Help required - insulin pump for a 9 year old

[mkzp123]

Hi

My son who is now aged nine has had type one diabetes since he was five
At present he is on insulin which is injected four times a day
He is doing well and his last hba1c was 55mm however he has been recommended to test a insolent pump
They have offered us the choice of the following three pumps
Omnipod
Medtronic 640g without cgm
Accuchek combo

We are not 100% sure of which pump to go for to trial
Any recommendations on pros and cons for the pumps will be highly appreciated

How often on insulin pumps will we need to change the cannula - is it every three days ?

Thanking everyone in advance for any responses

Kind Regards

 

[Heyrehair]

We have the Accu Chek Insight for our 2 yr old and this is changed every 3 days.

There are two types of changes we perform

1) Just the cannula - which involves stopping the pump, removing the tube connector from the cannula, then applying adhesive removal spray to remove the old cannula, then using the linkassist plus to apply the new cannula, then reconnecting the tubing and starting the pump.

2) Infusion set change - all the above, but after you remove the tube connector you have to then remove the tube and Insulin cartridge from the pump (sometimes the battery too), then rewind the piston rod, add new cartridge and tube, and fill tubing. Once the new cannula is in place you then reconnect the tubing, and fill the cannula, which starts the pump.

Sounds like a lot to do, but the pump menu guides you through most of it and after a while it becomes quite routine - just like anything, a bit of practice helps.

Would highly recommend the Dansac adhesive removal spray as this makes taking the old cannula patch of really easy.

As part of training I tried an insertion of this and the Dexcom CGM patches and found these less painful than a standard finger prick test.

If your son is a keen swimmer you might want to look into which pump best supports this - ours can be removed for up to an hour at a time.

Overall, this has worked really well for us - there are lots of configuration options to get the Bolus and Basal rates right as your son grows. There are even settings to temporarily boost the Insulin levels to account for illness etc.

Best of luck.