Hi, I noticed a girl my daughters age (5years) had an insulin pump, and wondered of the benefits for my daughter. we are waiting an appointment to learn about carb counting and then a trial of a pump....will the pump help bring her levels down? Or does it only help with settling low levels?.....and reducing hypos?"........Also how does the pump benefit during the night??.....Does it alert if levels dip too low.?? or too high?. how does the pump benefit your child?
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how does a pump benefit your child???
- Thread starter heart01
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Our pump does not alert us if her readings go too high or too low. You can get a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) that is linked to a pump which will alert you to levels. But I believe this is unlikely to be funded by the NHS unless your child has a definite need for it i.e. suffering debilitating hypos frequently. I have also read that the CGM is not all that accurate so if it alarms for a low or high you still need to finger prick test to confirm the reading.
As for the benefits of a pump well my daughter has fewer high readings than she did with injections. She doesn't seem to have that spike after a meal within the first hour or two and then a rapid drop after the two hour mark. We can set the pump to deliver bolus insulin over a period of time rather than all at once (like an injection) so meals like pasta and pizza are much easier to deal with now. With injections we'd get a low too early and then rising blood sugars over a period of three hours. My daughter has far fewer needle pricks with a pump. On injections towards the end she was having a minimum of 6 injections every day, sometimes more if she was hungry and wanted a larger snack between meals. Now she has a set change once every two days (we use steel cannulas so they must be changed every two days, teflon would be once every three days). My daughter is far less self conscious about delivering insulin with meals when she's out infront of other people. A pump is more like a gadget which most kids are fascinated by. The pump software does a lot of calculations for you and keeps track of when the last bolus was given to help you avoid stacking insulin. Our pump has an inbuilt food menu which my daughter can use to work out carbs for meals when she's out with a friend without me. We have fewer hypos. Overnight we are able to adjust her basal delivery very accurately so we avoid the 2am hypos and pre-breakfast highs. On injections I was waking up around 5am every morning to give a rapid acting injection to avoid the pre-breakfast high, now I can sleep until we are ready to get up in the morning. During sickness we can quickly and immediately make changes to basal insulin to avoid high readings, we have a lot more control during sickness, works the same for sport and activity too. I'm sure there are other advantages but I can't think of any more right now.
There are disadvantages too and you should be aware of them before making a decision, the pump is not necessarily for everyone and although we love having one other people may not, we're not all the same. It takes a LOT of work setting the pump up and can become very frustrating, expect lots of sleepless nights whilst you test what feels like a million times. You will need to do lots of testing and fasting and more testing. There is a lot of trial and error, particularly when trying to determine the best way to deliver insulin for different types of foods like pasta. You try one way, it doesn't work, then you have to wait until the next pasta meal to try again. It takes a lot of work and recording of data and testing and trying, but it's worth it in the end. You will still get hypos and hypers although they should be less frequent and less severe. Doing a set change takes longer than a quick injection. You (I should rather be saying your child) will be attached to the pump all day every day, some people may find that difficult. When the pump fails to deliver insulin for whatever reason the blood sugars will rise quickly and become dangerous much more quickly than with injections. A high reading on the pump needs to be dealt with straight away.
As for the benefits of a pump well my daughter has fewer high readings than she did with injections. She doesn't seem to have that spike after a meal within the first hour or two and then a rapid drop after the two hour mark. We can set the pump to deliver bolus insulin over a period of time rather than all at once (like an injection) so meals like pasta and pizza are much easier to deal with now. With injections we'd get a low too early and then rising blood sugars over a period of three hours. My daughter has far fewer needle pricks with a pump. On injections towards the end she was having a minimum of 6 injections every day, sometimes more if she was hungry and wanted a larger snack between meals. Now she has a set change once every two days (we use steel cannulas so they must be changed every two days, teflon would be once every three days). My daughter is far less self conscious about delivering insulin with meals when she's out infront of other people. A pump is more like a gadget which most kids are fascinated by. The pump software does a lot of calculations for you and keeps track of when the last bolus was given to help you avoid stacking insulin. Our pump has an inbuilt food menu which my daughter can use to work out carbs for meals when she's out with a friend without me. We have fewer hypos. Overnight we are able to adjust her basal delivery very accurately so we avoid the 2am hypos and pre-breakfast highs. On injections I was waking up around 5am every morning to give a rapid acting injection to avoid the pre-breakfast high, now I can sleep until we are ready to get up in the morning. During sickness we can quickly and immediately make changes to basal insulin to avoid high readings, we have a lot more control during sickness, works the same for sport and activity too. I'm sure there are other advantages but I can't think of any more right now.
There are disadvantages too and you should be aware of them before making a decision, the pump is not necessarily for everyone and although we love having one other people may not, we're not all the same. It takes a LOT of work setting the pump up and can become very frustrating, expect lots of sleepless nights whilst you test what feels like a million times. You will need to do lots of testing and fasting and more testing. There is a lot of trial and error, particularly when trying to determine the best way to deliver insulin for different types of foods like pasta. You try one way, it doesn't work, then you have to wait until the next pasta meal to try again. It takes a lot of work and recording of data and testing and trying, but it's worth it in the end. You will still get hypos and hypers although they should be less frequent and less severe. Doing a set change takes longer than a quick injection. You (I should rather be saying your child) will be attached to the pump all day every day, some people may find that difficult. When the pump fails to deliver insulin for whatever reason the blood sugars will rise quickly and become dangerous much more quickly than with injections. A high reading on the pump needs to be dealt with straight away.
