Blood levels 4-9

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Pinehurst

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Evening all, just a bit of advice please. Daughter 15 recently started living with me after 8 years (4 years as Type 1) so am learning every day.

Clinic aim for BS levels between 4-9 but I struggle to help manage this range even after weighing food etc. Often get ranges up to 13.5. I feel like I am letting her down. Is this normal?
 
Welcome, I'm Sure you will get more in depth replies than this, but I remember my daughter at that age and her bloods were difficult to maintain, you have to think of the body changes, pressure and stress of exams etc, the same meal will not give the same result two days running, You just have to persevere, Al
 
Welcome to the forum, Pinehurst. With lots of things changing for your daughter - new home, living with new people, hormones of puberty etc - so reaching the target of 4 - 9 mmol/l is difficult. Some levels of 13.5mmol/l are not too unexpected. Have you been to clinic with her? What so they sayabout targets during teenage years? Perhaps she has also changed schools? Or it not, changed commute to / from school? What does your daughter think about her blood glucose levels? What about the views of whoever she was living with?
 
Hi there
With type 1, especially in growing children, it's pretty much impossible to maintain perfect levels all the time, so as long as you are doing everything you can then don't feel guilty. At 15 your daughter is old enough to have a reasonable idea about her diabetes and how to look after it - could you help each other and learn together? Looking after diabetes is quite a steep learning curve so the longer your daughter is living with you the better you will get at it 🙂
 
Hi Pinehurst
I wasn't type 1 as a teenager, and I don't have a T1 child, but I was once a 15 year old girl (terror is probably a more apt term). I don't know your personal circumstances obviously but I think it would a good idea to establish if those levels are normal for her or if the control has loosened since she's been living with you. The stress of the change could be at the root of it if the control has changed, if she's anything like me then the slightest stress causes all hell to break loose blood sugar wise. How much of the management does she do herself? At 15 she's probably ready for a good deal of that to be her domain, but it will depend on how she's used to managing it all. It's a very steep learning curve, there's a lot more to diabetes than meets the eye so don't be too hard on yourself, whoever she was living with previously had 4 years to adjust so it will take a bit of time to catch up 🙂
 
Thanks all, just had a clinic today and they like you reassured me as to chill a bit with the numbers.

Balanced diet (ish) and exercise is what I need to concentrate on for her!

Thanks again
 
Good to hear you found clinic advice reassuring. What sort of exercise does your daughter enjoy?
 
I don't think you'll find any type 1 teen whose levels are permanently in the 4-9 range. It's almost inevitable that you'll see levels in the high teens and twenties from time to time - however the important thing is, if you/she are testing BG levels regularly (including midway between meals), you'll pick up these out-of-range levels, and be able to give an insulin correction, thereby minimising the total time spent out of range.
 
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