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New 10 days - Why would a low Insulin dose cause a Hypo?

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alfietom

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Hi, Our 13 year old son has now been diagnosed for 10 days.

He is having Hypo's quite soon after morning and lunchtime and evening meals, not everytime but sometimes as soon as 1 hour after his meal.
We are trying to get our heads around the whole living with diabetes / Insulin, testing routines etc as well as trying to understand as much as possible.

We thought the HYpos were being caused by too large an Insulin dose (he was started on 5) he has since been dropped to 4 but today had another Hypo shortly after his breakfast. We spoke to the Diabetes Nurse and discussed dropping his Novo Rapid to 3 which the Nurse agreed but she said this would give less warnings of Hypo's and they would come on a lot quicker. Why would this be?

Also would I be right in comparing Insulin to adding air to a fire in that it helps the fuel burn quicker?
Thanks for any help.
 
Don't know why the nurse said dropping it to 3 would give less warning signs :think:

Exercise can increase the likelyhood of hypo's, so if your child is exercising on some days after eating and not others this may explain the infrequent hypo's.
 
noblehead said:
Don't know why the nurse said dropping it to 3 would give less warning signs :think:

Exercise can increase the likelyhood of hypo's, so if your child is exercising on some days after eating and not others this may explain the infrequent hypo's.
Click to expand...

Thanks - Yes he is very active and an active Racing Cyclist, although his last training session was yesterday evening (1 1/2 hours) his readings after his workout was 9.1 and around 5.5 at bedtime before his Lantus.
This morning he was 6.1 - had Shredded Wheat with Skimmed milk for breakfast and then a Hypo about 1 1/2 hours later.

Thanks
 
Hi. I can't think of any reason why dropping the rapid from 4 to 3 would affect the hypo warning signs; never heard of that one before! Your Son's morning fasting reading of 6.1 is fine so the Lantus level seems fine. A Rapid of 4 units in my opinion is too high for that breakfast meal. 4 units implies a possible carb intake of around 40-50 gm which is much higher than Shredded wheat and the milk will provide hence the hypo?
 
it looks like the insulin is too much for the meal try adding more carbs! I'm always high after exercise even though most people go low so he may be the same. he could be using up all the carbs whilst cycling and then having insulin aswell so his sugars don't really go up too much to start with! if he has had a lot of hypos then he will probably start to lose his awareness as the body starts to get used to the feeling that's what the nurse could mean! hope he gets sorted soon there's nothing worse than that after hypo feeling :(


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It sounds like you have to find out what your sons insulin to carbohydrate ratio is. Perhaps start off on .5 units to 10 grams carbohydrate - especially if he is in the 'honeymoon' period and fairly active.
You and your son doing a DAFNE course should help you both with dose adjusting and carb counting.
 
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