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Helping kids cope and understand a diabetes diagnosis can be helped with educational toys, games, and accessories. Creating a special toy that demonstrates blood glucose readings or injections is nice way for kids to not feel alone in their diagnosis.
Stuffed Toys / Accessories for Toys / Coloring Books / Games
Stuffed Toys and Dolls
- Squishmallows Amideus The Orange Dinosaur – soft squishy orange stuffed animal with cloth Dexcom, pump and Omnipod. Only at Walmart.
- Rufus the Bear – most kids receive their Rufus the Bear at time of diagnosis during their hospital stay. Rufus is just one of the amazing items in the in the JDRF Bag of Hope.
- Jerry the Bear – kids gain hands-on practice with counting carbs, monitoring Jerry’s blood sugar, and dosing Jerry with insulin. Kids care for Jerry using the virtual diabetes tools and the digital pantry via an app!
- Coco the Monkey – character from the Lilly Coco books in plush.
- Pumpernickel the Monkey – Pumpernickel helps smooth the transition to insulin pump therapy for kids.
- Ruby The Bear With Diabetes – Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International “Beating Diabetes with Hugs and Love XOXO” bear. This bear is discontinued but is sometimes sold used on Amazon or Ebay.
- MediKin – a unisex doll with teaching tools to show kids about their pancreas.
- Lenny the Lion – offered by Medtronic to help with insulin pump infusion set placement practice and needle injections. Lenny also has a pad on his paw to practice using lancets.
- Pancreas Plush –
- GIANTmicrobes – plush pancreas or beta cell that includes an educational card with fascinating facts!
- I Heart Guts – pancreas plush, pancreas stickers and key chains.
- Percy the Snail – plush stuffed animal with an embroidered insulin pump. The snail is the mascot for the Beyond Type 1 pen pal program.
- My BFF Stuff-a-Bear – these stuffed animals can be used in a variety of ways to store T1D supplies. The stuffed animals have a Velcro back that allows for storage. Use as an everyday storage case or for sleepovers with family or friends. The bear arrives unstuffed with the cotton to stuff it.
- Bright Ears – dolls wearing insulin pumps and CGMs. Check out their other inclusive dolls that include sight loss, hearing aids and much more.
Diabetes Accessories for Toys
- Our Generation Sweet Treatment Diabetic Accessory Set – set of doll sized diabetes accessories sold at Target. Accessories could be used for 18″ dolls, other stuffed toys or Elf on the Shelf.
- American Girl Doll – set of doll sized diabetes accessories sold by American Girl. Accessories could be used for 18″ dolls or other stuffed toys.
- Heroic Kid – CGM (Dexcom and Libre), insulin pump, and Omnipod accessories for kid’s toys.
- Glucomart – has Barbie, Elf on the Shelf, and dolls/stuffed toys size 18-24” diabetes accessories.
- Deck My Diabetes – OmniPod and T-slim pump accessories for dolls and stuffed animals.
Coloring Books
- T1 Everyday Magic – coloring pages, craft ideas and games.
- Evan Gets Diabetes Coloring Book (It’s Kind of Scary Coloring Books) – coloring book by Barbara Jean Sabet
- Diabetes Mantras A Coloring Book for Diabetes Heroes – coloring book by Anne Manera
- MyTypeOne – downloadable coloring pages featuring animals wearing CGMs and pumps.
Games
- Omnipod Bay – Nintendo® Online account game with Animal Crossing. It is an action-packed island for people with diabetes, for their families, friends — for everyone. Connect. Explore. Uncover hidden surprises.
- Milchmania – a memory game that presents 22 kinds of food: some increase the blood sugar and some don’t. The idea behind this memory game is to teach the diabetic child, his friends, his parents, his family and everyone else around him/her in a playful way which food contain carbohydrates and which don’t. The game comes in KE and CHO carbohydrate calculations.
- My Food Plate Bingo – helps kids understand how to create healthy meals.
- Grandma Sandy – offers free downloads of coloring books, games, puzzles, etc. about T1D.
- Lenny the Lion – online games and downloads from Lenny the Lion (Metronic) that teach carb counting and other topics on diabetic care.