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Good levels do you still need insulin?

S

sbunce

Member
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12
Hello

new to he group. My 4 year old daughter has been recently diagnosed with Type 1.
She naturally eats a fairly low carb diet anyway.
We have notice very good levels ranging from 4.0 - 7.2 on some days.
Based on what she is eating we have not given her the Novorapid, and we have had constantly good blood glucose levels.
She may occasionally rise to 10.0, but then she drops back down over a two hour period all on her own.
When we have administered Novorapid it seems like she rises more???

All of this seems a little counter intuitive.

Thank you in advance for the help, and it's good to be part of the community.
 
Recently diagnosed she is probably going through the honeymoon period where some of us require little insulin at all, is she on a background insulin as well? are you carb counting and adjusting the doses of novorapid to match the carbs she is eating? if she isn't requiring the novorapid at meal times then that's perfectly fine but there will come a time she will need it so just keep a close eye on things and keep in constant contact with your daughters team xx
 
kaylz91 said:
Recently diagnosed she is probably going through the honeymoon period where some of us require little insulin at all, is she on a background insulin as well? are you carb counting and adjusting the doses of novorapid to match the carbs she is eating? if she isn't requiring the novorapid at meal times then that's perfectly fine but there will come a time she will need it so just keep a close eye on things and keep in constant contact with your daughters team xx
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She is on one unit of Lantus over 24 hours. We are carb counting.
 
Sounds good. Keep her low carb in order to preserve those beta cells as long as possible! For support on this I'd head for TYPE 1 GRIT a low carb type 1 family support page which follows Dr Richard Bernstein's low carb plan.
Does she had a cgm? That would be useful for easy checking of her levels and a view of her blood sugar patterns across the day and night.
https://www.facebook.com/Type1Grit/

She has been born into a great time tech wise for type 1s and best of luck to you all!
 
NicoleC1971 said:
Sounds good. Keep her low carb in order to preserve those beta cells as long as possible!
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Though I have read that some people have found it very unpredictable when in the honeymoon period.

NicoleC1971 said:
She has been born into a great time tech wise for type 1s and best of luck to you all!
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Gotta agree with that, there wasn't even blood test meters when I was diagnosed, and insulin pens didn't exist.
 
Generally there are two things to consider to avoid all sorts of diabetes complications:
a) blood sugar level should be always as flat as possible ( google "Oscillating glucose is more deleterious to endothelial function and oxidative stress than mean glucose in normal and type 2 diabetic patients" I know is says type 2, but the same logic applies to type ones
b) the blood sugar level should always be around 4.6 mmol/l (this is the level for normal non-diabetic person (Google Let Me Be 83 org)

Type 1 Grit is the best - I also strongly recommend Dr Bernstein's book - as for cooking recipes I use The Real Meal Revolution by Prof Tim Noakes
 
deszcznocity said:
) the blood sugar level should always be around 4.6 mmol/l (this is the level for normal non-diabetic person (Google Let Me Be 83 org)
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I don't agree with this at all, even non diabetics experience higher blood sugars than that, my partner isn't diabetic but when the paramedics were out at him a few weeks ago he was in the 6's, the risks of losing hypo awareness trying to stay constantly in the 4's is ridiculously high and its a child!
 
kaylz91 said:
I don't agree with this at all, even non diabetics experience higher blood sugars than that, my partner isn't diabetic but when the paramedics were out at him a few weeks ago he was in the 6's, the risks of losing hypo awareness trying to stay constantly in the 4's is ridiculously high and its a child!
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I suggest you read an article by Dr Dikeman - Our Journey with the Low Carb Diet and the (Manual) Artificial Pancreas. Also, there is a very good medical journal article: Management of Type 1 Diabetes With a Very Low–Carbohydrate Diet.
Healthy kids usually run with blood sugar of 4-5 mmol/l. It has been scientifically proven that abnormal blood glucose levels in children lead to hampering of their growth and intelligence - google: Brain function abnormal in children with Type 1 diabetes OR Cognition and Type 1 Diabetes in Children and Adolescents.
 
deszcznocity said:
Healthy kids usually run with blood sugar of 4-5 mmol/l. It has been scientifically proven that abnormal blood glucose levels in children lead to hampering of their growth and intelligence - google: Brain function abnormal in children with Type 1 diabetes OR Cognition and Type 1 Diabetes in Children and Adolescents.
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Yes however aiming to keep a child at about 4.5 may lead to a lot of hypos, so safety is needed here.
 
Hi and welcome @sbunce

This must be a whole new learning curve for you - and very intimidating.
Please bear in mind that with any kind of diabetes, controlling blood glucose is a wonderful thing, but we are all human, and perfect control is perfectly impossible.

Please don't be intimidated by studies such as @deszcznocity posted.
If I were in your situation I might find them extremely intimidating, especially since you are just at the start of your journey with your little one's Type 1.

Just take every day one step at a time, and see every high and low as a learning experience, not a failure.
 
Rokaab said:
Yes however aiming to keep a child at about 4.5 may lead to a lot of hypos, so safety is needed here.
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It is a process that takes months to adjust your body to normal blood glucose levels. It took me 4 months to adjust my body from having hypos at 5.1 mmol/l to having hypos when going under 3.5 mmol/l/.
 
deszcznocity said:
It is a process that takes months to adjust your body to normal blood glucose levels. It took me 4 months to adjust my body from having hypos at 5.1 mmol/l to having hypos when going under 3.5 mmol/l/.
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Remember the child were talking about is only 4, so extra care must be taken, they may not realise they are going hypo or be able to do anything about it, trying to keep them close to 4.5 all the time in my eyes would be dangerous, far too easy to drop down to a dangerous point. Obviously this is only my opinion, but I think when I was 4 I had pretty much no hypo awareness (though admittedly I can't really remember)
 
deszcznocity said:
I suggest you read an article by Dr Dikeman - Our Journey with the Low Carb Diet and the (Manual) Artificial Pancreas. Also, there is a very good medical journal article: Management of Type 1 Diabetes With a Very Low–Carbohydrate Diet.
Healthy kids usually run with blood sugar of 4-5 mmol/l. It has been scientifically proven that abnormal blood glucose levels in children lead to hampering of their growth and intelligence - google: Brain function abnormal in children with Type 1 diabetes OR Cognition and Type 1 Diabetes in Children and Adolescents.
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Hi. Although 4 to 5mmol may be normal for a non-diabetic, few actual diabetics manage below around 6 mmol and NICE uses figures at and above this to define being diabetic. Have a look at NICE Diabetes Pathways on the web.
 
Hello @sbunce and welcome to the forum :)

It is normal for a type 1 to fluctuate and to get high readings, what's useful is recording results and looking for patterns with readings, also to to understand food eaten and how the body responds, your diabetic nurse will give you guidance on insulin and adjustments whilst you get your head around routine and understanding more about the condition, a good book to read is 'Think like a pancreas' written by a type 1 and useful for understanding more about the condition.

The information given by @deszcznocityis not helpful for a newly diagnosed child.
 
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