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Granny Karen here.

K

Karendipity

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Hello. My nearly 3 year old grandaughter was diagnosed with T1D in December last year I want to be totally on top of understanding it and the accompanying tech. She went on an insulin pump at the weekend and so far her parents & I are struggling with the omnipod and it’s had to be changed 3x due to it not working. She hates the changes so we’ve got to get it working better. This one that went on yesterday afternoon seems to finally be doing the job and she’s been in range all day thankfully
 
Any help anyone can give me would be gratefully received. Tonight I have been reading about the freestyle libre 2 plus and wonder why she hadn’t been offered that as it doesn't need to be changed every 3 days and it seems to be offered to 2year olds and on he NHS. Does anyone have experience with one please
 
Hi @Karendipity, just wanted to say welcome to the forum. I'm sure someone will come along soon who has more experience in these things, but if you ever have pressing questions, you can always ring our Helpline (0345 123 2399) as well just in case.
Omnipod is a pump, that gradually delivers insulin and Libre 2 is just a monitor, which means she would need to get injections based on the levels shown. Generally, for children (and adults too) that can be quite daunting, so I think the default is to try and offer a pump where that option is available.
 
Karendipity said:
Any help anyone can give me would be gratefully received. Tonight I have been reading about the freestyle libre 2 plus and wonder why she hadn’t been offered that as it doesn't need to be changed every 3 days and it seems to be offered to 2year olds and on he NHS. Does anyone have experience with one please
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I am not an expert on pumps etc but just to clear this bit up. The Libre is just a glucose monitor, it is not a pump and does not give insulin so it would work in conjunction with the Omnipod.

From what I have been reading around the forum thought there are better options for small children than Omnipod so it may be worth exploring that with her care team. I am sure someone more knowledgeable will be able to advise more.

Sorry to hear about the diagnosis as well - it is a lot for even adults to get their head around so it must be quite scary for a 3yo but at least you and her parents want to support her and I am sure together you will do well as you get more familiar with everything.
 
Thank you so much. What an idiot I am. Of course. I now see that the Libre plus is a glucose monitor and not a pump. Well look into the different pumps available but I think the conclusion was that the Omnipod 5 was the best one for her
 
Not an idiot at all, Karen. You're doing the best for your granddaughter and informing yourself, not every relative is so proactive, so she's lucky to have such supportive family around her <3 Nowadays there's a lot of technology to support people living with diabetes (and more shows up every year) so there's no shame in making mistakes when figuring out what's what.
 
Welcome to the forum @Karendipity

@PattiEvans @Bloden and @PhoebeC are all adult users of Omnipod 5, and may be able to offer some suggestions / experiences to help reduce pod failures.

Medtronic offer a tubed pump with a 7-day wearable infusion set, but as far as am aware all the others are 3 days max.
 
The Ragnar Hanas book is written to help parents understand what on earth their child is going through right now, and explains the technicalities in plain English
 
Hi @Karendipity.

If the Pods keep failing, you need to phone Insulet (they produce the Omnipod 5 Pods) and let them know. Also, your granddaughter’s DSN needs to know. Maybe she’s been sent a dodgy batch of Pods.

I hope the system starts working well for her asap. Any more questions, just fire away!
 
Welcome to the Forum @Karendipity 🙂. I'm so glad that you've decided to join, it's wonderful that you are trying to get as much information as possible to care for your granddaughter!
 
welcome to the forum @Karendipity your granddaughter is lucky to have such a understanding granny
gail
 
@Karendipity I’ve had a lot of faults with the Omnipod 5 and the libre 2 plus, the pod and libre 2+ need to be close together for them to work. I have to wear them on one side of my body and very close together.
Report all faults to insulet and they will replace, and tell her DSN too.
With the faults I’ve been having my nurse is going to put me onto the dexicom (I think 6) for the sensor as I think it has a better range.

I do think the pumps are better than having to inject her multiple times a day.

We are here for any questions
 
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