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Car hypo treatment

Sarah69

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,503
Location
Hethersett, Norwich
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Anything healthy!
Can anyone tell me the best thing that can be kept in a car long term to treat a hypo. My mum is also diabetic, doesn’t travel far really but this week on a way to an appointment she was stuck in traffic after a car accident for 1 1/2 hours her journey was only about 15 mins if that. She had 2 mars bars but she’d had them so long they’d gone off and couldn’t eat them. What can you suggest please.

Just to add that mum does not drive!!
 
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Lucozade glucose tabs, usually last a long time and they’re not very tasty so not tempted to eat them, is your mum on any diabetes meds?
 
lovinglife said:
and they’re not very tasty so not tempted to eat them
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Very important for car sweets, particularly if other people drive in your car. My husband got some severe complaints from me when he finished the travel sweets in our car.

I also like glucotabs for the "keep well and don't taste nice" reason.
The link below is to a tub of 50 but you can also get them in smaller tubes

GlucoTabs - Tangy Orange - 50 Tablets (200g)

Shop GlucoTabs - Tangy Orange - 50 Tablets (200g) and earn Advantage Card points on purchases.
www.boots.com
 
I don’t keep my hypo treatment in my car. I keep it in my bag so it is with me all the time.
Note that chocolate is not a suitable hypo treatment. You need fast acting carbs like jelly babies or lucozade. The fat in chocolate slows down the glucose absorption and prolongs a hypo.
 
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Remember they will rise her bloods quite quickly and they may drop back again and she will need some slower acting carbs to keep her blood sugar above hypo numbers
 
I use mini packs of Skittles - they seem immune to hot (and cold) temperatures, they are easy to count by feel if one decides on a pre-emptive glucose top up while driving (~1g per skittle), taste decent (which admittedly might be a downside if you share your car) and also mean I can take one pack of my stash with me when I leave the car if I think I may start to run low.
 
Lucazade orange my preference, is fast and doesn't carry over ideal as you can then take on board slow acting carbs if required.
 
Another vote for glucotabs - 4g per tab, not particularly tasty! Also longlasting.
 
Lucozade works so much quicker than the glucose tablets. I have bottles stashed in my car for when driving.
 
oldgreymare said:
Another vote for glucotabs - 4g per tab, not particularly tasty! Also longlasting.
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I think GlucoTabs rebranded to Lift.
The look and taste the same and still come in tubes which is the main reason I changed from Dextrose which still come in paper wrappers.
I buy them in bulk from eBay (thanks for the inadverted reminder) which I decant into my old GlucoTab tubes.
 
I keep minI cans of cola in the car along with jelly babies plus a tin of fruit of the forest ” sucky” sweets, I use to use lucozade , but, it contains a lot less sugar now like most of the non diet drinks , coke cola is one of the only firms not to reduce their sugar content
 
Haribo 'Double Trouble' Jelly Babies
 
On advice from my diabetes nurse, I changed from boiled sweets (she worried about swallowing one and choking on it - not very likely but leaving them too long, they go very sticky and make an awful mess) to jelly babies. At first just biting the head off a jelly baby was enough to get me out of hypo levels, but recently I found that didn't work and I had to have 3 whole sweets. Dietician then told me that she recommended 6! Changed to fruit pastilles. Not much better. Back to the boiled fruit sweets, I think.
 
Dextrosol tablets or Glucogel both provide quick recovery from hypos in car or elsewhere.
However, blood glucose monitoring every two hours while driving, as required by DVLA and motoring law, will prevent the need.
Joe (Type 1 diabetic since 1981)
 
 
Hi there
I’ve had Type 1 for 51 years now, no complications and many hypos every month. I have never lost consciousness and have been wearing sensors since the first days of them being released in UK to keep close eye on blood sugar levels via lots of monitoring. Luckily I’ve always had very good hypo early warning signs. I drive a great deal and have always kept several individual cartons of Ribena in the car (fast acting glucose), a packet of biscuits in a plastic bag to prevent staleness (long acting carb) and several Mars bars. Even if they’re ‘off’ they taste nasty but still retain the required sugar. It’s worth buying a few metal straws as the new paper straws that come with Ribena cartons become so soggy you can’t use them to quickly drink the whole carton.
 
I find Dextrose tablets handy to have in the car
 
Pure orange juice cartons are the best with a pack of ginger nuts Mars bars glucose releases in different ways the caramel nougat and chocolate all release differently so won’t raise hypo straight away better with liquid you only need 150ml of pure orange juice concentrate then biscuits raises it in bout 5-10 mins depending how low she’s gone lucozade since sugar tax doesn’t work on me unless I drink nearly half litre x
 
I carry a flapjack bar; the shelf life is good: however, it is best to check best before date & know how long you have before having to consume. N. B. Depending on maker, the sugar content can vary from 27g to 34g (Olyke Foods Oat Flapjack Original: 27.1g; Lottie Shaw’s Traditional Oat Flapjack: 34g).I am currently using Olyke Bar; purchased three months ago; use by date: 20/01/2024.
Also, I rarely consume whole bar in one sitting: I divide into eight portions & consume 2-3 pieces.
Regardless of manufacturer, one whole bar is equivalent to an actual meal in it self: check calorie content!
 
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