A book to help prepare dd (2.10) for her daily injections?

[WhiteWineAndJaffaCakes]

DD is to start having growth hormone injections in a couple of months - she'll be nearly 3. They're given with an epipen (sp?) - the same ones used for insulin injections - once a day in her leg. I'd like her to be comfortable with the idea before we start - anyone know of any books that would introduce it for her?

Sorry can't suggest any books but let me know if you do find something. My DD will have to have the daily injections too and I have been wondering how to introduce it.

Whitewine our dd is possibly going to have these too (sorry to high jack thread). Our dr is waiting til she is three till they do tests - whatever they are I dont know exactly. I will watch this thread with interest. Did you initially take her along to be seen by someone as you didnt think she was growing? What tests did they do? (Again sorry to highjack - am actually surprised to find someone else in this boat.)

Hi my DD has a similar endocrine condition, she doesnt have injections daily but does have them when ill and has had to have a lot more hospital procedures and stays than most kids so I was looking for something similar. I never did but do read her books about hospitals and discuss. Also we do role play about injections etc with a doctors kit on her teddies.

he only books Ihave been able to find btw have been about children going to hospital for one off type things such as tosils out but I wonder if somewhere lie the diabetes support groups may have something like this which may be relevant to your situation.

We've needed books for certain medical issues, eg DD has burns and needed to attend hospital regularly to be measured for her pressure garments, DS when young refused any medication incl calpol which proved v difficult.

So. We made our own books. My husband and I would buy a good quality blank book and I would write the story, DH would illustrate it.Both my DCs LOVED Maisy so the stories would always be about maisy getting measured for her garment...and how in the end maisy is so happy etc...

We took great care to illustrate and colour them really well and our children loved them

My DD2 has daily growth hormone injections with a Novopen, but she has had them since 14 months so doesn't really know any different.

We didn't need any resources but I had a look around and found these; they are from Diabetes UK but as insulin pens are so similar to GH pens maybe you could adapt the info?

Maybe you could adapt these?

Here's a star chart you could tweak to suit

You could also get a special 'injection teddy' to let her practice on with an empty pen, and maybe even let her inject you (without giving you a dose!) - the needles are tiny and very fine and don't hurt, honestly!

rainbow - my dd has achondroplasia (a type of dwarfism). Growth hormone isn't a licensed treatment yet - although there are various studies going on, none of them have been running long enough yet to know whether there it makes any difference to the final adult height - but our consultant is happy to give it a go. We'll know within 12 months whether she's responding to it. She'll be nearly 3 when she starts the injections but she's going to have blood tests done next week to check base hormone levels and other stuff (insulin levels etc) to rule out any risk of complications.

used2b - that's a good tip about a medical kit, I hadn't thought about that.

Vannah - wow, very impressed with the idea of making my own books - nice idea but I can't draw for toffee and dd isn't old enough to do her own illustrations really.

Sidge - thanks for the links, I could easily adapt those I think. I can imagine dd happily injecting teddies (and me) so yes, good idea.