hand washing vs wipes vs nothing?

P

Patricia

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent
Just wondering how many folks always wash hands, and always with soap and water? Anyone use wipes? What kind? Anyone not wash hands?

There seem to be so many opinions about this. We were advised always to wash hands with soap and water, but a) knuckles drying out, esp in winter, b) impossible to do at night when you're trying to do a test without completely waking the poor child up and c) again, encouraging a teenager to do a morning test before levermir without having to stagger to the sink! Bad enough he has to wake up at 8am on a weekend...

Thoughts? We are aware that not washing may raise the reading, so as compromise tend to wipe the finger with wet something then let dry...but am wondering if all this fuss is worth it, from other forums...
 
Hi Patricia,

I use good old soap and water - and some E45 cream to overcome the dryness.
 
wipes I wouldn't bother with as they could have anything in them to effect blood sugar.
If the test is 1st thing in the morning then he wont have had fingers in anything so why bother wash them? Same as middle of the night.
See this is be nice to teenagers thread..........no washing lol
 
I don't routinely wash hands before pricking finger for blood glucose test. Particularly not for tests through night or first test in morning, as I have a bath the night before. However, I do wash hands at other times, more for food hygiene reasons eg after toilet, before cooking / eating, after gardening, kayaking, handling chemicals, ducks etc. Probably after kayaking is the most important for me, as I don't want to introduce leptospirosis bug into my body, as it can cause Weil's disease, and it's impossible to kayak without getting river water onto skin - if kayaking in saltwater, I don't bother.
I agree with the concerns about handwashing products potentially affecting result.
 
Hi,
During the day Alex washes his with an anti bacterial handwash (when i remind him!)- but we were told that the wipes have alcohol in them and will interfere with the results! If we test through the night he is far too sleepy to go and wash hands - and he has always showered anyway so i think there is little risk of a false reading.:)Bev
 
I don't rountinely wash my hands before testing, only if I suspect there is some food residue on them.
 
I like all this be nice to teenager stuff -- there is so much faff involved anyway that it's a relief to have a bit of variation and common sense advice...

Sun is shining this end of country. And we've just had two days of in target readings (5,6,7). For the first time ever, 4 months in. Hurray! It's possible, phew.
 
Hi Patricia

Interesting to hear your comment welcoming variation and common sense - generally a good combination, I reckon. Bev made a comment earlier, contrasting the general opinions on this site and one for parents of children with diabetes, saying this one was more laid back. Even those of us who got diabetes as adults can remember being children, teenagers etc - and there was a lad in my form at secondary school and another in my group on an expedition to South Greenland - and memories of how they dealt with things, particularly how little fuss was involved were very useful to me when needing insulin aged 30 years. So, I try to pass back that sort of information to parents of current children / teenagers.

Also enjoying the sun over the weekend and today - kayaking, cycling, visiting science festival at country park etc.
 
You're doing the right thing, Copepod; I for one appreciate it. The difference on this site for me is the 'straight from the horse's mouth' aspect. On parents' sites -- while I find them VERY informative -- there is a lot of necessary guessing, and fussing with what can and can't be controlled/predicted, either in the schools or with the medical system. Sometimes I find that empowering, but other times I just want other peoples' informed experiences, as I find here....
 
Patricia,

I couldnt agree more with you! The parents sites are very good - but if i am feeling depressed about diabetes i dont read them - they are brilliantly well informed etc but they always make me think i am not doing enough!
I am pleased that you have had a few days of steady levels - but is it ok for me to be a little jealous? lol:D I dont think we have had 1 week of steady levels yet! Dont know if its honeymoon period or growth spurt or both!

This site is a bit more laid back - but its real people who have actually dealt with diabetes - rather than the parent of - and its that i think makes all the difference. I look to this site for reassurance, common sense and life experience. I love this site!:DBev

p.s. I think i am suffering from 'level envy'!:(
 
bev, believe me I anticipate a return to 'how the heck did that happen?' even by end of play today...We were just so amazed that it all seemed to be working, for once. We very typically are able to run numbers ranging from 5 - 12 or 13, over a week, but this is the first time we have managed two days (well, one day even, first!) of on target numbers.

We feel that splitting the levermir has made a *huge* difference, if that helps? We started that about 10 days ago.
 
