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Twice daily vs MDI

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semarroy

Member
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Hi, my son was diagnosed Type 1 last October and was put on Humalog twice daily shots with a strict diet plan. We are used to this now and have no real problems. He is a very organised little boy and copes with it all tremendously. Not once heard a complaint from him. His blood sugars fluctuate as expected, but mostly remain in single figures, he has approx 4 hypos a week. Normally around 2-3mmols and he is great at recognising/dealing with them. However due to high and lows at night (never seems to be stable) our hospital team have suggested going to MDI and card counting. I understand this will give him more freedom and food choices and it will be a learning curve, carb counting etc, but it sounds like a better regime for him and I'd like optimum control of his sugars to avoid long-term problems. Can anyone give me any thoughts on twice daily vs MDI? Much appreciated :)
 
Hello
My son was put on MDI straight away so I don't have direct experience to compare the two. But my uncle is now on MDI after being on twice daily for years (dx in about 1960 I think), and he feels it gives more flexibility and better control. I'm sure it's worth a try if your docs are recommending it, and wish you lots of luck.
Catherine
 
MDI was a better option for us the twice daily injections dylan would be in the 20s one minute and hypo the next it never worked well for us. going onto MDI was lovely in the fact that he could eat some things that before would of been a straight no, it also meant if he didnt want a mid morning snack he didnt need to as sometimes it felt like he was always eating. things were abit more flexible time wise too if tea was going to be at 6 instead of 5 it wasnt a big deal where as before it would of meant him being hypo.

doing carb counting opened our eyes to what diabetes was truly about and let us learn more about dylans diabetes and how different foods affected him. good luck to u :D

anna marie
 
My daughter was diagnosed november 2010 aged 4. We were put on the twice daily injections. We changed to the MDI back in around April we felt it gave us and Leah mre freedom when on trips / hoilday and at parties. She turned 5 in May she started injecting herself and was doing really well. Her levels still somtimes high. But glad we hwve started carb couning it is hard at first and we still have a pen and pencil when we are doing Leahs food. At the moment we are on a trial of the pump We have had it for a week now and still learning. Hope this has been help for you. Leah liked having her 4 injections but when she was high obviously ment she had to have another injection and if on holiiday everyone was having an ice cream she could also have one but it ment she had to have an injection, but at least she didnt miss out!! Think you just have to think what is best for u and your family. the MDI does give you more flexability of what they and eat and the times.
Good luck
Sarah
 
Just wanted to update this post as we have been on MDI (levemir and nova rapid) and carb counting for nearly 2 weeks now and .... wow! It's literally life changing! We have much tighter control and less swings. My son is loving the extra food choices and also not being stuck to the strict timetable that comes with twice daily insulin. Before we felt like we were living with diabetes, now it's is living with us! The carb counting really is not as scary as I thought either. By the way, my son (9 years) was diagnosed in October 2010 and his HBA1C was checked yesterday, he has gone from 9.2 to 7.8 - and I expect an even better result next time, now that we are carb counting :)
 
That is brilliant, well done!!

My daughter changed to MDI nearly 4 weeks ago and is just as unstable and i actually prefer the structure of the pre-mix routine LOL
I am sure once her doses are eventually right that this will be better though.
 
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