Injecting before eating

I usually give my daughter her insulin when she is eating and sametimes after as she a fussy eater and she spikes about an hour after.

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It will depend as we all react differently. I inject 45 minutes to an hour before my breakfast as my BG will spike significantly in the morning and tends to rise quickly from the moment I wake, even when I eat nothing.

Generally though I inject 20 minutes before eating. If I leave it to when I eat my BG will always go into double figures before dropping back.

 

For me it also depends what I eat, with slower release carbs like lentils or porridge I can drop like a stone in the 2 hours after the meal, adn then come back up later.

 

Yes I do but to be honest I'd be frightened to inject 30 mins before, usually when I do inject it's 10-20 mins max before eating.

Much depends on the meal though, if the meal is high(ish) in fat then I'll inject immediately before or even split the dose, tonight for my evening meal I had chicken breast, potatoes, yorkshire puds, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli cheese bake, for this I injected 10 mins before taking into account the cheese in the meal.

Injecting ahead certainly makes a big difference to postprandial bg readings that's for sure :thumbup:

 

When I was eating carbs I used to inject 20 mins before. Like you, it stopped the spikes.

 

It's definitely a case of matching what you eat.

When eating somthing like a pizza, for example, it's unlikely that your body will absorb the starch very quickly due to the fat content, and you might not eat the whole pizza, so I find it best to inject as I finish eating.

If I eat slow release carbs, I should probably delay the injection too, as I sometimes find myself hungry straight after eating in these cases.

The only time when I can reliably inject before eating is, controversially, when eating a dessert. Even though desserts tend to be high fat, the sugar generally counteracts the normal effect of fat. Also, when eating a regular lunch like a sandwich, crisps and a piece of fruit, I inject before and don't normally get any problems.

My last bit of advice: if switching from Lantus to Levemir, you may get odd BG readings for a bit as I've found the doses don't quite match up all the time, and they react differently to certain foods. Lantus, for instance, seems to tolerate beer better with me (I don't drink very much beer).

 

I always take my Novorapid 20-30 mins before eating. Novorapid will start working straight away, and peaks after 2 hours- the DAFNE approach is to only test blood glucose levels before meals or snacks as quick acting insulins can take up to 4 hours to leave your system, so testing your blood glucose an hour or 2 after eating will only give you an unrealistic reading and this is when some people would take a correction dose - which can lead to hypos.

Try to avoid the temptation if possible and wait until the next mealtime to see if you counted your carb ratio correctly ?

 

As others have said, really depends on the GI of the meal. Low GI you can inject 15-20 mins after eating, if it's medium, just before eating and if relatively high GI, inject 15-20mins prior. This should enable the insulin to be ready to prevent any spike the food may cause.

 

Does that work for you, the pizza, or do you spike later on? if Inject right after pizza I will crash down, as the bulk of the spike comes as late as 4 or 5 hours after eating it, so I have to inject basically 20%insulin after finishing + remaining 80% 3 or 4 hours after eating (which I always find a terrifying leap of faith).

 

does this make a massive difference then?? I normally inject then eat straight away, is it beneficial to inject way before??


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The leap of faith is quite worrying at times, but I've come to know my body and only do it when I'm sure it's needed.
With a pizza, I'll take about 80% of the carb requirement when I eat (anything more, I can crash). 2 hours later I'll take about 70% of the carb requirement. Then 3-4 hours another 50% on faith. In the end I need about 2.5x the amount of stated carbs.
Those pizzas hit me long and hard.


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Every once in a while, I go out for pizza in the evening, I had already injected in the morning, I don't bring my insulin when I go out, and I come back, and forget about my insulin, realize that I feel all sluggish and need to go toilet more times than normal, I have high blood sugar usually between 16-24 mmol/l, then I take my novorapid and lantus at the same time (one after the other respectively). My depression is amplified when I have high blood sugar, start to think how pointless my life is.

 

Ok is there any reason why you dont take your insulin with you and I take it you mean short acting ? I am guessing this also means that you dont regularly test either ? Are you embarressed, do you forget ?

Swinging high and low (according to my doctor) can cause depression, high sugars slow down brain function and it's like a sports car running on a battery. I was suffering with this earlier this year which is why I decided to start really getting a handle on it and testing more and reducing the carbs in my diet. If you test regularly and also record your results you can start to see patterns and it also helps if you need advice on the amount of insulin you take. It really is a case of testing regularly and taking short acting with every carb portion you eat, otherwise you are playing catch up all the time in managing it.

Can you get on DAFNE ? Ask about this as it's a great course to give you more insight and also put you in contact with other type 1's who can support you.

Good luck :thumbup:

 

Jeeeesus, that's advanced dose splitting if that works for you, how did you figure that out??
This makes me angry, It's like there are the game rules and suddenly they don't make any sense do they? I tend to assume that the total carbs of the meal will dictate be the máximum amount of insulin i will have to inject afterwards, however you are right that sometimes there seems to be many more carbs than anticipated couming out of effing nowhere.. do you think it might be the proteins in the mozarella or something like that? It does my head in, and right now all my well tested ratios have been thrown out of the window and I'm trying to figure all out again.
But then again... pizza!!

 

The only thing that works for me to remember is a coundown timer set on the phone right after eating.

 

Hi, I have just stumbled upon your post. I have the exact same issues with lentils. In fact just today I went down to 3.8 about 90 mins after having eaten lentils. In spite of injecting after the meal. Any tips?

 

I was told lentils were so low in gi not to count for them, try it and see

 

That doesn't work if you are eating a bowl of lentil chilli for dinner, something the DAFNE course facilitators refused to recognise.

 

Too right Dave - Slow cooked lentil and bacon casserole - now that needs some bolussing, for me roughly two thirds of the amount for brown rice.