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HannahL's_mum

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Hello everyone.

My 5 yr old daughter was diagnosed with type 1 in August 2010. She copes quite well, the only thing she really hates is having her levemir in her bottom. She likes to be able to see and of course it is a struggle to see there. Other than that she has surpried me how well she copes.

For a few months the doctors kept us on a nominal dose, to keep her sugar's in reasonable control to let us get used to things and to learn to carb count.
I must admit when we started adjusted the insulin ourselves I would cheat by not counting sugar on her weetabix and little things like that as I was scared of her going hypo, but in Dec the doctors got rather strict and I am too honest to lie to them so I am doing what I am told at the moment.

However, we are living in hypo land at the moment. They increased her insulin/carb ratio in Dec and this-coupled with me now being honest with the meter (we have an expert meter which calcs the insulin for you) she is having hypo's most days - probably 5 days a week - and its never just one, sometimes as many as 3 in a day.

Our nurse in visiting in a couple of days and we are back in clinic next month so hopefully things will be sorted soon.

Has anyone got any tips on treating hypo's? Todays hypo lasted almost 2 hours. Having 1 glucose tablet at a time didn't bring her back up (the lowest reading was 3.2 so it was hardly a bad hypo), but the hypo happened only 1 hour after dinner because we put the kinect on, so by the looks of it the combination of exercise and perhaps her dinner carbs hadn't kicked in caused it to happen, because a couple of hours after I sorted the hypo she was at 19 so I guess the dinner carbs and the carbs I had given during hypo treatment all acted together later on.

Also, can anyone advise me what are slow acting carbs and fast acting carbs? Can anyone recommend a good book?

Thank you all for reading.
x
 
Hi there, my young boy has been diagnosed since August 2007. I also find he is prone to hypo if he exercises in that hour or so after having meal/insulin. Today after breakfast we walked around the local market and went swimming so his morning tea test was 3.9 and before lunch was 4.3. I did stuff him full of food (Morning Tea: Apple puree - 12gm carb, 10gm cracker biscuits - 6gm carb, pikelet - 8gm carb) because of the activity. If I had known I was going to do quite so much today I would have reduced his insulin this morning by 1/2 a unit but I have not worked out how to time travel, just yet. :)

As for treating hypo's, I tend to use glucose powder. I teaspoon is 5gm carb and I add it to a serving of fruit puree so in total he will have between 15-20gm carb depending on the severity of the hypo. I suppose how I treat a hypo can depend on the time of day. If it is a meal time and he is just under 4mmol I'll give him his meal and delay the insulin for 1/2 an hour. If it is after 2 hours since his meal/insulin I'll probably only give him a bit of fruit and/or milk drink. If it is within an hour or so after a meal/insulin I'll treat it aggressively because I know the Novorapid is peaking and he will be dropping quickly.

Good fast acting carbs are glucose lollies like jelly babies/beans, juice, lucozade, castor sugar. Slow acting carbs are usually vegetables, some bread (not white), apples are fairly slow. Milk is medium. It can be a bit of trial and error to find what works well and as parents we have to choose things that don't form bad habits or rot their teeth.

Diabetes for Dummies was a good read but it does contain a fair bit about T2 diabetes. I've heard "Think Like a Pancreas" is a good book.

Glad that you and your daughter are coping well!
 
Hi

Thanks for your replies.

Hannah often goes low at the bedtime test which is only 1 hour after supper. I treat the hypo with glucose, then give a biscuit but then by the time I go to bed she is in the mid to high teens so I was very proud of myself the other night when I had a breakthrough in resolving this.

She was 3.9 at bedtime and I thought perhaps her supper carbs are still to be absorbed, so I gave one glucose tab, but then I did not give a biscuit. Throughout the rest of the night I performed 4 tests (one at 3.30am - I heard they can drop around 3am) and she stayed between 6 and 9 for the whole night.

Woo-hoo, an achievement for me, but a disappointment for Hannah. She has come to like going hypo as she likes the glucose tabs and the extra biscuits - no surprise there

Anyway, thanks for the carb info and for the link to treating hypo's. Will have to print it all off to read on the go.

Regards.
 
Hi

its all trial and error but i do find if dylan goes on the wii depending on the game can result in some lows too, we too have the same meter and we love it makes it easy to make the changes yourself if u dont think her ratios are right give them a little tweek if ur confident enough, so for example dylan was on 1u for 12g at breakfast but was going hypo mid morning at school so i changed it to 1u for 14g then monitor for next few days giving it chance to work if he has 2 low days following i would alter again. dont alter too much at once tho as can go the other way then i tend to concentrate on one meal at a time and always let the DSN know what ive done when i speak to her next and she is always telling me my instincts are good and i have changed what she would of suggested.

i think its just getting ur head around how ur child behaves to food once u sort it u know ur child best and can change things easier. as for treating hypos we give something fast acting usually apple juice or gluco juice as we find a drink works quicker then wait 10 mins for the bloods to rise then give a biscuit and that works well apparently if u give the biscuit too quick it can slow down the quick acting so in just waiting it allows the bloods to get to an acceptable level.

if u inject with a meal and then exercise the insulin tends to work quicker which could explain why she goes low quicker after eating then following with exercise try reducing the insulin if shes going to exercise soon after. hope this helps

anna marie
 
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