DAFNE Rules and Hypos: Accurate?

azure said:

The 100 rule doesn't work for me. I tend to use rules like that as a rough guide only.

@Bluemarine Josephine If this drop and difficulty in getting your BS up is a reasonably frequent occurrence, then maybe look at your insulin dosages rather than the effect of glucose. I know it's much trickier to make tiny adjustments when you're on MDI rather than a pump, but what I used to do is find a way that worked for each meal/high sugar/whatever, even if my way was a bit of a hodge-podge of things.

What works for you is what's important

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Hello My lovely Azure!
Thank you for your suggestion.
I must admit that I am puzzled regarding the rules as well.

For example, I did my correction factor. Here it is:
My overall daily insulin intake (basal/bolus) is 8 units Levemir + 3 units Novorapid with meals x3 meals + 7 units Levemir = 24 units overall. 100/24 = 4.1 therefore 1 unit of Novorapid corrects my BG by 4.1 mmols.
For the sake of argument and since it is not far off from the DAFNE, I assume that the correction factor could be correct.

The insulin to CP ratio, however, is a whole different story… I applied the 50 Rule, dividing the average total insulin dosage by 50 to give units of insulin per CP so, similarly, 24/50 = 0.48 rounding it to 0.50 equals ½ unit therefore, this means that I need 1/2 unit to cover 1CP or 1 unit to cover 20 grams of carbs… and I find it…awkward....?

tim2000s said:

In theory, but not always....! I've seen some very odd results with Pumpernickel.

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Tim, please do tell! I am very interested!
Our DAFNE educators always urged us to make low glycemic load choices.
I understand that for Type 2s they may be an optimal choice.
Is there a "trick" as to how these food choices work for us,Type 1s, who are on a basal/bolus treatment?

azure said:

Ah well, that's a good example there as my insulin to carbs ratio doesn't work by the rules either. It works out pretty much the same as yours - 1 unit to 20g carbs - but in actual fact my meal ratios vary from 1:7g to 1:12g. On the other hand, my basal dose is less than the rules would suggest.

If only diabetic control was a case of good Maths skills! I find in real life with all its variables, not many textbook rules work - for diabetes or much else : D

I suggest you write your own rules - the Bluemarine Josephine Rules - that will be tailored to you. I'm only half joking there as I really do think that learning about the idiosyncrasies of your own responses is crucial.

I'd also add that when I was on MDI, I found my basal messed things up a lot, and now I'm on a pump, I do feel there's more predictability.

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I completely understand what you mean. Every time something goes wrong with my readings I interpret it as a hint that my basal insulin is about to need a change (and 9 out of 10 times this has proven correct.)