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

Nighttime Monitoring Help Please

AmberDunham

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
Insulin
In our home, the primary bedroom and children’s are spaced very far apart. Since diagnoses, our son has been sharing the main bedroom with us. Now, he’s ready for his own room but we’re VERY concerned about missing a low alarm and he sleeps right through them all.

How do you make sure to hear alarms? The Share app is great and all but not the most reliable and only repeats alarms every half hour (which seems dangerous to me). Do people use baby monitors or?

Help, please! Thank you…
 
You can buy this thing and hear the alarms

in general, hypo usually feels good enough (sensitivity to these conditions may be reduced, so see if your child can recognize it), personally, I wake up without notifications from the fact that I feel bad. I was 8 years old when I was diagnosed and then cgm was not yet (at least for me)
 
Hi @AmberDunham ,

Welcome to the forum.

Is your son using a Dexcom sensor?

We have Libre wearers & Dexcom wearers.? (I use the former.) & for some reason find my phone when on charge at the front of our house can pick up alarms whilst I’m in the back? The phone itself is pretty loud.

I’ll tag in a couple of Dexcom users who may have an idea regarding a reliable connection. @EllieM @Juicyj
 
I use the dexcom system and it shows up pretty reliably on my husband's phone. Issues happen if your phone is not in an internet hotspot because the signal goes up to the cloud and then gets transmitted to followers. As long as your house has a reliable internet signal I would expect you to be OK.

And the dexcom alarms are very loud. Can your son really sleep through them?
 
You can buy this thing and hear the alarms
Can you explain how a Miaomiao sounds alarms in another room?
A Miaomiao converts NFC to Bluetooth. It does make any sounds.
It is not needed for Libre 2 which transmits readings over Bluetooth as part of the alarm signal.
 
He uses a Dexcom and he can sleep through ANYTHING. He also doesn’t wake just by feeling high or low (he is 12 and was diagnosed a year ago). The rooms are so far apart that I have no signal at all from the Dexcom or his Tandem t-slim. My worry with the share app is that he would go from 100 to dangerously low before the alarm repeated itself if I missed the first alarm or if the app was “syncing”.
 
He uses a Dexcom and he can sleep through ANYTHING. He also doesn’t wake just by feeling high or low (he is 12 and was diagnosed a year ago). The rooms are so far apart that I have no signal at all from the Dexcom or his Tandem t-slim. My worry with the share app is that he would go from 100 to dangerously low before the alarm repeated itself if I missed the first alarm or if the app was “syncing”.
Hi,

A baby monitor could help if your son’s phone was next to the transmitter.

They are designed to leave a child alone & be alerted to any distress. It could work with your son’s phone kicking off.? (In the event of a low..)

I feel your son needs to have some form of hypo awareness? Though I do appreciate when waking from “one” it can take a short while to work out what is actually happening?
 
He is aware of a low when he’s awake but not when he’s asleep. Even my 28 year old doesn’t naturally wake for a low (or a high).
 
Can you explain how a Miaomiao sounds alarms in another room?

I know parents buy this for kids to know what happens to them when they're away, but I've never tried transferring data from my cgm to another person.
 
I know parents buy this for kids to know what happens to them when they're away, but I've never tried transferring data from my cgm to another person.

I found it. They install the app and watch via Facebook
IMG_20230213_085426.jpg
 
@Zhnyaka , thanks,

However the topic regards a Dexcom user. & some kind of parental monitoring workaround due to instability of either the “follower” phone connection or the follower app..

He is aware of a low when he’s awake but not when he’s asleep. Even my 28 year old doesn’t naturally wake for a low (or a high).
Hi,

To be fair when drifting high, personally I’d need to be pretty high to wake needing the bathroom & a drink?
(& I’m comfortably at “that age” where most guys my age diabetic or not “night trip.”)
This is also during the day..?

The only thing I can think of is a “baby monitor.” Or some sort of “intercom” hard wired system? My wife & I had one on our house.
Lol, there were two internally rigged phones fitted by the previous owner to “buzz” people in on a magnetic lock.
I went to the front door one morning & could hear the radio next to the bed blaring through the door speaker.
That was when I realised my wife or I had somehow hit the bedroom unit off the “hook.?
Lol, I stripped the system out not long after..

Not great for our private life. But could be an idea regarding your peace of mind..?
 
I found an easier option
The issue is that the share option isn't 100% reliable, Plus there is a potential lag built in.

I am concerned about the child's lack of hypo awareness. In my personal experience, this is associated with too many hypos, and can be corrected by a period of slightly higher blood sugars. (I stress, this is just my experience)

Bg sensors are awesome at hypo warnings and can prevent most hypos. But hypo awareness gives a protection against the hypos not picked up by the monitor.

Lack of hypo awareness is worthy of a discussion with your .diabetic team (in my opinion).

And if it's any consolation, most (but not all) night time hypos get dealt with your liver, that produces glycogen when bgs go low.

Having said all that, a baby monitor sounds good to me.

(T1 for 53 years since age , only the last 7 with cgms available)
 
I got no idea why I didn't think of this before..

An active ( self powered) PA speaker?

Some have Bluetooth capability? But all you need is the heapnone wired output on the phone going into the speaker? It doesn't have to be something like an expensive Bose or JBL unit. They can be got on a budget. From most music outlets..
They can also be purchased separately. You only need the one..
 
Hi. Are you aware of Abbot's LibrelinkUp App? It enables another mobile phone user to monitor and receive alarms at the same time as the main phone. They can be on the other side of the world as it uses Wi-Fi. I've tried it and it works fine. Also note you can download any other sound into your Android phone. These can louder/quieter and last longer if needed. You just find suitable free sounds online and drop them into the right folder on your phone and they then appear as a selectable sound.
 
Hi. Are you aware of Abbot's LibrelinkUp App? It enables another mobile phone user to monitor and receive alarms at the same time as the main phone. They can be on the other side of the world as it uses Wi-Fi. I've tried it and it works fine. Also note you can download any other sound into your Android phone. These can louder/quieter and last longer if needed. You just find suitable free sounds online and drop them into the right folder on your phone and they then appear as a selectable sound.
Hi,

The OP uses a Dexcom version of linkup due to the son using a Dexcom which sounds flakey. Hence some of the “Heath Robinson” ideas to “toot the horn” & alert the parent during the night or morning.. :) (or even wake the kid?)
 
Back
Top