Hi @Fluffyscrubberdo
I am a mum to a child with T1D, so understand how relentless it can feel, but I wanted to offer you, what I hope will be, helpful and practical advice as you start on this journey with your child.
For background, my DS was diagnosed 2 months after his 2nd birthday, he's now 8 and his blood glucose is in range 80-90% of the time.
It's great that you have a CGM, we have used Dexcom G6 and G7 before. For night time, use a baby monitor. Put the Dexcom receiver next to it and then the other monitor with you so you know you'll hear it. If memory serves, the alerts do just get louder and louder until it's acknowledged, so you shouldn't sleep through it. To test it, change the settings for about 30mins during the day to say 7 as being a low reading, but don't dismiss the notification so you can see just how loud it gets! Obviously remember to put it back once you're satisfied.
As soon as you can, apply for DLA. I believe it's 3 months after diagnosis. It's quite a long form, your Paediatric Diabetes Team should be able to offer you some assistance completing it, if required.
We now use an omnipod for insulin delivery, which is a phenomenal bit of kit, but prior to that it was the old fashioned insulin injections, for about 10 months I think. So, in between meals we would give low carb snacks to avoid having to do extra injections. Things like pepperami, cheese, cooked chicken, cooked ham, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, carrots, etc. Then it was just meal time injections, plus long acting insulin.
We've found the CGMs and pods sometimes quite difficult to remove, so we buy StoCare Medical Adhesive Remover spray, which makes them much easier to peel off! You can just get it from Amazon. Use the DLA money for this!
Utilise apps to help with carb counting. We were recommended Carbs & Cals, which my husband likes and uses, but I use one called NutraCheck for checking carb content. Again, use the DLA money for the premium version of these apps.
In the beginning, our Paediatric Diabetes Team tried to steer us towards using "normal" food to treat hypos, such as jelly babies and other sweets. However, we found they weren't fast acting enough and we'd always end up with a rebound high, so we started using dextrose tablets (another thing where the DLA comes in handy). They're essentially like a sweet anyway, come in loads of different flavours (our DSs favourites are cola and tropical) but because they're a really precise and fast acting dose of glucose, we don't tend to get the rebound highs when we use them.
Also, a Jaffa cake is a great combo of fast acting and slow release carb! About 8g carb per Jaffa cake.
It's really important to us that T1D doesn't define our DS or his life, so we try to show him people in the public eye who are also T1D, so he knows it doesn't have to be a barrier. Such as Alexander Zverev, Nikita from Strictly, Nick Jonas, Ed Gamble, Theresa May, Este Haim, Henry Slade and Chris Pennell.
Once you get in to your rhythm with it, it all becomes much easier. We can all now look at a plate and do a pretty accurate estimate of the carbs - I often joke that I could run a course on carb counting! Definitely try to keep good humour about it all - while all the other parents are desperately trying to get their kids to each their veg, you'll be trying to get yours to eat their chips! 😂
So 6 years later, my DS administers his own insulin, removes his pod and CGM, sets up his new pods, has started recognising hypos before his CGM does, plays tennis twice a week, goes swimming regularly, goes out on his bike, goes to Beavers and even did his first camp out with them before the summer holidays started - I was terrified, but he desperately wanted to go and he loved it - and does all the stuff every other 8 year old does!
I hope this is somewhat reassuring and helpful. You'll get there ☺️