Sleepovers?

[SophiaW]

My daughter has just turned 10 and we hosted a sleepover for her birthday. I know that she's going to want to do sleepovers at her friend's houses now. Her bg is pretty well controlled, especially since she's on the pump now. But I worry that at sleepovers there'll be a lot of snacking until late in the evening and even although she can do a BG test before bed it may not have been long since she last bolused so it will be tricky to tell whether or not her readings will drop much after bed time. She has very little hypo awareness whilst asleep - well that's how it was on injections, since the pump there have been no hypos at night time so not sure if that might have changed. We tend to eat our last meal around 7pm and my bedtime is around 10 to 11pm so at that time I get a pretty good picture of what her reading is going to settle to. At the moment I work out all the carbs for her, unless she's snacking on something that shows the carbs on the nutrition advice of the packaging, then she can read that for herself. I know that she has to start working with me at working out how many carbs are in the food she's going to eat. I'm not very good at guessing, so I weigh absolutely everything and calculate as accurately as possible. How do you all cope with sleepovers? Do you educate the other parents and ask them to test during the night, do you make rules about not eating about 2 hours before bed, how do your kids do with guessing the carbs that they're eating when on their own? I'm not so worried about readings that may go too high, it's only one night not very often, but I am concerned about a miscalculation of taking too much insulin and then not realising and going to bed with a hypo on the way. Am I worrying too much? Do your kids do sleepovers and at what age did you allow them to start with sleepovers? Sorry, so many questions!

 

[leggott]

Hi Sophia, in my opinion you are not worrying at all. My daughter does do sleepovers, but very occasionally and these are with the same friend. We don't let her have any after tea snacks but just make sure she eats her treats with the tea that is usually given between five or six. We then get them to call us three hours after she had her tea and then we will give her a small snack if her bg is a little lower than we would want. She will then have some cheese and ham if she wants something to eat.

I know this seems a bit restrictive, but we know then that her blood will be ok overnight as she does have good overnight control. If she were to have late snacks then I would want to test overnight - hence why we don't let have late snacks as I would not want to impose this on the parents. But, I guess this depends on the family in question.

 

[leggott]

Forgot to say that my daughter has been doing sleepovers since she was seven, but she will only do between 3/4 a year.

 

[imalittlefishy]

My experience of this is not quite the same, as I had just turned 11 when I was diagnosed and already going to sleepovers before that and at that age I was on twice daily injections without any carb counting, which does make a difference. I always went along the lines of "it's ok to be a bit high for one night" and with that in mind would reduce my doses slightly because of the running around and late nights that 10/11 year olds tend to do at sleepovers, and ignore the sugary food for one evening. I think the important thing is that she knows to test frequently, and if its low or getting that way, to eat something, and not to worry too much about correcting. Like you say, its better to be high for one night than to have a hypo during the night. I would say the only other thing to make sure she knows is that if she's not happy with any of it at any point - if she thinks she's too high or might go too low, or anything like that - then just ring you and you can help her make the judgement call about what to do.
xx

 

[SophiaW]

Thanks leggott It's reassuring to hear you say that no snacks are eaten after tea unless they're the low carb ones. I know that my daughter will accept a compromise - allow sleepovers if she sticks to this rule. I had forgotten about no carb snacks so I can make up a list to give the parents of suggested snacks if she wants to eat something later on.

 

[leggott]

Yes, there is a compromise to be made. My daughter is ok with this. We just tell her to eat any sweet things at tea and nothing is off limits so to speak. I also agree that making sure her blood is slightly higher than her normal bedtime reading is a good thing too, so you don't have to worry about her going low in the night.

I hope she has a lovely time - do let us know how it all goes.

 

[stoney]

Interesting to read this one today as James asked if he could sleepover his mates house last night. I made up all the excuses I could to say no but he said his parents are Ok for him to sleepover. I am not only concerned for James and myself but also putting responsiblity onto the other parents, who really don't know what is truly involved with diabetes.

What swayed him from going was the fact that we are going to Spain on Tuesday and did not want any problems beforehand and said I would have to speak to other parents when we get back and maybe we can arrange something before he goes back to school. This seemed acceptable Phew!!

We were told by DSN that he should not to eat anything after having his Lantus at night. What would be the consequences if he did eat :?:

 

[SophiaW]

Maggie, thanks for your reply too. I didn't see it earlier as I took a while to submit my reply and we crossed posts. I would definitely do as you suggest and have her not over correct for any highs. Fortunately with the pump it keeps track of insulin on board so it's difficult to stack insulin and over do it. I would also set her basal on a temporary reduction for the night just to be safe. I think if we can stick to the rule of not eating carby foods within 2.5 hours before bed then she can get a pretty accurate idea of what her reading will be for the rest of the night. Thankfully with the pump her overnight readings are very stable now.

Stoney, I'm not sure what your DSN meant by not eating after the Lantus. When Jess was on Levemir we didn't worry about her eating after the Levemir injection, she would bolus Novorapid to cover any food eaten so the Levemir had nothing to do with eating really. What we always do though is check her BG about 3 hours after a bolus in the evening just to make sure there hasn't been a miscalculation in dose which would cause a hypo after she's gone to bed. So if she ate a carb snack at 10pm then we'd check her BG at about 1am to make sure everything is okay. Of course this is tiring which is why we try to avoid any food after about 7pm, that way that 3 hour check is before our bedtime so we're not waking to do it.

 

[leggott]

Yes, it is a hard decision to make. The first time she stayed at her friends house, I went over at 7.30pm and did her levemir and then came home. The parents got her to test her blood at 8.30pm which was 3 hours after she had eaten. I can't remember what her blood was but we would of liked it to be around 7-8mmol so she may of eaten something small to bring her reading up. We don't like her having boluses before bed as we like to test before she goes to sleep so her levels are good overnight. If she has food close to bedtime the dose may be wrong or the carb miscalculated and her bg could drop too low or go to high during the night. Of course if she were at home we could do some testing overnight, but I personally would not expect a friends parent at a sleepover to be doing this. As she gets older, she will probably be able to stay up much later, or set an alarm to wake her up so she can test.

As Sophia says, there is no reason why our kids can't have snacks before bed and I guess if your child regularly eats before bedtime then it might be easier for you to calculate the right dose should they have a late night snack. Also if something is eaten which they often consume you may know the exact amount of insulin required and be confident that their readings would remain stable. We however also like to test 3 hours after a bolus which would be awkward at a sleepover, also like Sophia says, it can be tiring having to get up every night to check. My daughter is also like a bear with a sore head if we wake her in the night, so this is our main reason for avoiding snacks before bed!

 

[sugar2]

can't ass anything, but I think you have your answer...compromise. From what you have posyed about your daughter before, she sounds like a very mature 10 year old, so I am guessing it willbe fine.

My own experiences of sleep overs are a long time ago now...and to be honest, it was being too high that was more of an issue!

Send her with some low carb treats...cheese. sugar free jelly etc, agree what she can, and can't do...and try and enjoy a night "alone".As long as she has some emergency rations (hypo treatment with her) I doubt she she is going to do much sleeping anyway...lots of giggling though, so she would probably be awake enough to treat any hypos.

So, are you worrying too much, prrobably, but I am sure I would worry too much too..that is what parents do afterall!