• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Insulin or pump

C

Concernd-mam

Member
Messages
18
Went to clinic today with my 7 year old daughter who is type 1 and as only been diagnosed with diabetes for 3 months. The doctor as now said that they want her to have the pump because the insulin is not doing anything for her because her BMs are either to low or to high and they said the pump will bring her BMs back to normal! At the moment she is on 7units of nova mix 30 in the morning and 5 units of nova mix 30 in the evening but it's not helping her at all! I'm really struggling weather to leave her have the pump or not... I just can't decide which is the best option for my girl :(


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
I second the pump, the alternative is more injections and what kid wants that?
 
Concernd-mam said:
Went to clinic today with my 7 year old daughter who is type 1 and as only been diagnosed with diabetes for 3 months. The doctor as now said that they want her to have the pump because the insulin is not doing anything for her because her BMs are either to low or to high and they said the pump will bring her BMs back to normal! At the moment she is on 7units of nova mix 30 in the morning and 5 units of nova mix 30 in the evening but it's not helping her at all! I'm really struggling weather to leave her have the pump or not... I just can't decide which is the best option for my girl :(


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...

Hi

With twice daily insulins, its important to keep to eating set amounts of carb throughout the day which can be altered to allow for the action that twice daily insulin will have on bg levels (bg testing to be done to determine the carb). Twice daily insulins are easier to comply with and demand less attention from teachers who for many, wont know about insulin to carb ratios etc associated with bolus/basal regimes and insulin pumps. However, there isn't much of a leeway with twice daily insulins if a kiddy decides to eat sweets, cake at school.

With a pump, although many children have them, the parents have needed to buy special harnesses to keep the pump in and attach the harness to the childs body. Pumps in general are about the size of a pack of playing cards. There is a lot to using a pump and at times they are nerve wracking especially if an occlusion occurs and the pump hasn't been able to deliver the insulin and when a bg test is done, diabetics find out that their bg levels have risen fairly high especially when food has been eaten 2hrs beforehand. Tackling sport at school needs a fair bit of forethought with a pump as the basal part would need to reduced about 1.5hrs before the sport took place and a bg test to be done to check what the levels were. Of course, the easier way is to just eat some carb before doing the sport and not worrying about lowering the basal rate. The pump has many options to how it is used. It can be used to deliver just a standard bolus or altered to deliver a wave.

Getting the pumps settings correct demands an awful lot of attention to bg testing so be prepared for some worry and sleepless nights where you'll be in and out of bed testing bg levels...... Think about a pump by all means, but I wont kid you that your daughters life will be much better..... it may be bg wise but not be emotionally.........
 
Thanks all we have decided to go for the pump! We are very lucky with my daughter when she is in school because her teacher is also type 1 diabetic and is also having the pump, so I know my girl will be looked after really well when she is in school :)


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Back
Top