To ‘EDUCATE’ this teacher?

[Misinformation]

DS has Type 1 diabetes. He has to put up with stupid comments like ‘did you eat too much sugar’ regularly.

At school today, a boy asked him this. Teacher nearby started telling him what Type 1 is and he asked if anyone could get it and could you get it randomly.

Teacher said No which DS was quite pissed of about as it seems to imply he’s done something to get it or it’s in his genes (it’s not). He’s not the type to correct a teacher so I think I should?

Quite annoyed as if you’re going to educate someone, do it correctly!

It is something that you can basically ‘catch’ and anyone can get it. They haven’t separated a gene that contributes to T1 if there is one so anyone can get it as they wouldn’t know they have a gene.

Well done making out it's something you can catch. You are now sentencing your child to having very few friends and other children avoiding in fear they can catch it from them.

You are arguing semantics with the teacher but you saying you can catch it is completely wrong.

Good luck going all guns blazing😐

And these are not autoimmune diseases, and the autoimmune disease is inherited.

I am very worried about the number of adults on here likely to mess up these easy science marks for their children taking GCSEs by muddying the water with irrelevancies.

So it IS inherited?
OP says "it implies it's in his genes...it's not".

I have coeliacs disease and I was told while my children would not technically inherit it that they have an increased chance of getting it. With ceoliac disease my immune system over reacted and killed off my ability to digest gluten. My two children have a single ceoliac gene but don't thankfully have ceoliac disease. But only people with ceoliac genes can develop ceoliacs.
I thought type 1 diabetes was the same - they might not have identified the gene yet but it is an autoimmune response killing off someone's ability to create insulin? I am guessing people are genetically predisposed to this?
Anyway, what this really is you understandably are feeling protective of your son with a long term condition that must be shit for him to have to manage especially when he is a teen and his peers are munching on sugar whenever they can. I wish him the best and hope he can rise above the comments.

This.

yes, it is inherited - the autoimmune disease T1 diabetes runs in families.

Quite often it isn't obvious though, a in earlier generations a sudden death in a teen might not have been identified as being down to diabetes.

That is how I would interpret it.

As a teacher, I needed to know how to support a child with Type 1 diabetes and how to act in an emergency but it wasn't necessary for me to know everything about it. She was right in saying the other child couldn't catch it from your child. She didn't say he could never have it.

YABU for shouting in your OP, as well as being far too easily offended.

I’ve taught four children with diabetes in primary school. In each case, I and my co-workers were educated by a paediatric nurse and the parent as to how to manage that specific child’s needs.
One of the other things that needs consideration is the understanding and responses of their classmates. I think the teacher may have been a bit clumsy if the report is accurate, but I’ve known primary children that think you can catch cancer from a peer who has it. Or who freak out when a child with CP coughs for the same reason.
Go and talk calmly to the teacher and find out what happened and what they actually meant to convey. Then meet and include your child in the dialogue, so it’s all clarified.

@IamfeelingConfused Yes, that's my understanding too. I also understand that there are possible genetic links between different autoimmune diseases (coeliac and T1 diabetes for example - both in my close family).

I am surprised that OP stated that "it just happens" because that's not what anyone says, I didn't think? Certainly not what Diabetes UK say.

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/research/research-round-up/research-spotlight/research-spotlight-what-causes-type-1-diabetes#:~:text=The%20genetics%20of%20Type%201,chances%20of%20you%20developing%20it.

By all means EDUCATE the teacher, because we're not doctors and are generally just doing our best when it comes to medical conditions, but please don't be a dick about it. It is obvious she was trying to protect your ds from the bully, and was trying to nip in the bud any suggestion that other kids could catch it from him.

The teacher should have been accurate, and the child didn't ask if its contagious, can you catch it, he asked if anyone can get it/develop it randomly/suddenly.

The right answer in that situation would have been:

'You can't catch it from someone else, but yes, anyone can develop it for a variety of other reasons, if you want to know more, ask a Dr!'

Sounds like they were just reassuring a child who was asking a question. This is the norm.

Please check the teacher doesn't have this themselves. It causes lots of embarrassment when parents come in to tell us about things they think we do not know but in fact teachers often have the same issues.

