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INIECTING THEN EATING WITHIN SO MANY MINUTES

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mum2westiesGill

mum2westiesGill

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Does anyone set an alarm from when they inject to when they eat?
My DSN on Friday said to eat within 15 minutes but no longer or straight away if waiting time can't be avoided.
 
I don't set an alarm but have a routine.
If I m cooking, I inject as I put the pasta/potatoes/rice on.
If I am not cooking. e.g. breakfast, I inject and then read the news online.

I do find different food are digested at different speeds ... and at different times of the day so somethings (e.g. curry and pizza) I will bolus later for.
When I used NovoSluggish, I realised I need to pre-bolus 45 minutes before eating.
 
Last edited:
No, I don’t think I’ve ever set an alarm, but I do always look at my watch/phone/clock and work out when it will be time to eat.

If you think an alarm would help you, then do it 🙂
 
Thank you for all the replies 🙂

At lunchtime I simply just kept a brief eye on the time to make sure the time from injecting to eating wasn't going over 15 minutes 🙂

If It happens that I inject then find I'm eating straight away then that will have to be the case
 
mum2westiesGill said:
Does anyone set an alarm from when they inject to when they eat?
My DSN on Friday said to eat within 15 minutes but no longer or straight away if waiting time can't be avoided.
Click to expand...

It sounds like your DSN is trying to keep things as simple for you as possible and this is good advice. I would follow it to the letter for now and if you are have any problems, give her a call straight away to see if that advice needs tailored.

It's good to hear that you're getting good advice now compared to what you described last week.
 
mum2westiesGill said:
At lunchtime I simply just kept a brief eye on the time to make sure the time from injecting to eating wasn't going over 15 minutes
Click to expand...
I am not sure why your nurse is so against pre-bolusing more than 15 minutes.
Many of us have deliberately done so because insulin is not as fast as our digestion.
Whilst I understand the need to be cautious, being a few minutes over is not a huge concern.

Just, don't inject and then get totally distracted and forget to eat.
 
helli said:
I am not sure why your nurse is so against pre-bolusing more than 15 minutes.
Many of us have deliberately done so because insulin is not as fast as our digestion.
Whilst I understand the need to be cautious, being a few minutes over is not a huge concern.

Just, don't inject and then get totally distracted and forget to eat.
Click to expand...

I think my DSN thinks that pre bolusing more than 15 minutes before you eat can lead to hypos
 
pm133 said:
And remember that this is exactly what happened to you when you tried it last week?
Click to expand...

This is why in future once I've injected / bolused I'm going to make sure I eat straight away and definitely no longer than 15 minutes after
 
mum2westiesGill said:
This is why in future once I've injected / bolused I'm going to make sure I eat straight away and definitely no longer than 15 minutes after
Click to expand...
We are all different, so work with your DSN to find what works for you.
it is good to know that you have good support from them.
It sounds like you have a plan. See how that goes
 
SB2015 said:
We are all different, so work with your DSN to find what works for you.
it is good to know that you have good support from them.
It sounds like you have a plan. See how that goes
Click to expand...

@SB2015 thank you 🙂
 
mum2westiesGill said:
This is why in future once I've injected / bolused I'm going to make sure I eat straight away and definitely no longer than 15 minutes after
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good plan Gill 🙂
 
In an ideal world we would stqrt with a BG on target ad finish with a BG on target. Between starting and finishing BG would not change at all.

The rate at which the BG goes down due to the injected insulin would have to be exactly the same as the rate at which it goes up due to the food.


As we can not adjust either of these rates, we must do the best that we can.

By injecting insulin a little before the food we get the best compromise. It is better (safer?) to let the BG go up a little before it goes down as would happen if we inject too soon before a meal. We do not want a hypo with the desert. This is the reason for for "not more that 15 minutes before a meal".

If BG is high before a meal you can safely inject a little early to avoid a very high BG. If low then a little later.

If you are hypo the last thing that you want to do is to make matters worse by injecting more insulin. It is best, I think, to have the food and then inject a reduced dose of insulin, when the BG starts to rise.

I hope that this explains the logic behind the advice that you were given and when it is safe to ignore it. You certainly do not need to use a stop-watch at meal times.
 
helli said:
I am not sure why your nurse is so against pre-bolusing more than 15 minutes.
Many of us have deliberately done so because insulin is not as fast as our digestion.
Whilst I understand the need to be cautious, being a few minutes over is not a huge concern.

Just, don't inject and then get totally distracted and forget to eat.
Click to expand...
I imagine it’s because Gill isn’t confident with reading the libre graph, so this keeps things simple and reduces risk of hypos.
 
pm133 said:
Great. Good luck with this. Hopefully a good and predictable routine will help with your anxiety over all of this as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks @pm133 - yes no more anxiety with this as long as like I said I inject and don't leave it longer than 15 minutes.
 
I inject immediately after eating. This way I can work out the correct dose. Works for me but might not work for others...
 
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