bad person.

I grew out of fudging my log book once I was the one taking myself to the doctor and making my own diabetes choices. Once my parents weren't there to be upset at the numbers or my choices, I realized it was silly to lie because I was the one getting hurt. Even now (I'm 25) I sometimes notice myself "ignoring" something I ate because I feel guilty for my choices. And it's just silly. The food is eaten and I should own up to myself.

Hey Julia,
I just picked my 14 year old daughter up from diabetes camp on Sunday. They were raving about how responsible she is, and how knowledgeable about her care, the first to check her BG, etc., etc. I jokingly asked them if we were talking about the same child. My daughter "forgets" to check most of the time at home and forget about it when she's out with friends. Anyway, here she is at camp, where everyone has the "betes" and she's a superstar. The nagging gets through, and your daughter will be okay in the long run. It's the teenager in her that makes her do it.
BTW--absolutely punish for lying. That's the scary thing. Will she be where she says she is and doing what she's supposed to be doing? Whenever the "forgetting" gets frequent or there are outright lies, we tighten up the supervision again.
And yes, I was glowing with pride as they raved about my kid, proud of her and proud that I was up to the challenge of raising this awesome young woman. Hang in there...