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

Pump with ADHD teenager

M

michellehalliday

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
Parent
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi everyone. I am looking for some advice about pumps. My son is 14 and has been type 1 diabetic now since November 2015. He also has ADHD so I supervise him a lot with his insulin and carb counting.
He has been offered the chance of a pump and he was quite keen on the Omnipod after we have done some research. He likes the idea of no wires & he has recently been using the freestyle libre which has made things easier for him.
Can anyone please advise about using a pump. From what we have learnt you have to be very strict with carb counting which is a bit of a concern for me as I can't be with him 24/7 so worried as to what happens if he is just estimating as he will do now with injections ocassionly if I'm not there to nag him! I am thinking that realistically that other pump users must estimate occasionally? I would be interested to hear from any other parents with diabetic and ADHD children and any advice. Many Thanks x
 
michellehalliday said:
Hi everyone. I am looking for some advice about pumps. My son is 14 and has been type 1 diabetic now since November 2015. He also has ADHD so I supervise him a lot with his insulin and carb counting.
He has been offered the chance of a pump and he was quite keen on the Omnipod after we have done some research. He likes the idea of no wires & he has recently been using the freestyle libre which has made things easier for him.
Can anyone please advise about using a pump. From what we have learnt you have to be very strict with carb counting which is a bit of a concern for me as I can't be with him 24/7 so worried as to what happens if he is just estimating as he will do now with injections ocassionly if I'm not there to nag him! I am thinking that realistically that other pump users must estimate occasionally? I would be interested to hear from any other parents with diabetic and ADHD children and any advice. Many Thanks x
Click to expand...
Hello @michellehalliday:)

I'll tag @noblehead who is a user of the Omnipod pump, I'm sure he can give some valuable insight into its merits as he is a valuable forum member and a long time diabetic.

There's no denying that everything has its pros and cons, pump therapy is no different. However (and although I'm on injections), it would seem that almost everybody who has used an Insulin pump has said that its revolutionised their life for the better.

Have a look on the below link for some more information regarding pump therapy:

http://www.inputdiabetes.org.uk/alt-insulin-pumps/

For what it's worth, if I had the chance of an insulin pump - I'd bite off the hand of the person who offered me one:)
 
I use an omnipod. I tend to log my carbs with myfitnesspal so I normally have a fairly accurate carb count. But realistically it is simply not always possible to know for certain how many grams of carbs you taking in. You sometimes just have to use a best estimate. Experience with carb counting helps with that. Things like knowing what to google, using the carbs & cals app, using MFP all help.

Just estimating is an essential part of carb counting.
 
catapillar said:
I use an omnipod. I tend to log my carbs with myfitnesspal so I normally have a fairly accurate carb count. But realistically it is simply not always possible to know for certain how many grams of carbs you taking in. You sometimes just have to use a best estimate. Experience with carb counting helps with that. Things like knowing what to google, using the carbs & cals app, using MFP all help.

Just estimating is an essential part of carb counting.
Click to expand...
Apologies @catapillar for not tagging you in my post. I was aware that you were a pump user, but not that it was an Omnipod:)
 
michellehalliday said:
Can anyone please advise about using a pump. From what we have learnt you have to be very strict with carb counting which is a bit of a concern for me as I can't be with him 24/7 so worried as to what happens if he is just estimating as he will do now with injections ocassionly if I'm not there to nag him! I am thinking that realistically that other pump users must estimate occasionally? I would be interested to hear from any other parents with diabetic and ADHD children and any advice. Many Thanks x
Click to expand...

Sure there's times where pump users have to estimate, eating out in pubs & restaurants is a typical example.

The thing is, if he estimates on injections and does quite well at it then it will be no different on a pump, as Grant says I'm an Omnipod user and have to say it's a great little pump and is easy to use, the fact that its a tube-free pump and has an automatic cannula insertion was the main reason why I choose the pump over others that were on offer.
 
Back
Top