Please don’t ask the school to educate the pupils on this, it is a complete overreaction. It sounds like a simple question, leave the teachers to teach the syllabus.

If your son is 14, it’s up to him to inform people at school about his condition - politely. I.e. “Actually, Sir, they are not sure what causes T1D, as scientists say they don’t know if there are any genes involved. They do know that it’s not caused by eating too much sugar or anything like that.”

Please don’t start anything which creates issues for the teacher. “EDUCATE” implies raising complaints or getting angry. Teachers already have enough to deal with right now.

OP, It's probably likely that he has an inherited gene or genes and that other members of your family have it too. It just hasn't triggered in them which is why you think he's not inherited genetics that enable type 1 to develop.
Just because he's the only one in the family doesn't mean he'll always be the only one or that his parents/aunts/ uncles etc aren't walking around with that untriggered gene(s). If you have a genetic predisposition it's a lottery really.
I get the emotional reaction to flippant comments though, I really do. You want to correct the world. It's a not unusual parental reaction to a really shitty condition.

That’s exactly how I would have interpreted this.

Maybe read my first post. The boy asked if you could get it randomly and could anyone get it. Teacher said NO implying that DS is not like ‘anyone’, didn’t get it randomly and has some sort of deficit.

Damn right I’m ‘sensitive’ as a parent of a child who’s life revolves around his glucose levels, weighing and counting carbs in everything he eats, who worries about dying if he goes into a hypo or into a coma if he goes high and has struggled to understand why he got it his terrible disease in first place and if he did something wrong!

He told me as soon as he came out of school so it was obviously on his mind.

I said you can ‘catch’ it on here meaning anyone could potentially ‘catch’ it in the sense of there is a lot of evidence that viruses are the trigger. DS had Covid 3 times in quick succession months before he was diagnosed. He was asymptomatic apart from the 3rd infection.

@Sidslaw If you are teaching that Type 1 is inherited, perhaps you need to inform the exam body that the syllabus content is wrong. Surely as a teacher, you have a duty to teach correct information.

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/diabetes-the-basics/types-of-diabetes/type-1/causes#:~:text=We%20don't%20know%20the,history%20of%20it%20at%20all.

I think people are generally aware that type 1 diabetes requires very careful monitoring/ injections/ careful diet, but perhaps don’t know what happens to cause the imbalance

Sigh. It’s not an imbalance of anything. It’s a total lack of. It doesn’t require careful diet, type 1s can eat anything they want to, providing they manage the carb content with insulin.

It is inherited. If you don't inherit the vulnerability, you won't get it

Sigh. Again. There are most definitely families where it occurs in several people in that family. But the majority of diagnoses occur in people where there is no type 1 in the family. It is not really a ‘vulnerability’. It’s an autoimmune condition. There is certainly no type 1 in either mine or my ex’s family - no one came out and said ‘oh, your cousin’s uncle three times removed had that’. It’s just unfortunate.

I’m a teacher. I also have a child with type 1. It is well known amongst the type 1mcommunity that it is poorly taught in schools. Hell, we have issues with GPs cancelling prescriptions and all sorts of other shite.

I had always thought it wasn't inherited but that there was a genetic disposition for it. My siblings and all my cousins on my dad's side were tested as kids due to his brother having T1. Dad also had related problems at one point when he was about 50.

I'm wondering if the direct approach would work with your son. Maybe he could do a presentation so people understand his situation better. It would also be helpful in case he has an side affects that may cause problems? My OH has T2 and it's taken me years to remember to pick up the signals for him getting into trouble.

@OP, the link you posted literally says: "Family history can increase your risk, as there are a number of genes linked to type 1 diabetes."

As a mother with a child with an autoimmune disease, and a daughter to a T1 diabetic, I understand your reaction.

You have decided that the teacher is implying your dc has a deficit of some kind. How likely is it that the teacher is genuinely trying to imply that people with type 1 diabetes are in some way lesser than others? It seems extremely unlikely. You are a professional offence taker.

The teacher was obviously putting the other kid's mind at rest in an age-appropriate way.

You weren’t there and you didn’t hear the way the conversation went. Your ds’s version might be the truth as he interpreted it, but it’s very likely to be inaccurate.