4 YEAR OLD GOT PUMP AND I HATE IT

Sorry to hear your having a bad time. I recently had the pump and took a few weeks to get sorted. Hard thing was getting the basal right. Only way to do it is fasting tests by eating at a set time and giving bolus with that meal, test 4 hours later, not eat for another 4 hours taking measurements every hour to see what the basal is doing. From the results you can make changes to basal. If a snack or correction is needed prior to the test don't do the test and try again the next day. This is the hard bit as if they are way off you will have to guess an adjustment to carry out the test next time. My advice would be to split the day into 4 and only do one four hour period at a time. Do not do on consecutive days.

Very hard to do all that I know, but, wk worth it once the basals are done. Then you can concentrate on getting bolus ratios correct.

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Hi we were in the same boat as you. My daughter now 3 got pump 6 months ago and it took ages to get setting ok. There are no perfect settings. Need to do fasting basal test and at night to get foundation right. Then just trial and error with carbohydrate ratios and correction factor. Read book think like a pancreas. Good luck. It does get easier.


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Hi, I think a pump will make you go one way or another, what sort is it? My 13 yo son is on an omnipod. He went on it during february half term as the hospital said he would need at least 2 weeks off school to get used to it and getting the basal rates correct for him, and also due to the fasting. During those first few weeks he was all over the place, we were warned that highs and lows would happen more suddenly.
Although his PDM monitors and records all the data, I set up my own excel spread sheet, with colour coding and started plotting his figures every night. It was easier to see where a basal rate may need changing and I would make notes for most days. This has helped me and him so much. 3 months on and it is going fairly smoothly, there is far more work for me to do which I certainly don't begrudge, for him life is a lot easier.
We are going abroad next week which I am worried about as it is going to be hot so I will be setting up a 'holiday basal' programme with a bit less insulin, again, the holiday will be trial and error.
Stick with it for a bit longer, better to give it a proper go now, it may be the best thing you ever did! Good luck

What pump have you got?

Certain pumps ( accuchek) can be downloaded at the hospital if the consultants have the software.. And it can then suggest a starting level for basals.

Have you got readings and carb counts and ratios for a day?

Would you be prepared to copy them to this? Generally speaking... Without bassl testing then if you are high or low 2-3 hours after food then the bolus needs to be altered.....but your daughter really doesnt need to be high or low or bolus for 5 hours before the 5 hour testing or overnight... So thats going to be really hard for you both. So initially, give us a days tests and eat times etc and we may be anle to jelp you get to a starting point for basal testing...

Dont give up just yet... Its very hard for youngsters and parents...

I didnt do any serious daytime basal rate testing for a fair few months. Instead I just altered my basal rates and my carb bolus ratios according to the advice DD's consultant gave her when she started pumping and then just staggered my eatimg times a bit to see how things were going and using my correction factor to get me back to some sort of normalish bg levels if they were too high and eat a bit of carb if I was going a bit low.

Using a pump is very hard work at times as its ability to control bg levels really does depend on getting the settings correct and that can only be done with any success by frequent bg testing and writing everything down. I use a pump bg monitoring diary and am able to write down my carb ratios, correction factor, hourly basal rates, carb eaten, bg tests. Mind boggling at times but writing data down on paper works fairly well and should guide you what to adjust