3 year old diabetic and Adult Renal Transplant needs

Hi everyone!
Next year I am taking two friends and their families with me to Walt Disney World. One friend's two year old daughter was just diagnosed with diabetes. We planned the trip for December, 2011 to give them time to get used to this. She will be three by then. Although I am a nurse and know the clinical side of diabetes, I do not have a family member with it, so I am not familiar with what challenges they will face and ways to cope with them. I know I've read that the restaurants are good at working with special diets if she needs it. I am also assuming they can use the baby care areas to give her insulin. Any other wisdom you guys can give me?

The other friend's wife has had a kidney transplant. I am not well acquainted with that at all. I am assuming she will need to stay well hydrated, so I am planning on shipping bottled water down to our resort. I also imagine she will tire easily. Any info you could give me on this would be great too.

I got a frio instulin cooler, it is a small pouch that you put water on and it has crystals that expand and keep the insulin cool. (it is reusable) There are different sizes, but i was able to put 3-4 pens in a double pouch (second smallest size). It worked great and kept the insulin at a proper temp, and we were there in the HEAT of September. You can google it and find it on line. Although not displayed at our pharmacy, i found out later that they had some behind the counter, so you could ask there as well. It worked great, and would be handy for car trips at home.

Within a year they'll definitely be a pro at handling their daughter's condition. I'm so sorry they're having to deal with that! Make sure they connect with JDRF for support and information. My own son was diagnosed at 5. He's 10 now and we've been to Disney every year since he was diagnosed so it's definitely manageable.

My advice is keep juice boxes handy in the bag in case of lows. Also, you don't need to worry about going to the baby center to give the shots. Just give them wherever you're at. In other words, don't let it slow you down.

For type-1 diabetes there's really nothing the restaurants can do. They can't tell you carbs on the food, which is the only help I would like. My son orders whatever he wants on the menu and we dose him appropriately for it. We usually bring our own breakfast and snacks so that we know how to dose him for those. He's had this long enough that we can guess carbs pretty well by now. Your friends will have to learn the same. There's some good books out there that can help, but there's really no use meeting with the special diets folks at WDW.

Make sure they have one of the special insulin coolers (Medi-cool has the best) to keep the long-term insulin cool and a good supply bag to keep all of the supplies with you. Also, if you're staying at a value resort, let them know of her condition at they'll make sure you have a medical size fridge for her insulin.

Thanks for the info guys. I sent her a text about the insulin coolers. She's afraid to take her anywhere right now, but I am sure that will change. She's also afraid of giving her the shots in a restaurant (or other public setting), so I thought the baby care areas would be good. I am hoping this will all change over the next year as they adjust to it though.

I will ship down juice boxes with the water.

Strmchsr - can you recommend a book I could buy her?

I'll send you a PM with some info.