Type 1: Are night time hypo watches/bands any good??

Hypo bands don't detect hypos, they detect cold sweats. So if cold sweat is a symptom of your daughters hypos it might work for you.

You might consider a continuous glucose monitor if your looking for something to alert you to hypos in the night. Have a look for the dexcom system, it is expensive but it does actually monitor blood sugar levels and alarm if they drop below a pre determined level.

I would hope night time hypos would be reduced as doses settle

Welcome @bazzakerr1 Sorry to hear about your daughter's diagnosis. It does sound like you've made a confident start though.

As @catapillar says, a CGM may be a better option (but more expensive). If you're considering an insulin pump for your daughter in the future, some pumps support CGMs

Let me tag some parents for you @mahola @mcpound @Ellie's mum @EmmaRW0811 just off the top of my head. If you look round the Parents section, aswell as Type 1, of course, you'll see posts from other parents that may be helpful.

If you'd like a general book on Type 1, Think Like A Pancreas is extremely helpful.

It does get easier. It's a huge amount to take in, so give yourself time. I recommend keeping records - not just of blood sugar, but things like meals that work well with a certain insulin dose, what worked when your daughter did PE, etc, etc.

I have a little Collins Carb book which is useful. But, to be honest, after a while you tend to have your own carb value library in your brain

If you'd like a book specifically about children, I've been told Type 1 Diabetes in Children and Young Adults is worth a look.

Google Hypoband and Gluconightwatch. I bought the Hypoband a few months ago, but ironically enough haven't actually had any cold sweat hypos since then so can't actually say if it works or not! Was half tempted to induce one just to test it but then thought - no. You can set it up to just alarm or also ring three other phones. Of course, the obvious problem with it is that because it detects cold sweats by measuring temperature and humidity on the wrist, the user will by definition already be hypoing by the time it alarms, but I decided to fork out for one anyway on the basis that if I'm sleeping it'll hopefully wake me early on in the hypo rather than me just dropping further.

I'd second other poster's reommrndations of either Dexcom or Medtronic's CGMs for the simple reason that they alarm and I think notify others. They are though quite pricey, although I think the Dexcom price had dropped recently. There's a sticky thread in the monitoring section by tim200 comparing prices.

I decided not to fork out for one of those because I can manage hypos well enough with Freestyle Libre which is relatively cheaper at £100 per month. You don't get alarms with those , but have a look at Gluconightwatch. Download the programme to a phone with NFC capability, wear it over the Libre sensor and it will ring/notify others below a set level. Of course, the downside is you have to wear a phone in your arm! Haven't tried it yet. Others have hacked Sony Smartwatches (librealarm) and built their own (transmitter) to make the libre alarm.

Hi @bazzakerr1 ,
I empathise with the dangers of nocturnal hypoglycemia..
But.
If it's any reassurance? Some kids can be fully hypo aware. (if allowed to be?) even waking in the night if low..

Hey I can still do it now 41 years later without even waking my wife!

Is your daughter on Lantus perchance? If so? 2/3am is one zone to check the other is around 5 or 6am..

Sure, no problem. I noticed you mentioned you're getting a pocket sized Carbs and Cals. Good book, but you can also download a version as an app on phone which doesn't get dog eared -the cover on my paper one fell off after a week.

You are perfectly correct to be concerned about hypos. I do as much as I can to avoid them. But, if it's any small comfort to you as a parent, I have never found them to be physically painful and I suspect that's the case with most T1Ds and your wee one.It's more the confusion of thought which is difficult. Bear in mind also that unless an absolutely crazy amount of insulin has been taken, usually what happens if you miss a night hypo is that the last insulin bolus will wear out, the liver will release glucose naturally and she'll wake up feeling rotten.


Edited by a mod

Well, how spooky is this? As if by magic, poster spendercat in the Type 1 Diabetes section has just posted that she's got a Hypoband for sale on ebay for 50 quid.Sorry, new to forum so haven't figured out how to link to it. She says her daughter was using it, so maybe they can tell you whether it worked.

By the way, when I became diabetic 28 years ago aged 21, both me and my parents went through a riot of emotions. So will you and Sienna. Short period of thinking I was "disabled" in some way, but after that, dispelled it by just getting on with things, been backpacking in Asia for six months, long cycle trips with a tent on the back of the bike, carried on doing pretty much everything I did before, uhm, D-day. She'll be fine.

You may find a good quality set of digital scales helpful too, if you haven't got any. I can't live without mine : D I weigh cereal, pasta, poatoes, etc, etc, and it's a huge help and much better than doing it by eye.

That's the link to the ebay page spendercat has listed the hypoband on
http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hypoband-fo...%3Ae744144b1590a357d6488c9cffa598d2%7Ciid%3A1

My 5yo girl was diagnosed last July and we spent the first few months doing the whole night time routine...exhausting!!! The key to moving out of that is the long acting insulin dose (levemir in your case). It takes some experimenting but once you have that dose correct you can sleep through with some confidence. We probably sleep through 5 nights out of 7 now. I know that with a Lantus dose of 2.5 units that there is little risk of it going low overnight as long as bloods are stable at bedtime.

Have also found it a lot easier to give a correction at night rather than wake her up and get her to eat something. So, if bloods are a little low at bedtime, we give a small long acting snack and monitor with Libre till we go bed. If it goes over 9 then a cheeky half unit novo is given.

The Libre has also shown that she can go to 3.5 at night but then somehow it goes back up on its own to a safe level. This is not very often though. You will need some form of CGM to get to a point where you know how this thing behaves overnight, remember that you can get DLA to cover the cost of CGM.