I'm really new to all this, but I don't wash my hands every time. I always try to make sure that they're generally clean anyway, so I figure it's fine.

(Also enjoying the weather over the weekend, and the general common sense approach round here!)
 
Patricia,

We have just changed Alex's levemir from 8 and a half units down to 8 to try to stop the mid morning and afternoon hypo's he was having. Can you tell me why its better to split the dose of levemir?

Also, in general, if we are correcting a lot -does that mean we have his ratio's wrong or that we have the basal wrong? It confuses me as to whether its better to keep changing the fast acting or change the slow?:confused:Bev
 
Hi Bev

We split the levemir because E was showing a tendency to rise slightly in the mid afternoon through to the evening, which two consultants said may indicate that the full coverage of the background was waning. This also meant that we were correcting more for the evening meal, and ending up with more evening hypos or lows. The split is strange to start with: the first evening dose means he's high all night, but thereafter, the idea is that there is full coverage over the whole 24 hours, with two half doses in him virtually all the time. The only thing we've noticed is that he tends to wake a little high, but the number actually goes down after his morning levemir -- so first thing in the morning is a weak point at the moment, when there is a little 'window' of low levemir (eg awaiting morning dose). We may have to put this right eventually, but the rest of the day is so good that any kind of increase in dose may send into hypos.

Fast-acting always feels like a hammer to crack a nut...you're not sure how things are digesting, just hoping to catch the food, so the chances of hypos with a correction dose are increased, it seems to me.

We have always been advised to get the levemir right first, eg he needs to be waking between 4-7 (8? not sure) more often than not. THEN you will know that the novorapid is not trying to act like the background through corrections -- and possibly getting more insulin into him quickly, for no food, thus increasing hypos. We have certainly found that with a stabilised levemir, we need fewer corrections. This was driven home to us when he was ill, and his sugars were sky-high. We thought we weren't supposed to change background for some reason, but were correcting absolutely all over the shop. Duh. But as soon as we adjusted levemir, his pre-meal numbers came down, less correcting, more stability generally.

The morning and afternoon hypos could be occuring from too much novorapid, if you are correcting at breakfast and lunch? How long after meals are the hypos? In which case it could be that you need to actually raise levemir, but reduce novorapid by changing the ratios...? Have you spoken to your DSN?

It's so confusing, yes. For instance having upped the split nighttime levemir, we now find that an evening ratio (which we shifted from 1:13 to 1:10 because he was high before bed) is now probably too high, because he's been at 5 at bed -- so back to 1:13 we go!

Sorry for long message. Hope something in it helps!
 
Patricia,
Thank you - i get more information off this site than i do off his DN!

It makes sense to get the basal right - Alex goes hypo within about 2 - 3 hours of a meal. He is nearly always high at lunch and dinner times - so we correct! His morning one seems good -mostly 6 7 or 8. We have just changed him from 8.5 to 8 levemir last night to see if that helps - but told we have to give it a few days to tell if its working. I hate having to correct - it feels like we have done something wrong! Thanks. Bev:)
 
bev said:
Patricia,
Alex goes hypo within about 2 - 3 hours of a meal. He is nearly always high at lunch and dinner times - so we correct!
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seems that he is having too much insulin at mealtimes. what correction ratio are you using?

Is he low after breakfast aswell? (and then high before lunch?)

as he is waking up with reasonable numbers the levemir is probably not too far off.

sorry seem to be asking questions without offering any solutions, just want to get a picture of whats going on.
 
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Nikki,
He is on 1:15 1:20 1:15 and if he is high we give him half a unit for every three that he is high.
We used to give him 1 unit for every three he was high - but that sent him really hypo!
His waking level is usually 6 7 or 8.
Dont worry about asking lots of questions - i am just grateful that your taking the time to help!:)Bev
 
sofaraway said:
I don't rountinely wash my hands before testing, only if I suspect there is some food residue on them.
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This. I don't bother with hand wipes as I've been told they have alcohol on them which can cause the blood sugar level readings to be less accurate.
 
I don't generally wash before, unless my hands are frozen, sometimes I can't I'm outside all day, so long as I get a nice amount of red sauce it's all good.

Mind you I've been having trouble of late getting a good amount out, and my fingers are getting sore, any advice? Where do you people poke to get a drop out?

Thanks

Ross
 
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